At a ceremony held on 14th January Hans Peter Stihl was inducted into the "Hall of Fame of German Family Companies 2015". The ‘Handelsblatt', a business daily, has been presenting this award to the heads of family-owned companies every year since 2009. Chaired by Handelsblatt publisher Gabor Steingart, the jury honors entrepreneurs who have made an exceptional contribution to Germany as a business location. The award ceremony took place yesterday evening in Munich and was attended by 170 invited guests from industry, politics and the media. Hans Peter Stihl expressed his thanks for the award: "This honor underscores the importance of family-owned companies for the German economy. I am firmly convinced that a business leader has to assume responsibility for his business and his employees, but also vis-à-vis society. However, he can fulfil this undertaking only if his own company remains successful in the long term. We have achieved that by pursuing our ambitious goals systematically and with farsightedness."
The presenter was Klaus Becker, chairman of KPMG AG, the global auditing firm. He paid tribute to Hans Peter Stihl‘s entrepreneurial accomplishments, in particular the creation of an international manufacturing and distribution network which he pushed ahead with great verve in the late sixties and thereafter, as well as the many years during which he was spokesman for German industry. "Hans Peter Stihl's outstanding achievement was to transform a company with technically excellent chain saws into a global brand. At a very early stage and long before others, he ventured out into export markets. His entrepreneurial courage and keen sense for new developments laid the cornerstone for worldwide success," said Becker.
Hans Peter Stihl joined the company in 1960 as assistant to the board of management. At that time the company's annual turnover was about DM 20 million; in 2013 STIHL posted a turnover of € 2.8 billion with a worldwide workforce of almost 14,000. In addition to his work in the company, Stihl was actively involved in different trade associations. From 1980 to 1988 he was chairman of the Federation of the Baden-Württemberg Metal Industry, Stuttgart, and subsequently served as president of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce up to 2001. Hans Peter Stihl is now honorary president of both chamber organizations and also Honorary Consul of the Republic of Singapore for the German states of Baden-Württemberg, Hessen, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland.