Lord of the Buns: Heiner Kamps turns 65

Self-made millionaire and bread king – at the turn of the millennium, baker’s son Heiner Kamps more or less created a European bakery empire out of nothing. Even today, more than 400 branches in Germany still bear his name. The rest is history. On May 25th, the former Lord of the Buns celebrates his 65th birthday

No one else shaped the baking industry like Heiner Kamps did between 1982 and 2000. The career of the later “bread roll king” began rather inconspicuously in the bakery as an apprentice. This was followed by a master’s certificate and a degree in business administration. In 1982 he opened his first own bakery in Düsseldorf.

That should only be the beginning. 15 years later the bread baker had become a millionaire and the sales of the Kamps empire already reached more than 300 million Deutschmarks (over 150 million euros). “I breathed a lot of flour,” said the entrepreneur about these early years.

From the bakery to the stock exchange

But Kamps wanted more. In April 1998, he became the first large baker to go public. Once again, the entrepreneur showed the right nose. The share price soared. Overnight, the baker became a star on the stock exchange. “Kamps has managed to make a bakery stock as attractive as an internet paper,” says Mark Tüngler, chief executive of the German Association for the Protection of Securities, astonished today.

With the millions raised by the IPO, Kamps once again went on a shopping spree. In less than two years, he took over eleven bakery chains with almost 1,500 sales outlets. Kamps bought large industrial bakeries and ventured abroad. But the flight of fancy did not last long. Some large purchases abroad proved to be difficult to digest. The stock collapsed and the darling suddenly became a takeover candidate itself.

Barilla takes over

In the summer of 2002, the Italian pasta giant Barilla took control of the Kamps empire and paid 1.8 billion euros for it. The founder left the company a little later. According to newspaper reports, Kamps himself was said to have earned around 60 million euros from the sale of his share package.

“The Kamps story was a great success, even if the hostile takeover was certainly not in my spirit in the end,” said the millionaire in retrospect today. Since a competition clause in the purchase contract initially prohibited further activities in the baking area, he looked for other employment fields, joined the fish restaurant chain Nordsee and later took over the management of the company empire of Müller-Milch founder Theo Müller.

“I will never stop working”

Since the beginning of 2019, he has been concentrating entirely on his own business. No trace of retirement. “I will never stop working,” Kamps told the German press agency. The entrepreneur sees great opportunities in the Corona crisis, in addition to all negative aspects. This is especially true in the bakery business.

Because of the crisis, many retailers would have to give up and rents in city centers would come under pressure. This opened up opportunities for cafes and bakeries to open shops in attractive locations that they could not have previously afforded.