Alexander Peters appointed new Managing Director at Manufactum

Alexander Peters, who holds a Masters in Business Administration, joined the Otto Group Accounting Division in 2006 and was named Head of IT Coordination after three years thanks to his excellent performance. He had previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting and IBM Business Consulting Services. Following his engagement in strategic Otto Group initiatives, from 2012 he held a leading position in IT Transformation and was promoted to Senior Employee in 2013. In his position as Head of Application Services he played a major role in designing and establishing Otto Group IT as a service provider in 2016.

Since March 2018 Alexander Peters has headed Otto Group IT as Group VP. In this function, besides Operational Excellence and profitability, the 47-year-old has focused in particular on establishing Modern Leadership along with agile organizational and management instruments. In terms of content he has focused on developing an attractive, modern and balanced product, project and innovation portfolio – always orientated towards the actual requirements of the market, customer needs and the clear goal of delivering effective technology-driven solutions.

Sergio Bucher, Group Executive Board Member Brands and Retail, comments: "With his business background and deep technology expertise, Alexander Peters has exactly the right skills to scale the growth of the Manufactum Group further. He combines operational excellence with clear customer centricity. I am therefore convinced that together with Kai Steffan, Alexander will shape the forward path of the company with sustained success, and wish him all the best in tackling his new task.

Max Heimann has been a Member of the Manufactum Management Board since April 2017. The German-Dane leads the Online and OTC Sales, Customer Service, Logistics, IT and Commercial Divisions. He is also responsible for the ‘Brot & Butter’ food concept. Together with his Management Board partner Kai Steffan, Max has decisively driven the company's omnichannel strategy forward. For instance, Manufactum has opened several new stores in recent years and successfully expanded its OTC presence even during the pandemic. In parallel, the digital transformation was consistently implemented under Heimann's leadership, which has led to significant revenue growth in the company's online business, resulting in a major increase in profitability.

Immediately before joining Manufactum, Max Heimann was responsible for the Corporate Strategy Division at the Otto Group and was additionally Acting Head of the Group's E-Commerce Competence Center. During this period, Max held responsibility for a number of strategic topics that included the content-related and procedural conception of Kulturwandel 4.0 as well as the reformulation of the Group strategy.

Sergio Bucher: "In Max Heimann, the Otto Group is losing a proven retail expert and a genuine leadership personality. Together with Kai Steffan, Max Heimann has brought the Manufactum Group back on track for success and put the company on a modern, future-proof footing. Moreover, he has led Manufactum and the whole team behind it very successfully and safely through the rough waters of the corona pandemic. I would like to express my sincere thanks to him for this on behalf of the Group Executive Board, as well as for his many years of loyalty and highly effective work for the Otto Group. We wish Max Heimann all the best in his further career and personal future."

The successor to Alexander Peters in the role of Group Vice President Otto Group IT has not yet been determined and will be announced at a later date.