Perfect timing on International Women's Day: after more than 30 years at the helm of the solid wood furniture manufacturer Hartmann Möbelwerke, Bernhard Hartmann has transferred the company to his daughter Katharina Hartmann, previously commercial management. 'Our Hartmann is now a woman,' the company says on LinkedIn.
A novelty at the top of the company
For the first time in the 113-year history of the Beelen-based company, there is a woman at the helm of Hartmann Möbelwerke. Before her, her father, grandfather and great-grandfather expanded the solid wood furniture manufacturer from a carpentry workshop to a medium-sized company with over 140 employees since 1911. Katharina Hartmann joined the family business in April 2021 and is now, with the transfer of the shareholder shares on January 1, 2024, the managing partner.
New generation, same DNA
Over the past three years, Katharina Hartmann has been able to gain important experience at the side of her father and Managing Director Holger Hanhardt and set the course for the future of the company. In the past year, for example, complete CO₂ neutrality was achieved, new, innovative furniture programs were launched and the German Sustainability Award was won.
A foundation on which it is now necessary to build, as Katharina Hartmann explains: 'I would like to thank my father for the trust and guidance he has given me over the past few years and I am full of optimism and drive about the tasks that await us with Hartmann Möbelwerke in the future. He is handing over to me a company that is excellently positioned thanks to numerous forward-looking decisions. I am glad that I can continue to count on my father's experience and advice and continue on the path I have chosen.'
Bernhard Hartmann considers the timing of the handover to be appropriate and says: 'Katharina carries the DNA of entrepreneurship in her blood and grew up with solid wood furniture. In recent years, it has grown with and with its tasks, which is why it was clear to me that we should now complete the generational change. I am sure that with her understanding of leadership, her own ideas and passion, she will shape her own style and Hartmann Möbelwerke.'