“Securing financial strength means enabling investments”
By Marcus Schick I 6 minute read
24/03/2025
Thomas Hiemer joined the Dachser Executive Board on January 1, 2025, with responsibility for the Excutive Unite Finance, Controlling, Tax & Treasury (FCT). The 41-year-old family man with two children has been at Dachser for twelve years. In this interview, he talks about values-oriented management, figures, and management systems in a family-owned company.
Mr. Hiemer, what makes a good CFO? Is it a deep understanding of the figures, or more how they’re embedded in communications?
Thomas Hiemer: Both are key. For me, understanding the figures goes hand in hand with their embedding and context. It’s what’s driving the figures that makes them interesting, and it’s those drivers that give you room for maneuver and alternative courses of action. The task of a good CFO is to communicate all the options with a view to reaching qualified decisions, and that makes him or her a strategic partner on the Executive Board.
Turning specifically to Dachser, what appeals to you personally about your new role as CFO?
T. Hiemer: Dachser’s success is based on a target-oriented, and value-oriented, management system. That’s something I’ve never seen in this form at any other company. The idea behind it is as simple as it is compelling: decision-makers need experienced sparring partners who understand the operational business and can tease out individual factors from within the financial performance indicators, including the cost of capital so that value-creating investments are promoted. They can then derive recommendations for action from this for the operational and strategic levels. Our efficient financial systems, which the Finance department makes available worldwide, play a central role in this. These systems aren’t just tools for managing figures; they form the backbone for well-founded decisions. Ensuring Dachser’s financial strength in this way makes the job extremely appealing to me.
My drive to optimize things from the point of view of figures and finances is just as strong now as it was on day one.
Before you were appointed to the Dachser Executive Board, you’d already been with the company for twelve years. What was your first impression of Dachser?
T. Hiemer: When I joined Dachser in 2013, a lot was changing: Burkhard Eling was the new CFO. With the acquisition of Azkar, Dachser had just completed its largest corporate takeover to date. The first international units had also just converted to SAP and operational controlling had been transferred to an independent unit. At the time, these were major, epochal changes and upheavals.
From a corporate perspective, but especially from a financial point of view, Dachser was moving away for good from the systems, processes, and organizational forms of a medium-sized company and becoming a global corporation. That was exciting for me back then—and it still is today, because it’s an ongoing process. My drive to optimize things from the point of view of figures and finances is just as strong now as it was on day one. The only difference is that the organization is now much more mature.
How did your career in the company, most recently as Deputy Manager for FCT, prepare you for joining the Executive Board? In what way are you benefiting from that now?
T. Hiemer: Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to be responsible for issues that were close to the CFO. I know the management principles and the systems behind them in detail. The fact that I made bookings in our SAP system myself still stands me in good stead today. Accordingly, my career has certainly been the result of constant development and a maturing process. In particular, the trust that I built up with Mr. Eling over many years made it easier for me to take on the deputy role. I was able to get to know the Executive Board’s work and get familiar with the role without having to be in the front row straight away. The entire Executive Board was supportive of our collaboration during this time, which helped then and continues to help sort through these experiences and draw the right conclusions.
Geopolitical power shifts, smoldering trade and customs conflicts, and a weakening economy in Germany and Europe are the dominant issues of our time. How do they affect DACHSER?
T. Hiemer: We’re dealing with a highly competitive market environment and therefore very price-sensitive customers. At the same time, we have to deliver major investments and cope with higher costs. While that’s nothing new for us, the momentum is increasing. Our advantage is that Dachser has already addressed these various aspects and is tackling them systematically. Based on our finances, we’re in a solid position to overcome these challenges. Dachser is in excellent health and has a high equity ratio.
In profile
Thomas Hiemer, 41, has worked in Dachser’s finance department for twelve years. With a degree in economics, he previously worked at DAX-listed Heidelberg Materials; he also gained relevant experience abroad in the United States and China.
At Dachser, he started off as Head of Group Controlling before taking on the position of Head of Corporate Finance in December 2021. In July 2023, Hiemer was appointed Deputy Director of the Executive Unit.
He became CFO on January 1, 2025, joining the Dachser Executive Board as its youngest member, and is now responsible for the Executive Unit Finance, Controlling, Tax & Treasury (FCT).
What does that means for upcoming investments?
T. Hiemer: In this phase, it’s particularly important to ensure a balance between the financial burden and the need for expenditure. From a financial perspective, we’re always happy to invest money if there’s a corresponding return on investment. Investments that make our operational processes more efficient—such as @ILO, the digital twin in the transit terminal—put us in a position to invest further. This requires consistent prioritization based on a cost-benefit analysis.
What do you want to achieve as CFO at Dachser in the years ahead?
T. Hiemer: In view of the challenges ahead, it will be important to do more to pool our strengths and our expertise in the coming years. It’s unlikely that the economy in our core market of Europe will recover and return to growth in 2025. But we’ve shown that we can deal with those kinds of market challenges and be a reliable partner for our customers. As CFO, I’d like my area of responsibility to play a major role in that. For example, by showing the branches possible alternative courses of action with meaningful analyses from operational controlling. But also by further optimizing our financial processes and becoming more efficient worldwide.
What role does sustainability play in Dachser’s economic success?
T. Hiemer: Sustainability has always been deeply rooted at Dachser, long before a whole multitude of legislative initiatives, directives, and regulations were launched. As a family-owned company, we act on our own initiative to position ourselves for the long term and to operate sustainably for future generations. That means Dachser takes an economic, ecological, and social approach.
Given that we’ve long been committed to this of our own volition and out of a sense of generational responsibility, we’re systematically pressing ahead along our chosen path despite all the bureaucratic hurdles and regulatory complications. As an impulse generator, we want to do our part to drive the development of sustainable technologies.
