As a child, Daniel Groz was “asked” to (not entirely voluntarily) model the child-friendly weight of Franke bearings.
With Daniel Groz and Sascha Eberhard, a new generation takes the helm. As well as being young in years, they also establish fresh ideas and principles within the company. Cautiously, with heavy involvement of the workforce and always with a clear goal: To safeguard and expand Franke’s performance and competitiveness in times of dynamic change.
When Daniel Groz and Sascha Eberhard succeeded Gerhard Groz and Michael Helbig as Managing Directors of Franke on 1st January 2007, they both looked back on very different Franke histories. As the son of Gerhard Groz, Daniel Groz had known the company since he was a boy and had already had a taste of production as a holiday worker assembling bearings and linear guides. After studying mechanical engineering in England – incorporating an internship at Franke – and completing a postgraduate degree in business administration with an MBA in Munich, he gained professional experience at the German branch of a large US automotive supplier.
His fellow Managing Director, Sascha Eberhard, was a fully trained electrician with a degree in industrial engineering, which also took him to England for a while. While there, he learnt not only new business cultures in a management consultancy, but also perfect English. In 1998, he joined Franke as a technical sales representative, a role that saw him travel around the world. He later became Head of Marketing, authorised signatory and member of the Executive Board.
Like their predecessors, the two have very different characters – but since they share the same principles, this is precisely why they complement each other perfectly. Daniel Groz is responsible for the entire Production department, including Procurement and Quality Assurance, while Sascha Eberhard is responsible for Marketing and Sales, Technology, Development, Digitalisation and IT. They share the management of the Finance and Human Resources departments. However, they do not see it as their task to regulate their respective areas of responsibility down to the last detail, but rather to change the formerly more centralised management structure and spread it across more shoulders. This is in a bid to make the company more agile, more flexible, more efficient and therefore fit for the future. “Our job,” says Daniel Groz, “is not primarily to create any inventions ourselves, but to create the right conditions for innovation within the company.
Following this philosophy, they have introduced a number of innovations to Franke. These include numerous IT tools, an internal knowledge management system, lean management, the Franke Technicum and the Franke NEXT trainee programme, the “Franke 2020” strategic direction and a matrix organisation. The record investment in the new Plant 6 also serves to secure the future. The decision to do this “was not taken lightly, of course,” recalls Daniel Groz. However, following an economic downturn in the automotive industry and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was initially postponed.
The new building will commence operations in the anniversary year of 2024 and, together with other changes that form part of the “Franke 2025” strategy currently being implemented, it will help to fulfil the wish of the two Managing Directors “that Franke will – on its 100th anniversary – still be a rock-solid, stable, secure, reliable and attractive employer here in the region”. //
Sascha Eberhard is constantly spurring the company on to become even better and more future-orientated.