‘Hidden Champions’ are companies that are very successful in selling their specialized premium quality products, but somehow are not well-known to the public. Here we highlight three business people operating at the cutting edge of their industries that you are likely never to have heard of.
- Nerio Alessandri – Founder & CEO, Technogym
Nerio Alessandri is an Italian entrepreneur and President and founder of Technogym, a leading company in equipment and digital technologies for fitness, sport and health based in Cesena, Italy.
Alessandri founded Technogym in 1983 at the age of 22, beginning by building exercise equipment in the garage of his home.
By 1985 Technogym had developed its first complete strength training line, and in 1986 launched Unica, a multi-station set of home training devices, before adding a cardiovascular training line in 1990.
The company’s turning point arguably came in 1996 when it introduced Wellness System, the first software to manage people’s training programs at the gym. Alessandri continued to pioneer the company’s technological evolution, launching ‘Excite’ in 2002, the first cardiovascular training line to be fitted with an integrated TV screen, and in 2012 launched MyWellness Cloud, the fitness industry’s first cloud platform.
In 2014, Alessandri partnered with industrial designer Antonio Citterio to create a sleek line of home gym equipment. The Personal Line integrates a tablet-style console called VISIOWEB that runs on an Android platform. In 2019 Technogym enhanced its focus on digital by introducing Technogym Bike, its first indoor bike that offers indoor-cycling classes live and on-demand run by trainers from fitness studios around the world.
Today, the company offers an ecosystem of connected smart equipment, digital services, on-demand training experiences and apps. Over 50 million people train with Technogym in 80,000 wellness centres and 500,000 private homes world-wide.
The company also has a long history of high-profile sponsorship and endorsement deals. In 1993, Technogym sponsored the Formula One motor racing team Benetton Formula. The company has also been the athletic partner of almost every major Italian professional football team, including Juventus FC, Milan AC and Inter FC, providing equipment and technology to train their players, as well as for the F1 teams Ferrari and McLaren.
Technogym also holds the most nominations as an Official Supplier to the Olympic Games, having been a partner for eight summer & winter games: Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Turin 2006, Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016, Pyeongchang 2018 as well as the upcoming (rescheduled) Tokyo 2021 games.
The company has continued to thrive during the pandemic lockdowns, as the world learnt to work out as well as work from home. Consequently, though the lockdown measures affected Technogym’s B2B business, its home fitness franchise boomed and will likely continue to do so.
- Peter Kaindl – Owner & CEO, Kronospan
Peter Kaindl, the fourth-generation heir to the Kaindl family lumber fortune, is an elusive heavyweight of European industry. The owner and CEO of Kronospan has served in this position since the company’s 1987 inception and is renowned in elite business circles for having expanded Kronospan’s small Austrian and Western European base of his father’s tenure into an international conglomerate with manufacturing centres across Europe with billions of euros in annual revenue.
Kronospan’s roots in the lumber industry date back to the late 19th century. Peter Kaindl started out in the company running the lumber products group alongside his father Matthias Kaindl, gradually taking a more central management role as his father aged. Under Peter the company has harnessed the potential of the European integrated single market to both consolidate its strength in its native industry – becoming the world’s largest manufacturer of wood-based panels – while diversifying itself beyond the primary sector.
Mr. Kaindl also expanded Kronospan beyond its original core lumber products business into banking and investments and directed Kronospan to purchase ECCM Bank PLC in Malta from Austrian multinational financial institution Raiffeisen Bank International AG in 2014.
As European integration began to take shape, Peter Kaindl pushed Kronospan towards owning dozens of wood-based panel manufacturing sites across what was to become the EU, including Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary.
The company also has a presence in the UK, where it established its first overseas operation in 1972 in the former coal mining town of Chirk, North Wales. This manufacturing unit is now one of the top 10 manufacturing companies in Wales and employs more than 600 people, with 90% of the workforce living within a 10-mile radius of the site.
Peter Kaindl is also widely credited for having established successful and stable operations on the outskirts of the European Union, with the Kronospan being heavily invested in Belarus. The country’s President, Alexander Lukashenko, has frequently praised Kronospan and its leader’s honest business ethos.
Peter Kaindl is highly regarded in the country for having harnessed the full potential of its raw materials sector and provided hundreds of jobs for unskilled workers over the course of a decade. Companies such as his are perceived to have helped boost the country’s aspiring reputation for economic stability in the face of external criticism of its leadership.
It is argued that the long-term presence of well-run, EU-centred operations at the heart of the Belarussian manufacturing ecosystem could serve as helpful blueprints for other sectors of the economy. Peter Kaindl is also said to hold close relationships with high-ranking politicians in the Ukraine and Russia, making him well placed to understand the tensions of conflicting visions of industry.
Mr. Kaindl is also known for wielding considerable political influence in his own country, well connected with politicians and officials from both the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and is said to maintain a personal relationship with the Chancellor of Austria, Sebastian Kurz, an ÖVP politician from Vienna.
Outside of business, he is known to be an avid hunter, frequently partaking in rarefied hunting trips across the world.
- Clive Vacher – CEO, De La Rue Plc
De La Rue Plc is a British company headquartered in Basingstoke, England that manufactures polymer and security printed products including banknotes and tax stamps.
The company was founded by Thomas de la Rue, who moved from Guernsey to London in 1821 and set up in business as a ‘Leghorn’ straw hat maker, then as a stationer and printer. In 1831 he secured his business a Royal Warrant to produce playing cards. In 1855 it started printing postage stamps and in 1860 banknotes. The company’s first banknotes were made for Mauritius. In 1896, the family partnership was converted into a private company.
Today, De La Rue manufactures about a third of the world’s banknotes and employs more than 2,500 people. The company was recognized by Hermann Simon as a role model for other small- to medium-sized businesses in his book Hidden ‘Champions’.
It fell into trouble in 2018 however after losing the contract to print British passports to a French company, while its 2019 profit warning flagged an £18m charge related to the failure of the Venezuelan central bank to pay its bills.
After shares fell almost 50%, the company was sought a turnaround specialist as its new chief executive, appointing Clive Vacher as the replacement for Martin Sutherland.
Mr Vacher had significant experience of business transformation from 16 years in senior positions at industrial companies, including jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. He was most recently chief executive of Canadian semiconductor and transistor manufacturer Dynex Power.
He also has extensive experience in running complex P&Ls for global industrial companies in both the commercial and government/defence sectors. He has a track record of turnarounds, international business transformation and strategic development, including leading divisions of international corporations and stand-alone listed companies.
Vacher also boasts an impressive academic record, as an alumnus of MIT, Stanford, Columbia and the LSE and currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Lincoln International Business School at the University of Lincoln, UK.
His turnaround plan featured a set of budget cuts which reached £35m in annual savings, part of a broader plan that has focused on investing in its polymer currency printing, as more countries turn to using longer-lasting plastic banknotes, and its authentication business for goods such as tobacco.
As a consequence, last year the company enjoyed a share price surge, with the cost cuts – which were higher than previous commitments – helping to send shares 21% higher.
Mr Vacher has previously shrugged off fears about the threat of a cashless society, citing increasing demand in developing countries. “We do not see the market as any problem at all for us over the next few years,” he has said.
Earlier this year, De La Rue PLC stated it expects annual profit to be at the top end of forecasts., with adjusted operating profit expected to be between GBP36 million and GBP37 million. This reflects a considerable improvement on the prior year adjusted operating profit of GBP23.7 million.
