Patriarch resigns
Trigema boss Grupp hands over business to his children
November 7, 2023, 10:12 a.m
One of the most prominent and dazzling German medium-sized companies is retiring. Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp senior is retiring after more than 50 years at the helm and handing over to his children.
Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp is giving up his position as head of his company at the end of the year. The 81-year-old sole managing director and owner is handing over management to his daughter Bonita (34) and his son Wolfgang Grupp junior (32), the manufacturer of sports and leisure clothing in Burladingen announced on Tuesday.
Wolfgang Grupp junior will become a personally liable partner and managing director on January 1, 2024. Bonita Grupp will become a member of the management at the same time. “From January 1, 2024, I will withdraw from operational business and hand over responsibility to my daughter and son. I trust their abilities to ensure the continued existence of the company and lead Trigema into a secure future,” said Grupp. Bonita and Wolfgang Grupp Jr. joined the family business in 2013 and 2014. Elisabeth Grupp, who is married to Wolfgang Grupp senior, remains active in the company as a partner. She is therefore not part of the management. The company will continue to operate under the name Trigema W. Grupp KG. Until now, Grupp Trigema had operated as “eK” (registered merchant).
Since 1969 he has run the textile manufacturer Trigema in Burladingen ( Zollernalbkreis ). The medium-sized company is known throughout Germany because he likes to express his opinion with pithy sayings and thus offend people. And because for many years he has been chatting with a monkey about Trigema at prime time, in advertising before the Tagesschau.
Grupp was not just a loudspeaker, but also an entrepreneur who upheld values such as responsibility and decency. An old-school entrepreneur who didn’t have a computer at his big desk. As a registered merchant, he was personally liable with his entire assets for the company, which, according to his own information, was the last textile company to produce exclusively in Germany. Children of employees are guaranteed a training place. In many ways, the entrepreneur was a rarity in Germany.
The textile manufacturer had even defied global crises. During the pandemic, Trigema produced masks, according to Grupp, 2.3 million pieces. In 2020, sales were 122.3 million euros. That was an exception. In 2021, Trigema made sales of 112.8 million euros. For comparison: in 2019, before the Corona crisis, it was 104 million euros. The company also weathered the war in Ukraine with increased gas prices well. Sales in 2022 were 127 million euros. Grupp was reluctant to talk about the win: “Trigema has never had a negative year in my 52 years.”