The Hohenstein Institute has modified its existing management structure with effect from 1 June. The former departmental directors Dr Stefan Droste, Florian Girmond, Prof Dirk Höfer and Dr Andreas Schmidt have been appointed Managing Directors with sole representative authority for Hohenstein Laboratories and the Hohenstein Textile Testing Institute.

A schedule of responsibilities will regulate the responsibilities of the new Managing Directors. Prof Stefan Mecheels will remain as before the sole executive partner of the Research Institute – Forschungsinstitut Hohenstein Prof Dr Jürgen Mecheels – and Managing Director of the other two corporate entities – Hohenstein Institut für Textilinnovation and Hohenstein Academy.

Organisational changes

In addition, the Head of Finance and Administration, Armin Keicher, and the Head of Sales, Jörg Diekmann, are being made authorised signatories. Keicher's representative authority covers all the individual companies while Diekmann's covers the foreign branches of the Hohenstein Institute.

“Our structures still date from a time when we employed 80 to 120 people,” said Prof Mecheels, Head of Institute. “For a long time now, the people at the top of our different areas of work have had full responsibility for profits, costs, staffing, investments and business development.”

The change is also in line with the structure at the Hohenstein branches abroad, which are also led by Managing Directors. The Boennigheim family-run company expects there to be additional benefits in terms of communicating with business partners and the future security of the, by now, more than 500 employees at the headquarters in Hohenstein.

Hohenstein Institute

When Prof Dr-Ing Otto Mecheels founded the independent Hohenstein Institute in Boennigheim in 1946, his main priority was relating research and teaching directly to practical applications.

His son, Prof Dr Jürgen Mecheels, built on his work, and expanded the Hohenstein Institute between 1962 and 1995 into an internationally reputed research and service centre with an outstanding range of expertise.

Since 1995, the institute has been under the leadership of Prof Dr Stefan Mecheels, the third generation to run the family business. The Hohenstein Institute offers manufacturers, retailers, service providers and consumers competence from one single source, covering a wide range of distinct, but closely linked fields of work.

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