Interview with Hans Mosbacher
Macher, Manager, Mosbacher – anyone looking for a beautiful spot in Gelsenkirchen for a business success story will inevitably end up at Marina Graf Bismarck. The harbour district is home to the Gelsenkirchen-based Stölting Group. Both are inextricably linked to the ongoing regeneration process in the city and the rise of the family business to become an impressive service provider with national appeal.
In the marina, dozens of boats bob up and down at the jetties in the glistening sunlight. Next door, on the Rhine-Herne Canal, rowers stroke their oars with powerful strokes, while cyclists, walkers and other leisure seekers indulge in cake, ice cream and cool drinks on the terraces of the restaurants along the shore. High above the water, Hans Mosbacher and Stephan Kulbatzki welcome visitors to a light-flooded, ultra-modern conference room. Mosbacher is the managing partner and Kulbatzki the commercial director of the Stölting Group. Both are beaming, not so much because of the wonderful summer weather, but more because of the latest group figures and business successes.
Stölting Group closes 2021 with record turnover
„We have doubled our turnover,“ announces Hans Mosbacher. His pride in what has been achieved is unmistakable. In 2021, the group's turnover was €361 million – a record result. In 2018, it was €180 million. And in the intervening period, the curve has also shown a steep upward trend: €195 million and €310 million respectively. And that's despite the coronavirus crisis. A beneficiary of the pandemic? The 64-year-old from Gelsenkirchen emphatically rejects this conclusion. „That would be too simplistic,“ says Mosbacher. After all, the coronavirus pandemic has dried up a significant source of income for him for a long time due to the ban on visits to football stadiums and the cancellation of major events such as concerts and trade fairs (Essen Grugapark, Hanover). It is important to note that Stölting's business model is based on three pillars: the cleaning sector, security services and personnel services. Hordes of „cleaners and attendants on buses and trains have helped to ensure that we all got through the pandemic safely and well,“ Mosbacher also recalls the countless workers who, among others, literally paved the (disinfected) ground for doctors, nurses and carers to keep the infection under control. „Applause, recognition,“ Mosbacher asks rhetorically, „unfortunately, I have seen and heard little of that.“ Hans Mosbacher – Citizen of the Ruhr Area 2020 – finds it highly regrettable that the cleaning industry is hardly appreciated. „This trade is more than just wielding a scrubbing brush; the spectrum is broad, technically demanding and offers very good career opportunities.“ The 64-year-old should know, after all, he himself started an apprenticeship as a building cleaner at the age of 14, became a master craftsman in his early 20s and shortly afterwards started his own business – outside his parents„ company. “I didn't want any competition within the family," says the entrepreneur, explaining his decision. He has two siblings, so he preferred clear boundaries to possible disputes about who would be given preference over the others.
Working your way up is part of the company's DNA. And a keen sense of what the market wants. „We offer services from a single source,“ says Hans Mosbacher, who began adding new business areas to his father's cleaning company at the turn of the millennium. By then, he had already gained a wealth of experience and sold the „largest cleaning company in the Münsterland region“ – his own.
Record champions Bayern Munich as a new customer
Today, the group employs a total of 14,400 people at 40 locations in Germany, from which a good 1,200 vehicles swarm out to customers in all directions. Stölting has just landed its latest coup: „We have won Bayern Munich as a customer,“ Stephan Kulbatzki and Hans Mosbacher reveal with delight. What makes the Gelsenkirchen-based company particularly proud is the fact that the deal did not require a long and costly acquisition process – door-to-door canvassing, to use a metaphor – but that the German football industry leader approached the Gelsenkirchen-based company itself. The Stölting managing director comments: „Everyone who is responsible for cleanliness in football stadiums now knows us.“ For Stölting, the Bayern deal is a real accolade. After all, „no other company is now so closely linked to so many professional clubs“ as the Gelsenkirchen-based company: In addition to the subscription champion, its customers include FC Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund, VfL Wolfsburg and Fortuna Düsseldorf, as well as Wuppertaler SV, RW Erfurt, SV Waldhof Mannheim, SGS Essen, Alba Berlin and Chemnitz 99ers (both basketball). For the next three years, 50 security guards will be monitoring an assigned stadium sector at Munich's Allianz Arena, and a larger commitment, such as at Schalke, where Stölting is completely responsible with its security and steward team, is not out of the question. The Black and Yellows secured the local cleaning contract in 2017, and the contract has now been extended until 2027. The Royal Blues signed the contract in 2019, which runs until 2029 – but here it is a package deal that includes cleaning and security. Mosbacher attributes these successes to several factors: a continuous expansion strategy that „has led to investments in the hundreds of millions over the past 18 years through the opening of new locations“ and the early expansion of business areas since 2000. „The market demanded both cleaning and security services at the same time,“ recalls the 64-year-old. Whether hospitals, airports, football stadiums, trade fairs, banks, hotels, rail and public transport, or craft and industrial businesses – Stölting employees can be found almost everywhere today. The cleaning service was something of a door opener, as Mosbacher describes in retrospect. „Our quality in the sector has built trust, enabling us to gradually expand our activities and contribute our expertise.“ For Mosbacher, it was also a „clear advantage“ in business negotiations that his company is owner-managed, unlike many of its competitors. „We have consistency in our management-level contacts, whereas others have high turnover.“ This allows us to get to the point more quickly and directly. Stölting is also not afraid of entrepreneurial risk. For example, the group wanted to set up Europe's largest high-performance laboratory for PCR corona express tests with Ingenium Labs. Capacity: 140,000 analyses per day. A „world first,“ as was grandly announced – hype is part of the business. The media hype was correspondingly huge. But the course of the pandemic threw a spanner in the works, and in the end, the marina quickly backtracked. Check. Get up, wipe your mouth, move on – the Mosbachers take the same approach as footballers.
[Source: Article in WAZ Gelsenkirchen, Wednesday, 1 June 2022, Nikos Kimerlis]
