Podcast „Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“

The BWF Group from Offingen is a typical hidden champion: highly specialized in its niche, selling products worldwide—yet its name is scarcely known outside its industry. We encounter its products regularly in our daily lives without realizing it. For example, in the form of plastic coverings in trains or as collar linings for blazers. The BWF Group, which employs 1,800 people and recently generated over 300 million euros in revenue, is now led by Maximilian Offermann in its fifth generation. In the podcast “Alles Neu..? Aus dem Maschinenraum,” he shares which question his father always anticipated him asking and why his 30th birthday was especially memorable. It was the day he assumed personal liability as managing director. "That was the moment I knew: from now on, I would be solely responsible for everything. Looking back, that’s when I truly became an entrepreneur."

Offermann also discusses booming markets in India and Turkey—and the difficulties in Germany. “Of course, we’re doing everything possible to keep our base in Germany. But with the existing products and processes, it’s becoming increasingly difficult,” Offermann says. For the future in Germany, he envisions a focus on products that require significant technology and expertise. "How we manage to secure our headquarters in Germany is currently our greatest challenge," Offermann states in the podcast.

How can the origin and future of Mittelstand companies be courageously united? What are the challenges facing family businesses and what experiences do they gather in digital transformation? These questions are answered by “Alles neu...? Aus dem Maschinenraum“, the interview podcast for German Mittelstand*. Once a month, Tobias Rappers, Managing Director of Maschinenraum, and Nils Kreimeier, Senior Editor of the business magazine Capital, talk to thought leaders and makers from the heart of the German economy and focus on the personalities and their motivation. *The podcast is in German.

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