July 27, 2011

After six interesting years of establishing and developing birgli, Charles Gloor has decided to join Alliance Healthcare, part of Alliance Boots. As a result, Charles resigns as Managing Director of birgli. He remains on the Supervisory Board.  Reiner Gloor will assume the role of Chairman.

Peter Kratz will take over as  Managing Director of birgli on August 1, 2011. Peter (*1953) has been an active member of the birgli network for a number of years. He brings with him 30 years of senior executive management experience. He was most recently the Managing Director of a leading distributor and wholesaler of non-food products to the Swiss grocery retail market. 

Prior to this Peter was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Allreal Group, a listed Swiss real estate company and general contractor.  He also served as CFO for the Watt Group (power production, distribution and trading) and the Swiss Steel Group where he participated in a much discussed successful turnaround. Peter also brings experience from Asia as the CFO of the Zuellig Group, the largest player in pharmaceutical distribution in South East Asia and with businesses spanning feed & flour mills, trading, and other services.

Peter is on the Boards of several smaller and mid-sized Swiss companies. He recently joined the Board of Laona PLC, a leading distributor of pharmaceutical products in the Ukraine, which came about from a successful project with the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Laona in 2010.

Peter has a PhD of Business Administration and Law (Dr. oec. HSG) from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

For more information please contact:

Peter Kratz
Managing Director
pkratz@birgli.com
+41 79 698 8188