HORNBACH : Erich Harsch to be new Chief Executive Officer of Hornbach Baumarkt AG

2019

Longstanding dm manager to move from Supervisory Board to Board of Management of Hornbach Baumarkt AG and succeed Steffen Hornbach as of January 1, 2020 / Supervisory Board speaks of 'ideal candidate'

Bornheim bei Landau, August 28, 2019.

Erich Harsch (57), a member of the Supervisory Board of Hornbach Baumarkt AG, is to succeed Steffen Hornbach (61) as the company's new Chief Executive Officer. At the suggestion of its Personnel Committee, the Supervisory Board today resolved to appoint Erich Harsch as a full member of the Board of Management and as Chief Executive Officer of Hornbach Baumarkt AG as of January 1, 2020. On August 16, 2019, Steffen Hornbach informed the Supervisory Board of his wish to stand down from his positions after more than 27 years on the Board of Management - of which the last 18 as CEO - due to health-related reasons.

Erich Harsch has been Chief Executive Officer of dm-drogerie markt GmbH & Co. KG since 2008. An Austrian by birth, he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Hornbach Baumarkt AG since July 2013. He is also a member of the supervisory bodies of Hornbach Holding AG & Co. KGaA (since January 2014) and Hornbach Management AG (since October 2015). As a proven authority on the Hornbach Group, the retail expert is highly familiar with the business model and structures at the publicly listed DIY store group and the challenges facing the DIY store sector. 'We are delighted and proud to gain Erich Harsch to head the Board of Management. For us, he really is the ideal candidate', comments Albrecht Hornbach, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Hornbach Baumarkt AG. Harsch had in-depth experience of stationary retail and of the digital transformation in the sector.

The Supervisory Board thanked Steffen Hornbach for his long and dedicated management of the company. 'Steffen Hornbach shaped the company with his courage and tenacity. He laid the strategic foundations enabling it to become one of the most successful companies in its sector in Germany and eight other European countries. He successfully upheld the company's sustainable growth course, and that in increasingly mature markets. Under his management, the company also created a basis for safeguarding its competitiveness in a dramatically changing retail world. Steffen Hornbach can hand over to his successor a company that is optimally prepared to face the challenges of the future', adds Albrecht Hornbach, CEO of Hornbach Management AG, thus honoring his brother's achievements on behalf of the Supervisory Board and all company employees.

Steffen Hornbach was appointed as a member of the Board of Management of Hornbach Baumarkt AG on February 1, 1992. He has been Chief Executive Officer since November 1, 2001. Over this period, consolidated sales have almost trebled and the number of DIY stores in Germany and abroad has increased from 91 to 158. A graduate in mechanical engineering, Steffen Hornbach will be standing down from his position with the approval of the Supervisory Board as of December 31, 2019. Within the Board of Management, he has most recently been responsible for 'Strategic Development', 'Store Operations', and 'Sales and Services'.

Steffen Hornbach is the son of Otmar Hornbach, the DIY store pioneer who passed away in August 2014 and under whose management Europe's first combined DIY store and garden center was opened in Bornheim in the Palatinate region in 1968. The older son, Albrecht Hornbach (64), is Supervisory Board Chairman of Hornbach Baumarkt AG and Chief Executive Officer of Hornbach Management AG, the general partner of Hornbach Holding AG & Co. KGaA. The KGaA is the parent company of the Hornbach Group.

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