The responsibility is great, as is the expectation: Wolfgang Grupp junior, together with his sister Bonita, continues to run the family business Trigema – and wants to go his own way. Instead of copying the 83-year-old father, the next generation is relying on continuity and new impulses. “Our goal should be to continue to run the company sustainably. I will never be able to match what my father did,” said Grupp junior in the “Entrepreneur Maker” podcast.
He and his sister Bonita, who recently became a mother, have been running the family business in Burladingen ( Zollernalbkreis ) for several years. She heads the areas of online trading, marketing and human resources. Wolfgang Grupp junior is responsible for business customers, IT projects, production and finances.
Preserving what his father created and developing it further is the right path for him, said Grupp junior. “Now we have to do our part.” It’s like a relay race. “You shouldn’t let yourself go crazy. I think, especially in future generations, you build up too much pressure on yourself and you should avoid that.” He and his sister didn’t want to be a copy of their father.
The textile entrepreneur Wolfgang Grupp was born in Burladingen in 1942. The city is located in the Swabian Alb and has just over 12,000 inhabitants. In 1969, Grupp took over the company founded by his grandfather. With an iron hand he led Trigema out of the red.
Trigema is a manufacturer of underwear, leisure and sportswear and advertises that it is 100 percent “Made in Germany”. In 2023, production sales were 129.3 million euros and the number of employees was a good 1,140.
The former Trigema boss made a suicide attempt public in the middle of last year. He thought about whether he was still needed.
