Shaping the future with positive energy
BayWa: a global agricultural trader
Agriculture experienced a renaissance due to increasing demand for agricultural commodities around the world and new opportunities in renewable energies.
In 2012, BayWa, Europe’s largest agricultural trader, became a global player. The company bought the supply-chain manager Cefetra B.V. and a majority holding in the northern German company Bohnhorst Agrarhandel GmbH. These acquisitions were the gateway to global grain markets for BayWa.
What was particularly significant about the largest agricultural acquisitions in the company’s 90-year history, however, was the future global focus of its grain trading arm. As agricultural commodities were in increasingly short supply due to the growing population and their use in energy production, global collection and distribution were of huge strategic importance for BayWa.
Joining the Kiwis with expansion Down Under
The company also focused on internationalisation in conventional agriculture. The group announced its expansion into global fruit markets in 2011. The acquisition of Turners and Growers Ltd, the market leader in the New Zealand fruit business, was the biggest international transaction for BayWa so far and its ticket to the global fruit business.
Leading with positive energy
From wind farms in Scotland and Texas and solar parks in Spain to the photovoltaic business in the US, renewable energies were one of the most important areas of expansion and internationalisation for BayWa.
Starting in 2009, BayWa began acquiring a number of leading project-development and trading companies in the fields of solar parks and wind farms, along with biogas plants and photovoltaic plants, such as RENERCO and MHH Solartechnik.
Green electricity and gas rounded out BayWa’s wide range of renewable energy products.
In late 2012, BayWa pooled its renewable energy business activities under a single umbrella brand. BayWa r.e. renewable energy took over the companies that were active in this business field. These individual companies, which continue to do business with their own logos, such as MHH Solartechnik GmbH or r.e Bioenergie GmbH, will in future be known as BayWa r.e. renewable energy. Selected foreign companies, such as Focused Energy or Techno Spot, will add “a BayWa r.e. company” to their current names. The claim of the new group brand makes it clear what BayWa aims to do: Making energy better.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow: Trust. Solidity. Innovation.
Today’s strategy focuses on international expansion in BayWa’s core segments: Agriculture, Building Materials and Energy.
The company can build on a strong brand and corporate values that have been firmly established for decades: Trust. Solidity. Innovation.
These strong brands, lasting values, successful business development and the company’s constant leadership role in global growth segments ensure that BayWa AG can celebrate its 90th anniversary excellently positioned and with bright prospects for the future.
New claim: unity for success.
BayWa stands for unity with the region, its customers and its employees. The claim "Unity for success" is born in 2017 and picks up on what BayWa has stood for for 95 years: trust, solidity and innovation.
Digitization: First digital general meeting.
The decade is marked by the ongoing digitalisation. E-commerce offers, smart farming, agricultural robots, a fuel card app or a digital home configurator are just a few examples which can now be found in the business units of BayWa. With its Innovation & Digitisation development segment, BayWa not only takes account of the dynamic nature of this area but also underscores its strategic importance for the company as a whole. A novelty in the year 2020: For the first time in the almost 100-year history of BayWa, the Annual General Meeting will be held virtually on 28 July.
100 years of BayWa - Where worlds meet.
For 100 years, we have been doing what we do best: Turning ideas into reality. Nothing moves us more than change. We have been driving it forward for 100 years. In doing so, we reliably provide people with everything they need to live: Food, energy and housing.
BayWa on the move: A new Board of Management for the Group
Since April 2023, a new Board of Management team has been managing the business of BayWa AG: Marcus Pöllinger will become Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO, taking over responsibility for the entire BayWa Group. He succeeds outgoing Chairman of the Board of Management Professor Klaus-Josef Lutz. CFO Andreas Helber remains Chief Financial Officer. Dr Marlen Wienert is a new member of the Board. Reinhard Wolf, who heads the Austrian sister group RWA as CEO, will remain a member of the Board of Management as before.