Hamburg, 24th November 2022. Europe’s leading online store for garden projects, A-Z GartenHaus GmbH, has brought Stefan Tobel as well as Lucas Heilmann on board as managing directors. Heilmann also acts as COO of the YDEON Group, where GartenHaus is part of.
In 2014, Stefan Tobel was one of the first employees of the fashion retailer About You, which he successfully scaled to become the first Hamburg Unicorn together with Tarek Müller, Sebastian Betz and Hannes Wiese. There, as Shop & BI Director, he was responsible for the development of the online store and business intelligence. His Role covered store software development, personalization, influencer marketing, CRM and data analytics. Prior to that, he already worked in Corporate Strategy at the Otto Group. Before joining GartenHaus, he built up the e-commerce consultancy Etribes together with Spryker founder and serial entrepreneur Nils Seebach, Fabian Fischer, Stefan Luther and Tobias Stamatis. Here, as Senior Partner & Head Digital Product Development, Stefan Tobel advised renowned clients such as Art Basel, KIND, Hapag Lloyd, Swarovski and RB Leipzig on building digital business models and developing online stores and apps. The 38-year-old studied at the FH Nordakademie and earned his MBA at the ESCP Business School Europe in Madrid and Paris. In his free time, he is a big fan of outdoor activities such as kiting and hiking.
Lucas Heilmann brings international management experience. Previously, he was Head of Business Development Operations & Logistics for nobilia, a leading kitchen manufacturer in Europe. Prior to that, the 38-year-old held operational responsibility as Director of Operations & Strategy at Inometa, a medium-sized technology leader for lightweight products, having held various positions in the associated Avanco Group, from Assistant to the CEO to Head of Business Development. In his role as Managing Director of GartenHaus, Lucas Heilmann brings extensive experience in designing value chains with special dimension products in the B2B and direct-to-consumer segments. He is helping to further optimize the Group’s processes and design cross-company scalable end-to-end operations. These positions were filled for the first time. Lucas Heilmann completed his doctorate at the Chair of Sales Management and B2B Marketing at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, following his studies for a degree in industrial engineering at RWTH Aachen University.
Dr. Sebastian Arendt, CEO of the YDEON Group, on the new additions: “We have succeeded in growing strongly in several areas in recent years, despite a very volatile market and difficult general conditions. With Stefan Tobel and Lucas Heilmann, we now complete the management in a new development phase and strengthen our competence with absolute experts in the areas of ecom-tech and distribution networks and supply chain optimization.”
About YDEON
The YDEON Group, headquartered in Hamburg, combines the companies GartenHaus GmbH, Polhus and OutdoorToys under one roof. With over 20 online stores in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Great Britain as well as in Norway, Sweden and Finland, among others, it is Europe’s leading digital platform for all type of garden projects. The company currently realizes completely digital projects for more than 200,000 customers, focusing on garden houses, saunas, pools, carports, greenhouses, patio roofs, children’s play equipment and much more. Either as a do-it-yourself project or as a full-service provider with project support and advice from the building application to the assembly and subsequent maintenance and care of the products. The product range includes over 30,000 items from more than 20 brands. The group employs more than 250 people. More information under www.ydeon.com.
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