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On June 28, 2018, EXMAG and ASTO Invest GmbH, a sister company of EXMAG, exchanged their shares in Krallmann Holding und Verwaltungs GmbH for a profit share in Heinze Kunststofftechnik GmbH & Co. KG. As a result of the transaction, the Heinze Group now holds 92% of the shares in the Krallmann Group and has a total of 1,350 employees. The cumulative annual turnover is €140 million.
At the beginning of 2018, ASTO Invest GmbH acquired a majority stake in the loss-making Krallmann Group, based in Hiddenhausen in East Westphalia. Within just six months, the Krallmann Group was completely restructured. The basis for the restructuring of the group of companies was the implementation of a new corporate strategy and a tough cost-cutting program. The Krallmann Group, which traditionally had a high proportion of project business in precision tools, was repositioned as a large-scale series manufacturer in the plastic injection molding market. Two innovative product ideas in particular are now being successfully industrialized in the automotive industry:
As part of the new corporate strategy, the Krallmann Group's business processes and cost structure were optimized in a holistic and sustainable manner.
"By combining Krallmann's innovative processes with the Heinze Group's production resources, the high market demand for innovative lightweight construction products will be met more quickly. We are delighted that in future we will have a share in the profits of an East Westphalian champion with global market and competitive significance.“
said Andreas Stoltze, Chairman of the Board of Directors of EXMAG.
Investment priorities: strategic realignment and comprehensive restructuring in all areas of management.
KOKINETICS GmbH (www.kokinetics.com), based in Kriftel and founded in 1946 immediately after World War II, is a leading specialist in kinematic components. With 400 employees, KOKINETICS supplies the automotive industry with seating and transmission technologies. Its customers include almost all global OEMs, such as Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, and GM, as well as the world's leading suppliers and system providers.
When EXMAG, together with Endurance Capital AG, took over KOKINETICS in 2011, the company consisted of only one production plant and was in a serious strategic sales crisis. The company had not acquired any series production business in the three years prior to the acquisition. The company had missed the boat in the automotive industry by almost 20 years and had not established a global footprint. The company consisted of a single production plant in Germany, a high-cost country.
Under the leadership of managing partner and CEO Andreas Stoltze, the company was repositioned and internationalized. Within just three years, the company was able to establish a strategic focus in the area of passenger car seat structures, which were manufactured in the low-cost countries of Czechia (May 2013: purchase of the Czech subsidiary of the German company Pampus Automotive GmbH & Co. KG) and China (2014: establishment of a production plant in Shenyang). The once labor-intensive main plant in Kriftel near Frankfurt am Main was systematically converted to highly automatable seat mechanisms, which were developed and patented by the company itself. As a result, the company is now the undisputed global market leader in the passenger car sector with certain niche products, such as a patented seat cushion length adjuster solution made of composite material.
Due to the high order intake generated by the company as part of its repositioning, capital requirements increased dramatically. It was therefore only logical that the shares were sold to the strategic investor AVIC Electromechanical System Co., Ltd. in 2014. AVIC Electromechanical System is a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (“AVIC”). AVIC is one of the Fortune Global 500 companies. KOKINETICS managing partner Andreas Stoltze oversaw the integration into AVICEM until the end of 2017.
Investment priorities: Holistic restructuring in all areas of management and strategic realignment, including intellectual property strategy, internationalization of the company through acquisitions in Germany and the Czech Republic, and greenfield development of production facilities in China and the USA (global footprint).
Four weeks after the opening of insolvency proceedings against the assets of automotive supplier Pampus Automotive GmbH & Co. KG on April 2, 2013, the shareholder of the KOKINETICS Group and the insolvency administrator of Pamus Automotive, Dr. Christoph Schulte-Kaubrügger, succeeded in reach an agreement on the acquisition of the stake in Pampus Automotive s.r.o. The wholly-owned Czech subsidiary operates a plant in Kamenice, Czechia, with 280 employees, which mainly manufactures parts for the automotive industry. The buyer is Kokinetics CZ Beteiligungs GmbH.
“The sale achieved a good result for the creditors and at the same time ensured the long-term preservation of the plant in Kamenice, Czechia” said Dr. Christoph Schulte-Kaubrügger.
Dr. Andreas Stoltze, Managing Partner (CEO) of the KOKINETICS Group:
“With the acquisition of Pampus Automotive s.r.o., the KOKINETICS Group has made a quantum leap towards implementing its internationalization strategy.”
With the new LCC (Low Cost Country) location, new major orders in the automotive industry were acquired. Following the acquisition of the Czech location, the KOKINETICS Group is opening a sales location in the USA and a production location in China. It was only through the establishment of this global footprint that the group of companies became viable and competitive.
Investment priorities: Focus on core business, integration into the group's production network.
Effective December 1, 2012, part of the production of the global automotive supplier Faurecia at its German site in Lohr am Main was taken over as part of an asset purchase agreement. This involves the entire production of the rear seat structure for the Daimler Sprinter and the VW Crafter. The plant produces for both customers worldwide as a single-source supplier.
Dr. Hagen Wiesner, Head of Faurecia North Europe Seating Division and Managing Director Germany:
“We are delighted that a highly competent strategic investor has been found for the site, one that is pursuing a long-term growth strategy.”
The acquired Faurecia production site has been successfully integrated into the KOKINETICS Group. With the expansion of its expertise in surface coating, the group now covers the entire development and series production life cycle in the passenger car and commercial vehicle structures and mechanics segment.
