Günther Hertel celebrates 80th Birthday and change in the advisory board
Dedicated entrepreneur with great vision and a big heart / Change in the advisory board of AICHINGER
Günther Hertel celebrates his 80th birthday on 17 June 2021. The thoroughbred entrepreneur has steered the fortunes of AICHINGER GmbH as owner and Managing Director for almost 26 years. In a quarter of a century, he has developed the medium-sized shop fitter, which once had 150 employees and a turnover of around €13 million (1995), into a global supplier of shop design, refrigerated display cases and retail furnishings with a turnover of €112 million (2019). The company employs around 600 people at its Wendelstein headquarters and 10 regional competence centres. On his 80th birthday, Günther Hertel moves from the management to the Advisory Board of the AICHINGER Group. The management will then be taken over by Dr Oliver Blank (Sales, Marketing, Strategy) and Dr Thomas Grünewald (Organisation and Technology), who was newly appointed to the management at the beginning of 2021. “AICHINGER is very well positioned in terms of management, personnel and structure for the future tasks of digitalisation and internationalisation,” says the jubilarian.
With entrepreneurial foresight, coupled with a feel for markets and trends, Günther Hertel has built up competencies in the areas of refrigeration technology, lighting technology and most recently digital technology around the core competence of shopfitting in recent years, or integrated them into the AICHINGER Group. For example, AICHINGER operates one of the most modern climatic laboratories and offers trend-setting digital solutions for the fresh food trade and food retailing.
Günther Hertel has developed a company that is a leader in technology and design. As a multi-specialist, it creates emotional fresh-food worlds of experience that combine shopping and enjoyment. This is documented in AICHINGER‘s slogan: “Success can be furnished – analogue and digital”. In doing so, Hertel has gone ahead and sought direct contact with customers not only in order to sell, but also to find out what their needs are.
The name Günther Hertel is inseparably linked with that of another success story. Before joining AICHINGER, the mechanical engineer, together with his brother, built up their parents’ company for carbide tools, Hertel AG in Fürth, into an international group with 3,000 employees. Despite all his entrepreneurial success, Günther Hertel has retained a sense of humility. For decades, he has been committed to helping socially disadvantaged people with an unguarded perspective, energy and a sense of empathy. For him, doing so is a matter of course, and he does not make a public show of it. Just as with his former activity as Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic.
Among other things, Günther Hertel has become well-known as a promoter and sponsor of top-level sport in Bavaria and the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region. The Franconian has not only sought out challenges and competition as an entrepreneur, but also in his involvement in sport. With a enormous passion, financial commitment and vision, he once led the Nuremberg Ice Tigers and the traditional ice hockey club SC Riessersee as sole shareholder, and currently AICHINGER supports the handball Bundesliga team HC Erlangen.
The jubilarian has led the way as a go-getter, has shaped competencies and personalities into a team and has always taken people along with him on his journey. “Günther Hertel is an entrepreneurial personality with great vision and a strong set of values that employees and business partners can always rely on,” emphasises Nadine Sydlo, Chairperson of the Works Council at AICHINGER.