{"id":23751,"date":"2018-03-07T18:22:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T17:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modern-wilderness.flywheelsites.com\/?p=23751"},"modified":"2018-03-07T18:22:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T17:22:03","slug":"the-battle-for-benz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/","title":{"rendered":"The battle for Benz"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a striking step from Joachim Link, CEO of the German Interstuhl: In an open letter that was published on the company’s website<\/a> at the beginning of this week, he expressed his concerns about the takeover of well-known Rolf Benz by the Chinese Jason Group. Interstuhl was confident in the takeover battle, which started October last year. They were convinced about their chances to acquire Benz, but last friday H\u00fclsta, the owner of Rolf Benz, announced an agreement with the Chinese. The estimated purchase price is between \u20ac 45 and 50 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Necessary sale<\/h4>\n

The H\u00fclsta group<\/a><\/span> is one of the best-known and largest German home furniture suppliers. The company consists of many subsidiaries, of which Rolf Benz as luxury supplier in the area of \u200b\u200bupholstered seating for the consumer market, is one of their juwels.<\/p>\n

H\u00fclsta has been in heavy weather since the beginning of the financial crisis, and has been reorganizing for years. The last known figures show a loss before tax in 2015 of \u20ac 11.5 million with an equity of only 27% and a turnover above \u20ac 400 million. The previous year, the loss before tax amounted to \u20ac 34.8 million. In order to get the necessary financial air, talks were started last year with five acquisition candidates.<\/p>\n

12 times Ebitda as bid for Rolf Benz<\/h4>\n

Interstuhl and Jason Group eventually remained in the negotiations with the parties. The Interstuhl CEO is convinced that he has made a very good offer. Link: “Our takeover bid was around 12 times the EBITDA, which is a very high bid for our industry. I also believe that our bid is higher than that of our competitors. We therefore saw a nice addition to our portfolio in Rolf Benz. It fits within our vision to offer our customers more than just office chairs, and with the luxury brand Rolf Benz we were able to meet that demand. We saw enormous synergy benefits for both companies.<\/em> ”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rolf Benz – Rondo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

H\u00fclsta chooses Jason Group as partner<\/h4>\n

At the end of last week, the H\u00fclsta Group decided to sell the subsidiary to the Jason Group<\/a><\/span>. This large furniture producer in China, with a turnover above \u20ac 3 billion, takes one of his first steps in Europe. The selling party sees great opportunities by joining the Chinese. CEO J\u00fcrgen Mau\u00df<\/a><\/span> of Rolf Benz: “Thanks to the acquisition by the Jason Group, we will become more international, we will be able to grow faster in the Asian market and we can further develop our e-commerce strategy<\/em>“. Mau\u00df continues: “To date our company has limited itself to upholstered furniture, dining room furniture and accessories. With Jason Group on our side, we can also focus on other product groups. We will do this from our own location in Germany. The new owners have indicated from the first day that there is no question of the production being moved to China, and denied that they would only be interested in the label Rolf Benz. We have therefore been able to assure our employees last Friday. We never have guarantees, of course, but the brand Rolf Benz stands for an extremely high quality, and we can only achieve that quality in Germany<\/em> ”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rolf Benz – Mera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

Open letter Interstuhl as the last attempt<\/h4>\n

Helmut Link looks at the takeover differently. In his open letter on the website of Interstuhl he warns about the consequences of the takeover by the Chinese. He points out that Kuka, the subsidiary of Jason, who is doing the actual acquisition, has a huge production location in China and fears that this will lead to mass loss of jobs in the German production facility Nagold. Link further points to the danger of increasing furniture imports from China. Since, according to the Interstuhl chief, this import is often subsidized by the Chinese gouvernment, there is a danger here for the European furniture industry. Finally, Link wonders if it is a good development that once again an important German family business is in the hands of a state-controlled Chinese company. In his view, this involves major risks for employees, management and the corporate culture.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the German Handelsblatt, Link adds that he does not expect his open letter to have any effect, but that, as a last attempt, he wants to send out a signal. In addition, he feels personally deceived and used. Interstuhl and Rolf Benz have maintained close ties for years. Interstuhl is a producer of several Rolf Benz products. Link also says that since their first meeting, H\u00fclsta has argued that the preference is for a German partner. That promise appears to have been worth little.<\/p>\n

