From 30 to 160 million in 22 years
Erwin Bachmann will soon be handing over the management of LZ Medien. Since 1987, he has transformed the Lucerne-based media company into a multimedia group and increased its turnover fivefold.
Although LZ Medien generated record sales of CHF 157.3 million (+5.5 percent) in the 2008 financial year, it only posted a small consolidated profit of CHF 0.6 million due to a sharp drop in the financial result. This can be put into perspective insofar as it is currently not an actual financial loss, but rather a balance sheet depreciation. And the 2008 operating profit (EBITDA) of 21.8 million Swiss francs was still good. Nevertheless, the 96 percent drop in profits is annoying, as it represents the only "blot" in the copybook of CEO Erwin Bachmann, who has managed the Lucerne media company for over 20 years, but will largely withdraw from day-to-day business at the end of May. The 63-year-old has been proposed as Hans Kaufmann's successor as Chairman of the Board of Directors of LZ Medien Holding.
Bachmann, who joined the former Vaterland as a director in 1987, has an impressive track record. Group sales grew from 30 million francs to almost 160 million francs today, and group profit reached a record 14.9 million francs in 2007. During the same period, there were two newspaper mergers in Central Switzerland (1991 and 1996) in which Bachmann was involved. But in commercial printing, too, the task was to gradually build up what is now the largest commercial printing company in Central Switzerland, Multicolor Print AG in Baar, from six companies.
Diversification has paid off
During the economic downturn at the beginning of the new millennium, LZ Medien was one of the few Swiss publishing houses not to suffer any damage. The reason: Bachmann diversified early on and turned the traditional publishing house with small holdings in electronic media into a multimedia group with a daily newspaper including a Sunday edition, a stake in the Anzeiger, a specialist magazine publisher, Radio Pilatus, the online platform Zisch, picture calendar producer Calendaria and the Internet printing company Maxiprint.ch. Today, the Group generates a good third of its turnover from non-newspaper activities. The fact that he has now also been able to buy the Central Swiss TV station Tele Tell from Peter Wanner and thus complete the multimedia portfolio of LZ Medien shortly before his departure fills the rather reserved Bachmann with satisfaction - this is evident in his conversation.
The change in shareholders from Ringier to NZZ also took place during Bachmann's time, with the important difference that Ringier held a 49 percent stake in the LZ subsidiary and cash cow Neue Luzerner Zeitung AG, while NZZ acquired a stake in LZ Medien Holding, in which it now owns 63 percent. If the shareholders of LZ Medien approve the proposed dividend of CHF 60, NZZ will receive almost CHF 3 million from Lucerne.
Bachmann still considers it "absolutely right" that LZ launched Zentralschweiz am Sonntag (ZaS) last fall - at the beginning of the crisis - because, in his view, Sunday is definitely an advertising and readership market. In addition, a Sunday edition should always be seen as a long-term investment. He is pleased that there were hardly any shifts in advertising from the weekday to the Sunday edition. "On the contrary, the ZaS brought us back customers that we hadn't had during the week for some time," he says. These include ads for cars and other campaigns that are typically placed in the Sunday press. In total, ZaS generated around CHF 2.1 million in additional income between its launch in September and the end of 2008.
Bachmann, who joined the former Vaterland as a director in 1987, has an impressive track record. Group sales grew from 30 million francs to almost 160 million francs today, and group profit reached a record 14.9 million francs in 2007. During the same period, there were two newspaper mergers in Central Switzerland (1991 and 1996) in which Bachmann was involved. But in commercial printing, too, the task was to gradually build up what is now the largest commercial printing company in Central Switzerland, Multicolor Print AG in Baar, from six companies.
Diversification has paid off
During the economic downturn at the beginning of the new millennium, LZ Medien was one of the few Swiss publishing houses not to suffer any damage. The reason: Bachmann diversified early on and turned the traditional publishing house with small holdings in electronic media into a multimedia group with a daily newspaper including a Sunday edition, a stake in the Anzeiger, a specialist magazine publisher, Radio Pilatus, the online platform Zisch, picture calendar producer Calendaria and the Internet printing company Maxiprint.ch. Today, the Group generates a good third of its turnover from non-newspaper activities. The fact that he has now also been able to buy the Central Swiss TV station Tele Tell from Peter Wanner and thus complete the multimedia portfolio of LZ Medien shortly before his departure fills the rather reserved Bachmann with satisfaction - this is evident in his conversation.
The change in shareholders from Ringier to NZZ also took place during Bachmann's time, with the important difference that Ringier held a 49 percent stake in the LZ subsidiary and cash cow Neue Luzerner Zeitung AG, while NZZ acquired a stake in LZ Medien Holding, in which it now owns 63 percent. If the shareholders of LZ Medien approve the proposed dividend of CHF 60, NZZ will receive almost CHF 3 million from Lucerne.
Bachmann still considers it "absolutely right" that LZ launched Zentralschweiz am Sonntag (ZaS) last fall - at the beginning of the crisis - because, in his view, Sunday is definitely an advertising and readership market. In addition, a Sunday edition should always be seen as a long-term investment. He is pleased that there were hardly any shifts in advertising from the weekday to the Sunday edition. "On the contrary, the ZaS brought us back customers that we hadn't had during the week for some time," he says. These include ads for cars and other campaigns that are typically placed in the Sunday press. In total, ZaS generated around CHF 2.1 million in additional income between its launch in September and the end of 2008.
Last autumn, Bachmann initiated an investment of CHF 15 million in the printing sector, which will make Multicolor Print's commercial printing plant and Calendaria the most modern production facilities of their kind in Switzerland. In addition, an acquisition was made last year in the specialist publishing sector (ttmedia in Zurich), which means that the Lucerne-based company now has sites in a total of nine cantons. "However, we are now also considering consolidating the specialist publishing business in the Multicolor building in Baar," says Erwin Bachmann.
Markus Knöpfli
Markus Knöpfli
