Under Stephan Müller, who only joined Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller as Chairman of the Board of Directors at the beginning of 2022, the company increased its turnover to over €9bn in 2023 and its profit to €156m (+ 290%). According to Manager Magazin, he is now trimming his father’s company for efficiency under the code name ‘Focus2Win’ following the acquisition of brands such as Landliebe and enormous cost increases. The Boston Consulting Group was also engaged for this purpose. This is said to have annoyed company owner Theo Müller, who is known to have a low opinion of external consultants.
Stephan Müller’s aim is to reduce costs by around €100m by optimising production and supply chains and streamlining overheads by at least 300 people. The endeavour will also cost jobs; department heads at UTM are said to be examining whether every 16th employee can be dispensed with.
