EU BUSINESS NEWS / German CEO Excellence Awards 2022 11 , knows when the shops are reopened and it must be ensured, that our full collection could be presented in every beach house. But on the other side products must be sold through our online shop, which was during the lockdown the only way to sell. But our very motivated team made such a great job, that the complete company never got into trouble.” Now, the company has its sights set on the future with plans to grow across Europe and beyond. Axel elaborates, “We are planning to expand the e-commerce to USA and maybe even Japan. Because a lot of customers love us in these countries, which we know due to receiving a lot of positive messages. These are very difficult markets so we are planning how to go the right way, and we are thinking about planning this with a strategic partner.” With regards to his own career, Axel tells us, “Currently, I am very happy that we came through the pandemic without losing a store, customers or earnings. We have had a very good time in e-commerce. My plans are to settle our position in the market and to strengthen our local stores and expand our e-commerce.” Company: Adenauer&Co. Online GmbH Contact: Axel Heiter Email: [email protected] Website: www.adenauer.com Jan22319 Casual Clothing Brand Managing Director of the Year 2022: Axel Heiter Adenauer&Co. is a German casual clothing brand for hoodies, t-shirts, sweats, jeans and blouses. Clothing specialist, Andreas Adenauer founded the company in 2010, alongside software and project engineer, Axel Heiter who became CEO for e-commerce, and later, also marketingmanagement of the brand. Andreas Adenauer created a different brand to that which familiar with the German market. With a passion for the sea, and the German North Sea and Baltic sea coasts, it is a lifestyle and emotional brand inspired by love for the beach, ocean and sand between the toes. The concept starts with the product, continues in the optic of the online shop and marketing, and it reaches the local stores which are called “beach houses”. Adenauer&Co. doesn’t work with retailers and its products are only available in its own stores and online shop. So far, Adenauer&Co. has 45 beach houses, mostly in Germany, but also in Mallorca and Austria, with plans to expand further across the globe. Each beach house has taken a while to come together because Andreas Adenauer personally designed and dressed each individually. When one enters an Adenauer&Co. store, they instantly feel the warm and relaxing ambience of a beach house, enhanced by blue and yellow hues of the coast. Axel Heiter is responsible for the online shop which delivers to nearly all countries in Europe, and he feels that it is important that people get the same sense of a beach house here, too. Axel said, “This is difficult because visitors cannot feel and smell like in our local shops. So we created a different page to other brands. There are no products on the starting page, only an emotional picture with an emotional message. And inside the categories, you will find everywhere small pictures, also with emotional messages. Feelings and emotions are more important for us than selling products.” He continued, “This is what our customers have been loving and honouring for 12 years. We have a customer service team of people who love our brand and who work with passion. These are the points that are very important to me.” Axel Heiter has been a self-employed software and project engineer for more than 30 years, with extensive experience in e-commerce, which stems back to 1998 with an e-commerce project for one of his clients at the time. It was in 2010 that a friend asked if he was interested in joining a start-up in fashion business and to manage the e-commerce – So, Axel became a shareholder and CEO of e-commerce for Adenauer&Co. Talking about his approach within his role as CEO, Axel shares, “I am a very structured and disciplined person. When starting a new project, it is very important to me to structure and analyse it and to set up milestones. I check which team member is the best for the specific part of the project. Then we hold meetings at certain times to share the status of each other’s work.” Axel Heiter is proud of the small teams that make up the company, saying, “Our employees start from day one knowing the company story. We have small teams which are proud to work for us. They all love our story and what we are doing. These feelings of joy are passed onto the customer.” The team has remained hard working, dedicated and resilient during the toughest times, too, including the COVID-19 pandemic, as Axel goes on to say, “During the last two years, we made a lot of things right, otherwise we wouldn’t have this good position in the market. Other fashion-brands closed shops, but Andreas Adenauer opened through the pandemic more beach houses. We want to be ready and visible for our customers when the pandemic ends. Our team worked very often 7 days a week to move products from shops under lockdown to our online shop. Difficult decisions have to be made, because nobody
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