The acquisition is only definitive after permission from the competition authorities in Germany, and has been approved by the Chinese government. This procedure is expected to take another 2-3 months.<\/p>\n

sources<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Interstuhl.com\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0| Handelsblatt.com<\/span><\/a> | econo.de<\/span><\/a> | Schwarzwaelder Bote<\/a> <\/span>| Gaeubote<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a striking step from Joachim Link, CEO of the German Interstuhl: In an open letter that was published on the company’s website at the beginning of this week, he expressed his concerns about the takeover of well-known Rolf Benz by the Chinese Jason Group. Interstuhl was confident in the takeover battle, which started…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"The battle for Benz - Jason Group acquires Rolf Benz and leaves Interstuhl empty handed","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3100,3091],"tags":[3900,4909,4908],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":{"app_titel":"","app_article":""},"yoast_head":"\nThe battle for Benz | OfficeRepublic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The battle for Benz | OfficeRepublic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is a striking step from Joachim Link, CEO of the German Interstuhl: In an open letter that was published on the company’s website at the beginning of this week, he expressed his concerns about the takeover of well-known Rolf Benz by the Chinese Jason Group. Interstuhl was confident in the takeover battle, which started…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OfficeRepublic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/csm_RolfBenz-huelsgruppe-001_e9b008a45e1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1218\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"594\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editorial Office\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/or__en\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editorial Office\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editorial Office\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/person\/224f91b6c25db8aa4156d96c5a1a573f\"},\"headline\":\"The battle for Benz\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/\"},\"wordCount\":827,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"interstuhl\",\"Jason Group\",\"Rolf BEnz\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Germany\",\"Manufacturers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/\",\"name\":\"The battle for Benz | OfficeRepublic\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The battle for Benz\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/\",\"name\":\"OfficeRepublic\",\"description\":\"Het laatste nieuws uit de kantoormeubel branche\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"OfficeRepublic\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/\",\"sameAs\":[],\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/or_logo_opt.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/or_logo_opt.png\",\"width\":204,\"height\":66,\"caption\":\"OfficeRepublic\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/person\/224f91b6c25db8aa4156d96c5a1a573f\",\"name\":\"Editorial Office\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfddb3eae84f24078842b34b360bedf8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfddb3eae84f24078842b34b360bedf8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Editorial Office\"},\"description\":\"We believe in independent, prompt and accurate coverage of the office furniture industry. In our industry , manufacturers, resellers, architects, buyers and agents work closely together. We believe there is a need for a platform that provides product-, business- and marketinformation. That platform is OfficeRepublic.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/modern-wilderness.flywheelsites.com\/en\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/or__en\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The battle for Benz | OfficeRepublic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The battle for Benz | OfficeRepublic","og_description":"It is a striking step from Joachim Link, CEO of the German Interstuhl: In an open letter that was published on the company’s website at the beginning of this week, he expressed his concerns about the takeover of well-known Rolf Benz by the Chinese Jason Group. Interstuhl was confident in the takeover battle, which started…","og_url":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/","og_site_name":"OfficeRepublic","article_published_time":"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1218,"height":594,"url":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/csm_RolfBenz-huelsgruppe-001_e9b008a45e1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Editorial Office","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_creator":"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/or__en","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editorial Office","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/"},"author":{"name":"Editorial Office","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/person\/224f91b6c25db8aa4156d96c5a1a573f"},"headline":"The battle for Benz","datePublished":"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/"},"wordCount":827,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#organization"},"keywords":["interstuhl","Jason Group","Rolf BEnz"],"articleSection":["Germany","Manufacturers"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/","url":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/","name":"The battle for Benz | OfficeRepublic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-07T17:22:03+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/the-battle-for-benz\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The battle for Benz"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/","name":"OfficeRepublic","description":"Het laatste nieuws uit de kantoormeubel branche","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#organization","name":"OfficeRepublic","url":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/","sameAs":[],"logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/or_logo_opt.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/or_logo_opt.png","width":204,"height":66,"caption":"OfficeRepublic"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/person\/224f91b6c25db8aa4156d96c5a1a573f","name":"Editorial Office","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfddb3eae84f24078842b34b360bedf8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfddb3eae84f24078842b34b360bedf8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Editorial Office"},"description":"We believe in independent, prompt and accurate coverage of the office furniture industry. In our industry , manufacturers, resellers, architects, buyers and agents work closely together. We believe there is a need for a platform that provides product-, business- and marketinformation. That platform is OfficeRepublic.","sameAs":["http:\/\/modern-wilderness.flywheelsites.com\/en\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/https:\/\/twitter.com\/or__en"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/csm_RolfBenz-huelsgruppe-001_e9b008a45e1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23751\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=23751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23751\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23746\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=23751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=23751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=23751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}