Perlen Industrieholding AG appoints Florian Geiger as its new CEO

Perlen, 26 March 2025 – As already announced in January 2025, Peter Schildknecht is to step down from his duties as CEO of Perlen Industrieholding AG and focus more on strategic tasks. The Board of Directors has now appointed Florian Geiger as his successor. Geiger will join the company – which comprises Perlen Papier AG and the real-estate assets at the Perlen industrial site – on 1 May 2025, and will assume his new CEO duties on 12 May 2025.

Florian Geiger has been serving in various capacities at the Lucerne-based Swiss Steel Group since 2013, most recently as Chief Commercial Officer for Quality and Engineering Steel and a member of the Executive Board. Prior to this, he served as CEO of Emmenbrücke-based Steeltec AG. He began his professional career with management consultants Roland Berger in Munich, Germany.

Florian Geiger will take over from Peter Schildknecht as CEO of Perlen Industrieholding AG on 12 May 2025. Peter Schildknecht will remain fully responsible for the Perlen Industrieholding AG through the Annual General Meeting for the 2024 financial year. He will then step down after the 2025 Annual General Meeting. Florian Geiger will also assume executive charge of Perlen Papier AG from Klemens Gottstein on 12 May 2025. Klemens Gottstein has headed Perlen Papier AG since 2012, and has been instrumental during his tenure in further developing and refining its paper business. After familiarizing Florian Geiger with his new Perlen Papier responsibilities, Klemens Gottstein will retire later this year.

Parallel to CEO Peter Schildknecht’s departure, Gerold Brütsch will step down as CFO of Perlen Industrieholding AG. He will be succeeded in this capacity by Jürg Müller, Head of Finance at Perlen Papier AG, who will assume these new CFO duties in addition to his Perlen Papier AG function. Gerold Brütsch will remain CFO of the stock exchange-listed CPH Group AG.

“We look forward to welcoming Florian Geiger to Perlen Industrieholding AG,” says Chairman of the Board of Directors Peter Schaub. “He brings with him an impressive track record from the steel industry, which has many parallels with the paper business. He is also well familiar with the nature and the challenges of a company operating in tough predatory competition. Our Board of Directors is convinced that, with his strategic and technical knowledge and his extensive experience, Florian Geiger is ideally equipped to help further strengthen Perlen Industrieholding AG and its market position in the years ahead.”

“Klemens Gottstein has shown great skill and expertise in guiding Perlen Papier AG since 2012 through a time of sizeable consolidation pressures within the paper manufacturing industry, and has done so with a firm focus on our customers and on achieving solid financial results in a cyclical business sector,” Peter Schaub continues. “Over the course of his tenure he has positioned Perlen Papier as a sustainable provider of wood-based graphic papers and, in doing so, he has given the company a clear differentiation in a fiercely competitive market. I take the opportunity already to express to Klemens Gottstein, on behalf of our Board of Directors, our sincere thanks and appreciation for all his great commitment and his valuable contribution to the company’s success. We wish him all the very best in his well-earned retirement.”

“I am very pleased to take on the responsibility as CEO of Perlen Industrieholding AG and of Perlen Papier AG and I am convinced that, despite digitalization, newsprint and magazine paper products will continue to enjoy solid demand,” says Florian Geiger. “And with its cost leadership strategy, Perlen Papier is well positioned and equipped to continue to operate successfully in the relevant markets. In addition, the Perlen industrial site also offers our company attractive further utilization potential which we now need to carefully develop and exploit. And I am very excited to have this opportunity to lead Perlen Industrieholding AG into the future, together with our Board of Directors, our management team and our personnel corps.”

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