Valora Food Service Germany will be under new management from February 2023. Sebastian Kayser, current head of KFC in DACH and Denmark, will then assume the role of Managing Director. He will succeed Karl Brauckmann, who will take on new responsibilities within the Valora Group.
Sebastian Kayser will head up the Valora Food Service Germany business unit, which operates over 600 stores in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands with its BackWerk, Back-Factory and Ditsch formats. He is coming to Valora from YUM! Brands, where he has spent the last two years driving the expansion of the KFC restaurants in the DACH region and Denmark and has been managing KFC’s operations in these markets since 2021 as General Manager. From 2015 to 2020, he held various management positions within the REWE Group in Germany and Austria. Among other things, he was responsible for strategy, finance and the expansion of Penny in Austria. Prior to that, he spent four years leading projects focusing on growth strategies and transformation at Boston Consulting Group. He began his career in 2008 at HSBC in Düsseldorf and London. Sebastian Kayser holds, among other qualifications, a business degree from WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany, and a Marketing MBA from Lancaster University Management School, UK.
Karl Brauckmann has decided to relinquish his role as Managing Director of Valora Food Service Germany. From February 2023, he will focus on overarching strategic business development themes within the Valora Group in a consulting capacity. For more than 15 years, he has played a key role in shaping the BackWerk brand in various management positions and also helped integrate it into the Valora Group following its acquisition in 2017. Karl Brauckmann has been in his current position since 2019. Together with his team, he has further developed the BackWerk concept into a bakery restaurant with an attractive, healthy snack offering. He has also modernised the Ditsch concept in line with changing customer needs. Finally, he accompanied the acquisition and integration of German snack professional Back-Factory, which has been part of Valora since November 2021.
Thomas Eisele, CEO of Valora Food Service, says: “We're pleased to be handing over our B2C business in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands to Sebastian Kayser as part of a harmonious and planned passing of the baton. In him, we've been able to attract an experienced leader with a strong track record. With his extensive experience in the areas of food, retail, strategy and expansion, he will now widely roll out the modernised food service concepts and further strengthen our market position. We're confident that he will succeed and wish him every success.
At the same time, we would like to thank Karl Brauckmann for his strong commitment, which has made a material contribution and created a solid foundation for the positioning and growth of our B2C business. We're delighted to have him stay with Valora to support the Group with his in-depth know-how in strategic projects.”