The long-running family dispute at Oetker is over.
After decades of conflict over the direction of Dr.
Oetker, the group is split up.
The company announced this on Thursday in Bielefeld.
The shareholders Alfred, Carl Ferdinand and Julia Johanna Oetker take over the subsidiaries Henkell & Co. Sektkellerei, Martin Braun Backmittel KG, the Budenheim chemical factory, some hotels from the hotel division and the August Oetker art collection under one roof.
“With this decision, the shareholder groups overcome their different ideas about the management and strategy of the Oetker Group. A corresponding separation agreement has been signed by all owners, ”said a statement from the Oetker Group. The part with the highest turnover with food (pizzas, baking mixes, frozen cakes and pudding), the Radeberger Group and some hotels remain in the hands of the shareholders of Richard and Philip Oetker, Rudolf Louis Schweizer, Markus von Luttitz and Ludwig Graf Douglas.
In the family dispute at the Oetkers, there are five older half-siblings from the first two marriages of the company patriarch Rudolf-August Oetker, who died in 2007, on the one hand, and three younger half-siblings from the third marriage on the other. There was already speculation about a split in 2019. The separation agreement should be completed this year. The companies would thus have an "unencumbered perspective for profitable growth".