Complex conglomerate
Within a decade, Ziegler Group has become a difficult-to-understand conglomerate of over 40 companies, which is said to have liabilities totaling several hundred million euros. Already in 2022, the holding company’s liabilities had amounted to €406.9 million. Despite that, more acquisitions followed (e.g. the Sebes sawmill), new investments were made (including the expansion of the CLT plant in Hermsdorf), and start-up losses were incurred (e.g. wood fiber insulation boards).
The investments made from 2021 to today totaled over €800 million: Everything grew at a pace and to a size as if the revenue of the once-in-a-century years of 2021 and 2022 was surely to be generated each year.
Facts about Ziegler
Ziegler Group 2022
Headquarters: Plößberg/DE
Sales: €488 million *; €1.05 million **
Staff: 1,518 (+97% compared to 2022); 2,650**
Cashflow before taxes: €45.5 million (previous year: €11.8 million)
Liabilities: €406.9 million (2021: €175.9 million)
Additional companies: Eleven companies were acquired in 2022.
Ziegler Group 2024***
Locations: 34
Staff: 4000**
Exports: over 70%
Sales: around €1.6 billion **
Lumber production in 2024: 2.04 million m³ (in all sawmills)
Investment projects: around €800 million
Wood fiber insulation boards: up to 2 million m³/yr
Cross-laminated timber: 35,000 m³/yr
Glue-laminated timber: 75,000 m³/yr
Modular construction: up to 3,000 housing units per year (target until 2030)
Pellets: 225,000 t/yr (start in 2021)
Sources: * 2022 balance sheet (published on February 28, 2024); ** company brochure (by now deleted from the homepage, but still available to the editorial team; *** information provided by the company
Things turned out differently – completely differently. When it comes to key products, the sales situation deteriorated almost unabated from the second half of 2022 until the summer of 2024. Standard financing in Germany rose from 1% (2022) to over 4% this year. All of this was simply too much – regardless of the complexity of so many different companies.
It has been known for months that Ziegler was in trouble. A company which made around €14 million in annual profits in normal years (average profit of Ziegler Holzindustrie in the period 2018-2020) invested nearly €800 million. It will take weeks for insolvency administrator Volker Böhm from the Nuremberg law firm Schultze & Braun to get a clear picture. Last week, he announced that further insolvency applications will have to be filed in week 48.
| Sums in million € | |||||
| Ziegler Holzindustrie | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales revenue | 269 | 255 | 259 | 427 | 480 |
| Liabilities | 65 | 58 | 63 | 29 | 26 |
| Results after taxes | 11 | 16 | 14 | 93 | 65 |
| Annual profits | 11 | 15 | 13 | 92 | 63 |
| Margin | 4% | 6% | 5% | 22% | 14% |
| Balance sheet total | 97 | 104 | 111 | 135 | 165 |
| Ziegler Holding | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Sales revenue | 108 | 119 | 147 | 271 | 488 |
| Liabilities | 28 | 71 | 81 | 176 | 407 |
| Results after taxes | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 26 |
| Annual profits | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 26 |
| Balance sheet total | 38 | 84 | 96 | 195 | 482 |
Investments only incurred costs, but no revenue yet
In May, owner Stefan Ziegler gave an exclusive interview to the Holzkurier in which he outlined his expectations:
- “Market recovery starting in 2026”
- “Looking for partners for the insulation board plant”
- “2023 hit us hard. Like many other companies, we were in the red. Everything we bought incurred costs without generating any revenue. That is different this year. Since January, we have had revenue from all our acquisitions and investments.”
Ziegler described himself as being on the path “from a sawmiller to a module builder” – but he wanted too much in too short a time.
Integrated, dispersed company
The attempted change from pure sawing resulted in a highly complex structure with a large number of in-house goods flows. A fully integrated group was created, but spread across many production sites over a larger area. The owner even bought a helicopter to get from A to B faster.
It may be due to this network of companies that the failure to make internal payments also put liquid subsidiaries at risk of insolvency. Apparently, the financial difficulties have become so serious in the previous weeks that the banks finally slammed on the emergency brakes. The banks were punished for financing a company whose profits (see box on balance figures above) are so disproportionate to the almost €800 million in investments made.
