The supervisory board at Duravit AG has announced that CEO Stephan Tahy will remain as CEO for a further five years after he led the company to a record turnover of €604 million (£510m).
At a meeting on June 28, the board unanimously decided to extended his contract for five years, due not only to the record sales achieved in the past year, but also because of the way he and his executive board colleagues Thomas Stammel and Martin Winkle have helped Duravit to build on past success.
The board said it is convinced that Tahy will continue to realise Duarvit’s full potential. Tahy became CEO of family-run Duravit in July 2020 and his contract was due to expire in 2023.
Speaking about the decision, Tahy commented: “I’m delighted about the early contract extension and the show of trust in me. Only by working together can we achieve our ambitious goals. That’s why we want to take advantage of the fair winds and shape the necessary changes together.”
Tahy, speaking of the record turnover figures for Duravit last year of €604m (up 28% year on year), said: “Despite the difficult circumstances on the global economy, we’re closing in on the billion mark.”
The company said that Q1 of 2022 saw sales of €172.1m, compared with €140m in the same quarter of 2021.
Duravit has announced a comprehensive climate mission, with the goal to be an entirely climate-neutral business at the global level without relying on offsetting or trading CO2 emissions. Tahy commented: “None of this would be possible without the team effort of our employees who recreate this success every day afresh despite challenging and changing prevailing conditions. These are the best prerequisites for implementing our corporate vision of ‘We upgrade people’s everyday life’ for all of our stakeholders board.”
Duravit has a global workforce of around 7,000 employees and operates in more than 130 countries.
• Duravit AG has also appointed Annette Becker as vice-president for global marketing, with responsibility for the newly-merged marketing and commercial product management divisions. She has worked previously in product management at Bosch and was most recently regional director at the Fischer Group. Duravit said her appointment will help achieve its strategic goals of restructuring its marketing and product/portfolio management in order to satisfy changing customer requirements.
Speaking of her appointment, Becker said: “Duravit is a brilliant brand that represents both German tradition and iconic design. What could be more exciting than developing customer-oriented innovations to make this brand even more successful?”