Maximilian Kleinert Appointed to Manufactum’s Management Board
Effective 1 September 2025, Maximilian Kleinert has been appointed to the Management Board of Manufactum GmbH, joining Alexander Peters and Kai Steffan. In this unique Otto Group subsidiary, known for its distinctive product range, he will be responsible for further developing the company’s presence in defined expansion markets.
Maximilian Kleinert, who holds a degree in business administration, began his career in investment banking in Frankfurt after completing his Master’s in International Business Finance in Maastricht, Netherlands. In 2012, he joined EY in Hamburg. In June 2017, Kleinert joined the Otto Group’s corporate strategy team, where he led significant portfolio projects, most recently overseeing the sale of Sportscheck in 2020 as a department head. In March 2021, he assumed the role of Chief of Staff, reporting directly to Sergio Bucher, Group Executive Board Member for Brands and Retail, focusing on implementing the Otto Group’s investment and internationalization strategy. In 2023, Kleinert became Director of Business Change at Freemans Grattan Holding in Bradford, UK, where he played a key role in the company’s technology transformation.
“At the Otto Group, we are focusing more than ever on scaling successful business models. Specifically, we aim to diversify internationally and increase our market share in Europe and the USA in the medium to long term. We are confident that Manufactum’s commitment to high-quality, functional, and repairable products will inspire customers outside Germany and Austria to adopt more conscious consumption habits, offering them a welcome alternative to ubiquitous, fast-moving mass-market goods,” says Sergio Bucher, Otto Group Executive Board Member for Brands and Retail.
More and more people are seeking products that endure and brands they can trust. For this reason, Manufactum’s presence will be expanded and further developed over the coming years, for example in the Benelux countries and Denmark. Already today, the Otto Group delights over 45 million customers worldwide with its high-quality products, unique product ranges, and differentiated services.
“I am confident that Maximilian Kleinert will be an excellent addition to the current Manufactum management team. With his extensive international leadership experience, proven digital expertise, and great passion for Manufactum’s product range, he brings precisely the right skills to scale our business with ‘good things’ in the targeted markets. I wish him much success and a sure hand in his new position,” adds Sergio Bucher.
The responsibilities of Alexander Peters and Kai Steffan remain unchanged by this expansion of the management board. Kai Steffan takes over as Chairman of the Manufactum management board.
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Thomas Voigt
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About Otto Group
With a strong heritage as a family business and firmly rooted values, the Otto Group is looking to the future with confidence. Over the past 75 years, the company has developed from a catalog-based mail order company into an international digital retail and services group with 36,300 employees and a large number of key companies, brands and holdings in over thirty countries, primarily in Germany, the rest of Europe and North America. Its business activities extend to the Platforms, Brand Concepts, Retailers, Services and Financial Services segments. In the 2024/25 financial year (ending February 28), the Otto Group generated revenues of 15 billion euros. As the largest online retailer of European origin, it is shaping the digital retail and digital services of the future by drawing on its strength, market significance and values. Driven by a passionate and entrepreneurial performance culture, the Group is exploiting its vast market expertise and technological competence to inspire its many millions of customers with high-quality products, unique choice of goods and an array of services. The Otto Group is proof that a value-oriented approach and business success can go hand in hand. Environmental protection has been another corporate objective since 1986. It takes its ecological, social and digital responsibility seriously – and will continue to do so.