Change of management and restructuring at ORION Wholesale

Sven Jacobsen is retiring after being the ORION Wholesale Manager for 30 years. As a result of this, the ORION group’s Purchasing and Wholesale will be merged – under the leadership of Hans-Jürgen Bähr as the „Chief Product Officer (CPO) & Chief Sales Officer B2B (CSO)“. This is how the company is reacting to the changes in the erotic market in the last couple of years. In order to meet the increased and more complex requirements, there will also be further restructuring at ORION Wholesale.

Sven Jacobsen has been closely associated with the ORION group for almost half of his life. A time when a small, internal sales department originally supplied the ORION group’s subsidiary company and which then grew into one of the largest erotic wholesale businesses in Europe. “That was a lovely and intense time,” said Sven Jacobsen, “and it doesn’t feel like work when what you’re doing is fun. However, now is the right time to step down from my active role after 30 years at ORION Wholesale with fantastic colleagues in one of the most interesting industries in the world. I will miss the trade fairs and the numerous trips but above all, I will miss the contact with the customers but I am looking forward to what is to come. And I know that it’s going in the right direction both for me personally and for ORION”.

Maike Rotermund, Managing Director of the ORION group, is sure about this too. Nevertheless, she looks wistfully at Sven Jacobsen’s departure from the company: “Sven has had a strong influence on ORION and our Wholesale – both personally and professionally. I am very grateful to him for that. We would have loved to celebrate his departure all together during a barbeque but Corona has unfortunately thrown a spanner in the works. But we’ll make up for that as soon as we can – and then with the whole team!”

Maike Rotermund wants to set new impulses in the company and the industry with the modified company structure. This is also one of Hans-Jürgen Bähr’s goals as well. Hans-Jürgen Bähr is very familiar with ORION and the industry: next year the qualified business economist will have been part of the ORION team for 25 years. He has been the Purchasing Manager for 20 of those years. Now he is looking forward to a new professional challenge. “It was time to bridge the gap between our Purchasing Department and Wholesale Department,” said Hans-Jürgen Bähr. “This is the only way that a holistic product management is possible for us in the long term – from the creation of ideas and the product development right up to marketing and sales”. In this context, Hans-Jürgen Bähr emphasises the digitalisation of sales as a major task and opportunity for the future – in order to permanently improve the service for the customers and also to conquer new markets and be more broadly positioned internationally. “Not only will we analyse, optimise and significantly tailor our product portfolio to our customers’ needs, but we’ll also enter into new, promising partnerships in the industry,” explains Hans-Jürgen Bähr.

This is why, as „Chief Product Officer (CPO) & Chief Sales Officer B2B (CSO)“, he has a competent management team at his side – this means that they have a total of almost 100 years of experience in the erotic industry. Mark Boderius will now become “Head of Purchase and Product Development” in the Purchasing Department. The former Product Manager therefore takes over the management of the product development and creative department, as well as the disposition. Hauke Christiansen will become “Head of Wholesale Operations” and Björn Radcke will become „Head of Sales & Marketing B2B“ on the Wholesale side. Both of them will also continue their previous jobs as Senior Key Account Managers. ORION Wholesale’s well-known and reliable team will also remain the same. This means that all the ORION Wholesale customers will keep their usual competent and reliable contact person. After all, continuity and personal contact with customers, as well as the extensive bestseller assortment, are what makes ORION Wholesale stand out.