Hamburg, June 4, 2025 – The Biesterfeld Group has restructured its business into seven business units and intends to further accelerate its global growth trajectory. A particular focus has recently been on the reorganization of the polymers business. In future, this will be developed in the Standard Polymers, Engineered Polymers and Performance Polymers business units. The Medical Polymers business will be integrated into the HealthCare business unit. The family-owned company is also becoming even more market-oriented, customercentric and efficient by creating new global segments for the polymers business.
The Biesterfeld Group, one of the leading international distributors, already bundled its specialty chemicals business in the Consumer (LifeScience, Nutrition, Essentials), Industrial (Performance Products, CASE, Polymer Additives) and HealthCare business units in addition to the Rubber business unit. As the medical polymers business, like that of specialty chemicals, is heavily influenced by regulation, it will now be fully integrated into the HealthCare business unit and developed by Hartmut Zeller as Global Business Director. In addition, Standard Polymers, Engineered Polymers and Performance Polymers will be added as three further independent business units, for which Jonas Borgsten (ad interim), Martin Rathke and Frank Johänning assume responsibility as Global Business Directors. New global go-to-market strategies have been developed for the new business units and the organizational structure has been adapted.
New market segments: increasing global consulting expertise for key industries
Biesterfeld has extensive market knowledge, know-how and application expertise and is now further expanding these in the specialty business through six global segments: Mobility, Electrical & Electronics, Industrial & Consumer, Fluid Management, Aero & Defense and Medical Polymers. Global Segment Managers work with international teams to follow trends, innovation and growth potential to provide teams and customers with even more individual, segment-specific advice, comprehensive services and product portfolios.
New sales structure: global organization - local, individual customer care
The global sales organization has been restructured. Country locations and sales regions have been even better interconnected in order to achieve more synergies in market development and customer service. In addition to the account manager as the central customer contact, business development managers and technical sales experts with highly specialized market and application expertise in the segments and the relevant product portfolio will be able to offer customers locally even more focused and targeted advice on individual product requirements and solutions. This also includes the topic of sustainability - especially in Europe, the ever-increasing regulatory requirements have a significant impact on production and business development and play a key role in the future competitiveness of suppliers and customers. "The market situation is still very tense worldwide and the chemical industry is in a state of upheaval. The situation is particularly challenging in the polymers sector. For us at Biesterfeld, we see this above all as an opportunity. With the realignment of our polymers business, we are acting in an even more customer-centric way and can adapt more flexibly to market dynamics,“ explains Stephan Glander, CEO of Biesterfeld SE, and emphasizes: ”We are a solid family business and a reliable partner for our customers and suppliers. We are consistently pursuing our growth strategy in all business units and aim to become a global benchmark as a distributor in terms of customer orientation, product portfolio and service offering."
About Biesterfeld SE
Biesterfeld SE is the holding company of the Biesterfeld Group, one of the international leading distribution and service companies in the field of plastics, rubber and specialty chemicals. Founded in 1906 in Hamburg, Germany, today the group has more than 1100 employees across more than 50 locations in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa and generates an annual revenue of 1.38 billion EUR (FY 2023). The fully family-owned company focuses on specialized market knowhow, application-based technical advice and services and offers comprehensive product portfolios across numerous industries in the business units Standard Polymers, Engineered Polymers, Performance Polymers, HealthCare, Consumer, Industrial and Rubber.
