After 32 years: A generation change in the marketing department at AMANDUS KAHL
After 32 years: A generation change in the marketing department at AMANDUS KAHL
Akahl
The year 2019 ends as one of the most successful years for AMANDUS KAHL. However, it also ends with a major change in the marketing department. After 32 years with the company, the head of the marketing department, Fritz A. Kahl, leaves the company to enjoy his well-deserved retirement. He looks back on three decades during not only the company, but also his department passed a number of milestones. Together we want to look back at the past years at AMANDUS KAHL, but also dare to look ahead to what awaits his successor.
Three decades of variety and creativity
As different as the tasks of a marketing manager may be, they all have one thing in common - the demand for creative thinking. For more than thirty years, Fritz A. Kahl was responsible for the planning of up to 70 trade fairs per year, the production of information brochures, the delivery of editorial articles for trade magazines or the organisation of company events. Whereas the scope of tasks increased in line with the size of the company, the number of people in the department remained the same. To this day, we keep wondering how our marketing people managed to reconcile all this. On the one hand, this is due to the energetic support of his colleague, who is responsible for organisational tasks such as compiling brochures for trade fairs or printing of advertising material. On the other hand, it is of course also due to Fritz A. Kahl's pronounced creative streak: "I particularly liked to plan and design our trade fair appearances."
However, his creativity was not limited to the planning of exhibition stands or print media. Fritz A. Kahl was also instrumental in the introduction of the KAHL logo, which to this day is symbolic of the KAHL Group and which is shared by each of the subsidiaries. Being the marketing manager of a mechanical engineering company, however, also requires technical understanding. His personal highlight was therefore the realization that he was "able to understand the many technical contexts and to communicate them profitably for the company".
A look back: The development
When Fritz A. Kahl joined AMANDUS KAHL on January 02, 1988, the mechanical engineering company employed around 230 people. Back then, the only sister company was the former Berthold Wachtel GmbH, and the KAHL Group was yet to be established. Just like the number of employees, the sales territories were also less complex: "When I started working at AMANDUS KAHL, the second foothold next to the compound feed industry was just being established- the chemical industry." Besides, one of today's most important machines for the production of animal feed was introduced to the market at the end of the 1980s: the annular gap expander.
Although the company grew, the workforce doubled and the sales areas become more numerous, Fritz A. Kahl recalls his first major project as clearly as his last: "My first bigger project was the organisation of the ACHEMA trade fair in 1988, which still takes place every three years and which now our subsidiary NEUHAUS NEOTEC Particle Technology is mainly in charge of."
When looking back at the great milestones of the last decades, he particularly thinks of the slow but steady growth of the KAHL Group: "In addition to that, the expansion of our activities in the large sales areas and the small niches in which we find our customers. And last but not least, of course, the expansion of the site in Reinbek and thus the promotion of the brand 'Made in Germany'". However, his personal highlight for the marketing department lies in a completely different area. "An article that was published simultaneously in the ZEIT magazine, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Austrian Kurier with a total circulation of over one million copies". Over the years, AMANDUS KAHL has become an established international player in the pellet mill industry.
The highlights and a vague outlook
And now? Fritz A. Kahl was able to experience quite a number of milestones to which he undoubtedly made a significant contribution. The workforce of AMANDUS KAHL alone has grown from 230 to more than 500. The sales areas have almost tripled in the meantime and instead of one single sister company there are now four of them: SCHULE, NEUHAUS NEOTEC, HEINEN and DEVEX, with a total of 900 colleagues.
"There is certainly still potential in the growing markets such as fish feed technology and petfood technology, but I think there will also be room for development in the compound feed industry - especially in the fields of hygiene and conditioning. In these fields, we are well equipped and prepared so that we will be able to present further innovations already at Eurotier 2020".
After more than three decades in the company, he certainly has left his mark and his successor will have big shoes to fill. "A passion for technology and creativity - in combination with the will to succeed as well as loyalty - these were the decisive criteria for me when I was looking for my successor," summarizes Fritz A. Kahl. Nils Minow, the new Head of Marketing, will now take over the varied tasks that have occupied Fritz Kahl in recent years, and in which he has always taken much pleasure.
The company AMANDUS KAHL thanks Fritz A. Kahl for 32 years of successful work, but also for 32 years of loyalty and commitment to the company. We wish him a life full of travel, leisure and independence in the years to come, because these are the things he looks forward to the most.