KURZ GOES OUTSIDE FAMILY FOR NEW CEO

The world’s biggest foiling materials developer, Leonhard Kurz, has a new CEO, and for the first time in the company’s 124-year history it is not a member of the Kurz family. 

In a major evolutionary step, Dr Andreas Hirschfelder, previously senior vice president of the Business Area Plastic Decoration, becomes the new CEO at Kurz.

Long-serving CEOs Walter and Peter Kurz have now retired from the operational side of the business, and taken up advisory functions as chairman and deputy chairman of an advisory board. Walter Kurz was responsible for founding Kurz Australia half a century ago, as the company’s first subsidiary outside Europe.

Dr Hirschfeld has been with the company for 26 years, working in various roles including as CEO of the subsidiaries PolyIC and Burg Design. Since 2018, the Doctor of Organic Chemistry has also been responsible for the Business Area of Plastic Decoration as senior vice president and a member of the management board.

It is estimated that every day some five billion people around the world handle products that have Kurz foils on them, from magazines, greetings cards, confectionery, and cosmetics, through to food packaging, and of course, beverage labels. The company’s global turnover continues to rise and is now $1bn.

Dr Hirschfelder said, “I’m delighted by the confidence the Kurz family have placed in me. Continuing the Leonhard Kurz success story is both an honour and an incentive – especially in the challenging times we currently live in. But I am convinced that, as an international team, we can meet this challenge and continue to delight our customers in future.”

Walter and Peter Kurz said, “We are handing over a highly innovative company that is financially healthy. We have every confidence that Dr Hirschfelder will lead Kurz to continued success.”

For the past 50 years Walter and Peter Kurz have developed the Fürth-based family business, which was founded back in 1899, into one of the world’s most successful experts in attractive, functional surface finishing. The decorative, functional layers applied to carrier foil are used in countless everyday products such as cosmetics packaging, wine bottle labels, household devices, and in plastic components for cars. One mainstay is the creation of security features, for example for documents. The Kurz Group is represented in 30 locations worldwide, and employs 5,500 people.

In recent years, the Group has consolidated its position as a trailblazer in the sustainable finishing industry. For example, in 2021 Kurz joined the UN Global Compact Network, the world’s largest, most important initiative for sustainable, responsible company management. A comprehensive sustainability report was published in 2022. The Kurz range of products and services is also continually being made more environment- and climate-friendly.

The newly founded Leonhard Kurz Advisory Board will comprise Walter Kurz, Peter Kurz, Andreas Kurz, Dr Katharina Kurz, Anja Kurz and two external members. This will ensure that Leonhard Kurz continues as a family business. The company’s legal form will remain unaltered by the change in leadership.