On 1 July 2012, Nikolas Stihl assumed Chairmanship of the Advisory and Supervisory Boards of the STIHL Group, which also includes the Tyrolean gardening power tool manufacturer VIKING, based in Langkampfen, Austria. For 18 years, from 1993 to 2011 – Nikolas Stihl held the position of Managing Director at VIKING with a great deal of success. The Advisory Board of STIHL HOLDING AG & Co. KG and Supervisory Board of STIHL AG elected the new Chairman at a meeting held on 27 June 2012. The previous Chairman of the two Boards, Hans Peter Stihl, resigned from the positions on 30 June. He remains the personally-liable shareholder of STIHL HOLDING and has been named Honorary Chairman of the Advisory and Supervisory Boards. Eva Mayr-Stihl retains her position of Deputy Chairman. "With these decisions, we are ensuring that STIHL will in future remain an independent, medium-sized, family-run company in accordance with the wishes of the company founder, Andreas Stihl," said Nikolas Stihl, grandson of the company founder. In future, the operative management will remain in the hands of the Management Board (which does not include any family members) under the Chairmanship of Bertram Kandziora.
Continuation of the STIHL success story
Nikolas Stihl looks to the future with optimism: "With our products, we are excellently positioned. The conditions for further profitable growth are being created by means of higher capital investments in development, production and sales." Together with the other STIHL shareholders, he intends to, "ensure the continuation of the STIHL success story," adding that the owner family provides the company with the necessary stability that it required to achieve its long-term objectives. "For this purpose, I endorse the proven strategies of long-term, organic, world-wide growth using the company's own means, a high level of customer orientation, premium quality, technological leadership, process optimisation and sales via the service-oriented specialist dealers."
Company portrait
The STIHL Group develops, produces and sells power tools for the forestry, landscape cultivation and construction sectors. Its product range is complemented by the VIKING gardening power tool range. The products are distributed exclusively via specialist service-providing dealers, with 32 fully-owned sales and marketing companies, more than 120 importers and around 40,000 specialist dealers in over 160 countries. STIHL has been the world's highest-selling chain saw brand since 1971. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Waiblingen near Stuttgart, Germany. In 2011, STIHL achieved a turnover of 2.62 billion euros with 12,026 employees worldwide.