MANUFACTURER PROFILE | BSH
FOUNDATIONSof success A
As he prepares to step down as BSH UK and Ireland CEO to take on a more global role, Andreas Meier talks to Rebecca Nottingham about his time at the helm and the legacy he’s leaving behind
fter more than five years, Andreas Meier is stepping down from his position as CEO of BSH UK and Ireland to take on a new challenge within the BSH Group. From February 2020, Meier will become executive vice-president, head of consumer product division, taking responsibility for BSH’s small domestic appliances business globally. “I’m obviously very proud to be promoted to the head of consumer product division globally and it’s an exciting challenge for me,” he explains. “As someone who has worked for BSH regions across the world, having the chance to work on one product area globally appealed to me and I’m looking forward to developing this part of the company further. “While I am very excited to be taking up this role, I will also be leaving the UK and Ireland with some regret. Despite numerous challenges and uncertainties, we have enjoyed a huge amount of success over the past five years.”
Meier has been with BSH – the company behind 30
appliance brands Bosch, Neff, Siemens and Gaggenau – for 21 years, and has, for the past five of those, been CEO of the company’s UK business. In 2014 he made the UK subsidiary the third biggest of the BSH group with 20% growth in revenue, 20% market share in the UK and double-digit profit margins. Then, in 2016 – while successfully managing the impact of the Brexit referendum – he grew BSH to be market-leader in the UK and Ireland. But Meier is quick to point out that none of these achievements would have been possible without having the right team in place behind him or without the support of the company’s loyal customer base. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time as CEO in the UK and Ireland and am proud of the success we’ve achieved together, particularly given the uncertainty we’ve been working with for the past few years,” he says. “Over the past five years, we have consistently grown our revenue and market share. It’s still growing despite the uncertainty over Brexit, and this achievement is down to the hard work of everyone at BSH. The whole team has worked hard on this and strived to deliver a great service to our customers.
Professionalism
“The foundation of this success has been the professionalism and collaborative culture of our employees, as well as our exceptionally committed customer base, for which we are extremely grateful.” His confidence in his team is borne out by the fact that BSH’s UK subsidiary achieved exceptional results in a group-wide employee survey in 2015 and was awarded the Top Employer Certificate in 2016, 2017 and 2018 from the Top Employers Institute.
kbbreview · December 2019
However, it certainly hasn’t all been plain sailing for Meier during his time at BSH UK. Aside from challenges outside of his control, it’s fair to say that his leadership skills were tested to the limit shortly after he took over as CEO in September 2014 from Michael Steinle. Following the launch of its new built-in cooking ranges in April 2015 – described then as the “most significant investment in the history of BSH” – the brand was hit with major order backlogs. The stock shortages – which were limited to the ovens within the new collection – were blamed on demand for the product “exceeding expectations”. Speaking to kbbreview in the June 2015 issue, Meier said: “We launched the new range of appliances in April and have already delivered thousands of units to our trade customers. The stock shortages are limited to the new oven range. We did not expect
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