The supervisory board of SPAR Austria has appointed Hans K Reisch as the new chief executive of SPAR AG, effective immediately.
Reisch will serve as the chairperson of the company's management board, which includes three senior executives – Markus Kaser, Paul Klotz and Marcus Wild, the retailer added.
Hans K Reisch, the grandson of SPAR AG founder Hans F Reisch, has held various functions at the company throughout his career.
He has been a member of the board of directors since 2001 and assumed the role of deputy chairperson of its board in 2021.
This reorganisation follows poor health of Fritz Poppmeier, the previous chairperson of its management board.
Reisch had already been standing in for Poppmeier in this capacity for a year, the company noted.
SPAR AG Management Board
Reisch will be part of the management board of SPAR AG, together with Markus Kaser, Paul Klotz and Marcus Wild.
Wild, a member of one of the families that owns the group, has held a seat on the management board of SPAR AG since 2021.
He had previously built up the SPAR subsidiary SES SPAR European Shopping Centres and helped it emerge as one of the leading names in shopping centres in Austria and Slovenia.
Elsewhere, Kaser and Klotz are long-standing SPAR executives, and have been on the board since 2021.
The management team will now lead SPAR AG as a group of four, the retailer added.
Gerhard Drexel, chairperson of the supervisory board said, “The entire SPAR family very much regrets the departure of Fritz Poppmeier from the management board due to illness. I would like to thank Fritz Poppmeier for his decades of commitment and dedication to our company. We all hope that he will continue to recover well."
In August, the management board of SPAR Austria has decided to merge its company-owned and independent retailer sales units, effective 1 January 2024.
