Family-run mayr power transmission has announced a change of leadership. Managing partner Ferdinand Mayr, the great-great grandson of the company founder, has recently taken over the position of CEO from Günther Klingler. The company celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2022.
Hailing from Mauerstetten in the Allgäu region of Germany, mayr provides clutches, couplings and brakes to secure the movements in machines all around the globe. The components must precisely and instantly interrupt movements in an emergency, brake to a standstill or maintain specific positions with millimetre precision.
The company says its values of safety, reliability and innovation across the organisation have enabled it to grow from a small tradesman’s business into a global leader in the area of mechanical power transmission.
Stability and continuity
The company was founded in 1897 by Christian Mayr as a carpenter’s workshop specialising in mill structures in Kaufbeuren. Today, the company is managed by the fifth generation; together with his grandfather Fritz Mayr, and Klingler, Ferdinand Mayr has been managing the company since the end of 2018. Klingler joined the family business back in 1980, was appointed to management in 1991 and has been managing director of mayr power transmission since 2006. Ahead of his planned retirement next year, after more than 40 years with the company, Klingler handed over the CEO position to Ferdinand Mayr in April 2022.
Klingler will continue to be part of the management team until he retires and will support and advise actively during the change process. “Stability and continuity are our great strengths,” said Ferdinand Mayr. “This is also reflected in the structure of the management team. We operate on a cross-generational basis and are thus able to include different perspectives and experiences in the decision-making process.”
In May 2022, the long-standing head of finance and human resources, Christian Illig, moved up into the management team to assume the position of CFO.
New management team
In addition, the executive management is to be supported in all strategic and operationally relevant issues by a newly established management team. This team features a wide range of expertise and consists of: Johann Eberle, head of sales and marketing and authorised signatory since 15 May 2022; Peter Daffner, head of order centre and logistics; Christoph Dropmann, head of research and development; and Renate Wörle, management head of the executive office.
“We consider our company with all its employees to be a grown Mayr family,” said Ferdinand Mayr. “For us as the owner family, it is important to be present at the company, to co-design it and to implement the values we stand for. This creates consistency and reliability. Our customers, but also our employees worldwide, can rely on this.”
“Tradition and innovation are the supporting pillars which have guaranteed our stability for generations,” said Fritz Mayr. “In a world that is becoming increasingly fast-moving and uncertain, this means reliability and long-term security. Secure workplaces on the one hand, but of course our products also stand for safety and reliability. So in other words, the topic of safety shapes not only our thinking but also our actions.”
In recent years, mayr power transmission has invested heavily in its headquarters in Mauerstetten, and completed several new building projects. This supports the company’s stability policy and its commitment to the location, as Ferdinand Mayr emphasises: “Our long-term focus is on securing a stable and sustainable location in the Allgäu region. For this purpose, we use the generated profits – with the aim of creating the prerequisites and the creative space for a successful future. In more specific terms this means modern workplaces, digitalisation, automation and sustainable production as an upfront contribution to Germany as a production location.”
