- Philippe Op de Beeck joins as Chief Executive Officer on April 4
- Steffen Bätjer joins as Chief Financial Officer on March 1
- Ex-CEO Ralf Bender to support APCOA as Senior Advisor
Stuttgart, 1 March 2016 – APCOA PARKING Group, Europe’s leading parking services provider, has appointed Philippe Op de Beeck (54) as its new Chief Executive Officer. Furthermore, Steffen Bätjer (46) joins the company as CFO as of 1 March 2016. Mr. Op de Beeck joins APCOA on April 4 and brings 25 years of experience in a range of pan-European and global companies.
He joins from international catering company Compass Group, where the last three years he was Group Managing Director for Asia Pacific after two years in a similar role in Europe. Prior to this he was EMEA President at Gategroup, an airline services company, and Senior Vice President at automation manufacturer Swisslog. He has also held senior roles at Renault Credit International, Axus International, Hertz Rent a Car and Unilever. He has considerable experience in leading service business organisations, and a strong track record in driving profitable growth in contracting businesses, enhancing the full potential of the service offering for customers.
Mr. Bätjer joins APCOA from Techem, having spent over six years as CFO at the energy management solutions provider. Before his time at Techem, he held senior finance positions at WestLB and Universal Music, and started his career at management consultants McKinsey&Co. His experience in contract businesses, complemented by a strong commercial, strategic and analytical skill set is perfectly suited to help APCOA deliver its strategic growth plan.
Nick Buckles, Chairman of the advisory board of APCOA, commented: “We are delighted to welcome Philippe Op de Beeck and Steffen Bätjer to APCOA. Philippe has the proven capabilities required to drive exceptional business performance by creating strategic clarity, driving commercialisation and customer focus, while ensuring disciplined execution. Steffen brings a strong track record of delivering operational excellence and business transformations in contract businesses. We believe that their combined experience from leading service and contract business organisations will ensure that APCOA continues to be the European industry leader and deliver on our strategic targets.”
Philippe Op de Beeck said: “I am delighted to join APCOA as CEO and contribute my experience to grow and strengthen the company further. The business is well-positioned to capture new opportunities and I am confident that we have the team and resources to gain a greater foothold in our core European markets. I look forward to working with the APCOA team as we take the company to the next stage of development.”
Mr. Buckles added: “We thank outgoing CEO Ralf Bender and CFO Nicolas Reinhart for their important roles and their contributions to maintaining the stable platform and strong performance that APCOA has seen during the last year. We are grateful that Ralf will remain involved as a Senior Advisor to APCOA and that the company will continue to benefit from his experience. Nicolas will remain with the company until the end of March, ensuring a smooth handover to the new management team.”
Ralf Bender said: “After the successful recapitalization of APCOA in 2014 and the completion of the operational turnaround last year, I hand over a solid platform ready for further growth to Philippe Op de Beeck. Having navigated the company for the past five and a half years, I am now ready to approach new entrepreneurial challenges. At the same time, I am pleased to continue to support APCOA as a Senior Advisor going forward.”
Since its restructuring in 2014, APCOA has seen solid performance in revenues, profitability and cash flow. In 2015, EBITDA grew by about 7% to approx. EUR 59 million while EBIT rose by 20% to more than EUR 35 million. At the end of 2015, the company had a very healthy cash balance of more than EUR 50 million.
