Fabian Krone will leave MÄURER & WIRTZ; Thomas

Thomas Seeger-Helbach (47) has been appointed as new Managing Director of the perfume house MÄURER & WIRTZ. He will head MÄURER & WIRTZ jointly with the Managing Partner, Dr. Hermann Wirtz. The certified economist is no stranger to the company: from 1996 to 2011, Seeger-Helbach worked for MÄURER & WIRTZ, initially as International Key Account Manager and from 2000 to 2011 as Director Marketing & New Business. In mid-2011 Thomas Seeger-Helbach decided to leave the company, and subsequently joined Dr. Babor, the Aachen-based manufacturer of professional luxury skincare products, as Head of Marketing & Communication.

“We are very pleased to have regained in Thomas Seeger-Helbach not only a familiar face and immensely popular person within the company”, said Dr. Hermann Wirtz, “but first and foremost, we have also brought on board an experienced and competent marketing and sales expert with highly relevant international expertise and the best possible knowledge of our company and the perfume and cosmetics industry. We are certain that he is the best person to help us consistently pursue the strategic path we have set out on.”

Commenting on his return, Thomas Seeger-Helbach said: “I am very much looking forward to this exciting new challenge, and it is a great personal honour to return to MÄURER & WIRTZ as Managing Director.”

After two years at MÄURER & WIRTZ, managing director Fabian Krone has left the company. In February 2010, Fabian Krone was appointed managing director of the Stolberg perfume house MÄURER & WIRTZ, where he was entrusted with several special projects, including increasing the company’s internationalisation and building its prestige business. At the beginning of fiscal year 2011, Fabian Krone and the managing partner, Dr. Hermann Wirtz, presented the strategic restructuring programme: the company now operates in three separate strategic divisions, PRESTIGE, 4711 and BEAUTY; a wide range of measures were put in place to optimise internal processes; and the company’s prestige fragrance business has been expanded. Most recently MÄURER & WIRTZ acquired the fragrance business for the BALDESSARINI brand from Procter & Gamble, thus gaining access to new markets,
especially in Eastern Europe.

Thomas Seeger-Helbach will start in his new position on 4 June 2012. Until then, Bert Lehnen, a member of the Advisory Board, will continue to act as interim Managing Director alongside Dr. Hermann Wirtz. For Bert Lehnen this is familiar territory: before joining the Advisory Board he was Managing Director of MÄURER & WIRTZ for nearly ten years.

About MÄURER & WIRTZ

A company with a heritage reaching back to 1845, a family-owned enterprise managed by the fifth generation – and one of the leading houses for perfume and bodycare: the history of MÄURER & WIRTZ is a success story. The soap business founded by Michael Mäurer and his stepson Andreas Wirtz over 165 years ago has grown to become a global player. The company, based in Stolberg, Germany, is presently active in 140 markets and has around 350 employees. The brand portfolios of the company’s three corporate divisions, PRESTIGE, 4711 and BEAUTY, include prestigious fragrances such as BALDESSARINI and Strellson, classic fragrances like 4711 Original Eau de Cologne and Tabac Original, as well as licensed brands such as Betty Barclay and s.Oliver. The company reported sales of €163 million in 2011 and is one of Germany’s top five perfume houses. Since 1990, MÄURER & WIRTZ has been an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of the DALLI GROUP.