Structure and Management

Our corporate constitution and management structures reflect the group's commitment to quality and our decentralised approach.

Our corporate constitution is set out in an agreement which is valid until 2020. This document commits the family shareholders to maintain the interests of the company. A supervisory board made up of five members with a majority of non-family members ensures the precedence of business interests over family interests.

Dividend restrictions are in place so that company profits are in very large part set aside for future investment. Our investment policy favours long-term security over short-term profits. The group’s financial policy follows international standards and aims to provide flexibility and independence for our publishing companies.

The management board reports to the supervisory board in all key matters. The distribution of responsibilities ensures that information and decision-making paths always remain short and close to the actual business in both functional terms (i.e. by business area) and local terms (i.e. by country and region). The management board fulfils its tasks as part of the holding company by seeking to motivate the management teams of each subsidiary to pursue their own strategic and creative development. The management board of the holding company plans and provides the financial and human resources and other services required to meet these ends.