Reiner Eckhardt has taken over the management of the Caramba Chemie Group, which offers a wide range of specialty chemical products for cleaning, care, maintenance, surface treatment and industrial parts cleaning, effective June 1, 2021. The company employs around 700 people in 7 European countries.
The internationally experienced manager is very familiar with both the industry and the group, as he previously headed the business of KENT, one of the two strong brands of the Caramba Chemie Group alongside Caramba, for six years as Managing Director.
“Reiner Eckhardt has international experience, is passionate about his work and is a seasoned leader in the specialty chemicals industry,” says Christoph Möltgen, Executive Board Member of the Berner Group.
Eckhardt, who lives in Dortmund, can look back on more than 30 years of professional experience in Germany and abroad. During his career he was responsible for well-known traditional brands and companies, including Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, Wacom Europe, Office Depot and SMEAD, and held various management positions for Operations, Multi-Channel Sales as well as Sales & Marketing. At the globally active machine manufacturer intimus International GmbH, he succeeded in completely turning the company around in just two years. At KENT, too, he proved his entrepreneurial expertise and consistently drove the economic success since 2015. Just like Caramba Chemie, a business unit of the Caramba Chemie Group, the KENT business unit used the pandemic as an opportunity under his leadership and developed faster and more profitably than the market in 2020/2021.
“I am very pleased that my journey in the Berner Group will continue and that I will get the great opportunity to set new impulses for the Caramba Chemie Group. There is immense potential in the company and both brands and I am excited to meet all new and familiar colleagues in the KENT and Caramba team to jointly develop and implement strategies that will drive each company in our group forward.”
— Reiner Eckhardt
