Rossmann: Germany's drugstore founder stepped back at 75 with no public feud

Dirk Rossmann built the drugstore chain that bears his name from 1972, growing it into one of Europe's largest pharmacy and drugstore retailers. His timing was fortunate: as drugstores were allowed to stay open through Germany's lockdowns, group revenue rose 3.5% to €10.35 billion in 2020, helped by corona ranges like rapid tests and masks and by the closure of non-essential retail.

On September 6, 2021, the Dirk Rossmann GmbH announced in Burgwedel near Hanover that the founder, then 75, would leave operational management on September 30, 2021. The company's new spokesman would be his younger son Raoul Rossmann, 36 — not a surprise appointment, since Raoul had been a managing director for purchasing and marketing since 2015 and, as the company put it, had for years been shaping the chain's operations.

The ownership architecture had been defused in advance. The family holding, Rossmann Beteiligungs GmbH — 100% owned by Dirk, Raoul and Dirk's elder son Daniel, and holding 60% of the drugstore chain itself — was sorted early: Raoul holds 49% after taking over the shares of his mother Alice, while his half-brother Daniel never showed any ambition for the top job. The FAZ called it a 'flowing transition' without publicly aired conflict, though it cautioned that the real stress test of the second generation lay ahead.

Dirk Rossmann did not cut ties: he stayed on the chain's advisory board and remained managing director and spokesman of the family holding, saying he wanted to devote more time to writing books. Raoul — a master's graduate of the University of Westminster described by business partners as more reserved than his father but at least as tough a negotiator — had already made his mark publicly campaigning to constrain Amazon-like market power and for a levy on dominant digital companies.

One of Europe's largest drugstore chains passed to the second generation without public dispute, on pandemic-year revenue of €10.35 billion, up 3.5% in 2020.

The heir had six years of line management behind him — purchasing and marketing — so the title change formalized authority he already exercised rather than creating it overnight.

Ownership was settled while relations were good: the mother's shares passed to Raoul early and the half-brother opted out of contention, removing the two classic triggers of family-firm wars.

A fixed exit date at 75 let the founder leave the operating business without leaving the firm — he kept the advisory board and the family holding to chair.

Handing over on an upswing, with pandemic-era sales at record levels, meant the second generation inherited momentum rather than a turnaround that would blame the new man.

Quiet successions are engineered: run the heir through line management for years, sort holding-company shares while everyone still speaks, and let the founder exit on a fixed date with a role left.

Raoul Rossmann took the management spokesman role on October 1, 2021, with his father remaining on the advisory board and at the head of the family holding company. The FAZ's verdict at the time was that family and founder had done much right, but that the chain's second-generation leadership would face its true test against scaled online competition — a contest Raoul had already been arguing about in public.