Horst Dietz, Managing Director of Kokinetics GmbH:
“On the one hand, the acquisition of the sub-division means a significant expansion of production capacity by approximately 10,000 square meters in the largest business segment of seat structures with welding and riveting technology. On the other hand, the company is extending its own value chain to include cathodic electrophoretic dip coating (KTL) processes and powder coating.”
At the end of 2014, the landlord of the commercial property in Lohr am Main, Vienna-based GRANITE REAL ESTATE, announced that the commercial property would be sold and the real estate would be used by the new owner. The management then decided to relocate production of the rear seat structure for the Daimler Sprinter/VW Crafter to the Kriftel site, 90 km away. With the help of employees from the Czech subsidiary KOKINETICS s.r.o. and external staff, production was able to continue, all production facilities were finally relocated to the Kriftel site on May 1, 2014, and the Lohr site was handed over to the landlord and the new owner on August 31, 2014, as scheduled.
Investment priorities: Expansion of the product range and production capacities.
At the end of 2020, experts from two struggling companies decided to establish a toolmaking business.
The team began building, maintaining, and repairing tools with one plastics engineer, two design engineers, and three toolmakers. The team has since grown to 15 qualified employees in the tranquil town of Bad Salzuflen (as of March 2025).
As a young “old” toolmaking company, the team has 344 years of practical experience, 73 years of master craftsmanship in mold making, 27 years of master knowledge in plastic injection molding, and over 54 years of design experience in the construction of injection molds in these areas.
Our family office is participating in the start-up financing and will transfer the shares to managing partner Jan Hörmann after three years.
Investment priorities: Helping to establish a company so that highly trained experts can find a new home.
Pioneers cannot always realize the expected benefits of an innovation. This is partly because much depends on timing—and thus simply on market luck. B.FOCUS was a first mover in the field of big data and online supply chain management.
In the 1990s, senior consultants at Diebold Management- und Technologieberatungs GmbH, Frankfurt am Main, and the Information Management Group, St. Gallen, used self-developed SAP ABAP programs to objectively measure key performance indicators in order to show board members and managing directors the potential for optimizing business processes. Almost every time clients were presented with an objective analysis, they asked whether the tools could also be purchased for use as a controlling instrument. The consultants recognized a real gap in the market.
Andreas Stoltze was an investor from the very beginning. At the end of the 1990s, he formed a management team that participated in the founding of the company and subsequently won over 3i, the world's largest venture capital company at the time, and Siemens AG as investors. The management team developed a completely new hardware and software solution with its own applications.
The technological solutions were far ahead of their time and became the benchmark for many companies. For example, the company developed a supply chain explorer that could be used to read the most important business process management variables from heterogeneous IT systems online. The company's solutions also enabled automated tracking and tracing of goods along the global supply chain. These solutions attracted automotive manufacturers such as Daimler AG and BMW as customers.
With the onset of the dot-com crisis, B.FOCUS GmbH also began to falter in 2003, as institutional investors were no longer willing to provide the financing that had already been planned. The technologies were implemented at Siemens AG and by key customers in the automotive sector, and the company was gradually dissolved.
Investment priorities: Automation of industrial core processes.
Our family office was founded around the entrepreneurial personality of Andreas Stoltze (born in 1963). Andreas Stoltze has not only invested successfully in companies but has also contributed his experience as an entrepreneur and top manager to difficult corporate situations over the past three decades. On behalf of investors and banks, Andreas Stoltze has held two dozen supervisory board and advisory board positions in the DACH region, Asia-Pacific (China & India), the USA, and Eastern Europe over the past 30 years.
Here is an excerpt from the list of references for specific interim management mandates:
Andreas Stoltze will become CRO of the Georg Group (drop-forged parts) in 2023. Appointed by the Betzdorf Local Court as self-administrator in a protective shielding procedure pursuant to German Section 270d Insolvency Code.
Focus: Creation of the entire restructuring plan, management of the self-administration proceedings and the overall corporate restructuring. Integration of the Georg Group with a strategic investor as part of a transferable restructuring. Of 250 employees, 180 jobs can be saved.
Andreas Stoltze becomes CEO/CRO of the SONA BLW Group (automotive, precision forged parts) in 2019. Self-administrator appointed by the Wuppertal Local Court in planned insolvency proceedings pursuant to German Section 270d Insolvency Code.
Focus: Preparation of the entire restructuring plan on behalf of Indian shareholder Sunjay Kapur, management of the self-administration proceedings and the overall corporate restructuring. Integration of the SONA BLW Group into the Winning Group and EP Industries investment groups. Of the 1,300 employees, 900 jobs can be saved.
Andreas Stoltze became CEO/CRO of Prinz Kinematic GmbH, Stromberg (automotive, hinges) in 2018 after a group spin-off went wrong.
Focus: Corporate restructuring with a focus on finance, sales (new business, price increases), staff reductions, and process optimization in production.
In 2009, Andreas Stoltze became CFO/CRO and holding company managing director of the Austrian-Italian Alba-Novotec Group, based in Forstau, Austria, and Motta di Livenza, Italy (now Alba tooling & engineering GmbH (PUR processing/automotive); and interim CFO of the Heinze Group, Herford, for one year after the establishment of a joint venture between Heinze and Novotec.
Focus: Financing concept, restructuring through intra-group debt-equity swap, operational restructuring through plant relocation and staff reduction.
In 2006, Andreas Stoltze became CFO/CRO as part of a turnaround at US automotive supplier Superior Crankshaft LP, Irvine, CA, USA (car crankshaft manufacturer). Integration of SP Crankshaft into Pankl Racing Systems AG.
Focus: Development of a completely new financial controlling system following a carve-out, financing concept, and comprehensive business process optimization.