Mittelstand: Vorwerk boss: “I see Germany in free fall”

After six years, a new Thermomix is ​​coming onto the market. The well-known food processor is the work of the Wuppertal family company Vorwerk, which also sells the Kobold vacuum cleaner. It is owned by the Mittelsten Scheid family, had a turnover of over 3 billion euros in 2023 and employed more than 100,000 independent salespeople worldwide at the end of 2024. Capital spoke to the CEO before the new Thermomix plans were published.

Capital: Mr. Stoffmehl, a large part of Vorwerk's business is based on product demonstrations, often in the homes of your customers. What makes a good salesperson? Do you also have to be a psychologist? THOMAS STOFFMEHL: We don't require a degree in psychology as an entry criterion. But a good feeling when dealing with people helps a lot. The number of our consultants worldwide is the only important metric for us. Because if we don't manage to expand this community, we won't be able to grow. And direct sales are extremely competitive.

What does that mean in concrete terms? We know this from other sales organizations: are the best salespeople allowed to drive the biggest cars? Yes, cars sometimes play a role in our vacuum cleaner sales. But we also have sales competitions, for example. There is a culture of competition. It is an inherent part of our DNA and our business.

The Temial tea machine is an example of a Vorwerk product that flopped. Why was that? The idea was: why can't Thermomix consultants also sell the Temial? That just doesn't work. People love a product group and they have no interest in expanding it. That was a strategic mistake.

Heilbronn has 130,000 inhabitants and no ICE connection. Nevertheless, the city wants to become a center for start-ups. Can that work?

Many companies are suffering from a shortage of skilled workers. Is it difficult for Vorwerk to find self-employed people for sales? We are not experiencing this shortage at all, not even in employee positions.

There are many other complaints from companies at the moment, for example about excessive bureaucracy. What is your view of Germany as a business location? There are some issues that I think are a disaster. Germany is slipping down the list of the most attractive business locations. I still see it in free fall. I hope that a stable government can find a solution. In my view, there are essentially three issues: Firstly, entrepreneurship does not have the necessary status in Germany. Promoting it is not anchored in our DNA. The second point: everyone talks about reducing bureaucracy. But in fact this reduction in bureaucracy is not happening . It is a schizophrenic situation. The third point is the completely misguided energy policy; we are catapulting ourselves completely out of the market with these energy prices. In France we are currently building a second Thermomix factory. As far as energy prices are concerned, we find completely different conditions there. That is an incredible location advantage.