Achim Güllmann becomes new CFO of the BAUR Group
Achim Güllmann, long-standing managing director of the Otto Austria Group, will join the BAUR Group as chief financial officer with effect from 1 August 2024. He succeeds Hans-Christian Müller who is leaving the company by mutual agreement and will take up a new challenge outside the Group.
Achim Güllmann has been CFO of the Otto Austria Group, the largest online retailer based in Austria and a subsidiary of the BAUR Group, since 2000. The business graduate knows the Otto Group inside out and has held a variety of different positions since 1994. Among other things, he has headed financial controlling and accounting divisions and has worked in internal consulting. From 1 August 2024, he will be joining the board of the BAUR Group as CFO, assuming responsibility for finance, logistics, planning & strategy, human resources and construction & technology.
“I am delighted that Achim will be taking on even greater responsibility in our Group in the future. He brings a lot of experience to this role. In addition to his experience of the Otto Group as a whole, he has extensive knowledge of the role of a CFO and indepth awareness of the e-commerce markets in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. This is why we are certain that he will continue to develop the BAUR Group sustainably alongside CEO Stephan Elsner,” says Kay Schiebur, Otto Group Executive Board member whose mandate also includes the BAUR Group.
His appointment is also intended to further interlink the two enterprises and to leverage potential. The succession plan for the Otto Austria Group will be decided at a later date. Until further notice, CEO Harald Gutschi will manage the Otto Austria Group alone.
Hans-Christian Müller is leaving the BAUR Group on 31 July 2024 by mutual agreement to take up a new challenge outside the Group. Hans-Christian Müller can look back on a long career within the Otto Group. He held several different positions within Otto Group Holding in the Group’s financial controlling and investments divisions and also headed order processing in logistics. In 2019, he was appointed to the Management Board of the BAUR Group as CFO, having started four years earlier as head of planning and financial controlling. “We would like to thank Hans-Christian very much for his many years of commitment in a wide variety of positions,” says Kay Schiebur. “We wish him all the best for his private and professional life.”
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About the Otto Group
Founded in 1949 in Germany, the Otto Group is today a globally operating e-commerce and service group with around 38,500 employees in 30 significant corporate groups, primarily present in the three economic areas of Germany, the rest of Europe, and the USA. Its business activities extend to the Platforms, Brand Concepts, Retailers, Services, and Financial Services segments. In the 2023/24 financial year (29 February), the Otto Group generated revenue of EUR 15 billion. With online sales of around EUR 10.8 billion (2023/24 financial year), the Otto Group is among the world’s largest online retailers. The Group’s main strength is its broad-based presence with various ranges of products for diverse target groups in important regions around the world. A number of strategic partnerships and joint ventures offer the Otto Group outstanding conditions for the transfer of know-how and the use of synergy potential. A high degree of entrepreneurial responsibility and the Group companies’ willingness to collaborate guarantee both flexibility and customer proximity along with optimal appeal to target groups in each country.
About the BAUR Group
The BAUR Group comprises an economically sound group of companies that focus on online retail and services addressing sustainable success. The Group's core company is BAUR with its online store baur.de. Its subsidiary Otto Austria Group, which operates in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, is also responsible for brands such as OTTO Austria, Universal, Quelle in Germany, Ackermann, Jelmoli and Lascana. The Services division includes BFS Baur Fulfillment Solutions, BAUR Studios and the ecommerce service provider empiriecom. BAUR has been a part of the globally active Otto Group since 1997 and is based in Burgkunstadt in southern Germany. Another shareholder in the BAUR Group is the Friedrich Baur Foundation. As of 29 February 2024, the BAUR Group had 2,481 employees, 355 of which in the Otto Austria Group. Including the logistics company Baur Hermes Fulfilment, a joint venture between Otto Group companies BAUR and Hermes Fulfilment, the number of employees totalled 3,949. The BAUR Group's net external revenue amounted to EUR 841 million in the 2023/24 financial year.