90 years young by now, the company is getting more and more beautiful! Around 2013, the "Orangerie" is built in the garden of the villa as a replacement for the canteen in the turret villa. The "Girl in the Snow" by Martin Lersch watches the employees eat.
2012 He who sleeps too long is finally dead ...
Or: why medium-sized companies that don't want to be swept off the market should think about the participation of an investor ... From a "think piece" by Peter Overlack, written on December 5, 2012:
"No matter how we pedal along, Stockmeier and Overlack, each on our own and each for easily 20 years now – we still do not play a leading role in the context of chemical distribution today, which has positioned itself Europe-wide or even globally. This is done by other companies – companies that have aligned themselves more specifically and consistently to this goal, and which thus correspond more closely to the structures that are perceived to be correct today. These companies, no more than a handful of units, achieve good growth results and also good profit figures. Their margins are somewhat higher than the results we achieve. I can say that at least for Overlack. But I consider the 'profit capability' of a company to be THE CENTRAL DEVELOPMENT CRITERION.
What is also very important: The large suppliers register very carefully who from the circle of distributors stands out in this direction – and which large bunch of medium-sized companies sleep on complacently and comfortably. If I may say so. And they are organizing their distribution channels more and more in the direction that suits the few large players operating across Europe."
Participation in DEST Lösemittelrecycling GmbH
today: OQEMA Process, Germany
One question has really been considered for decades in this company: that of the "right" name.
Nomen est Omen, Peter Overlack writes to his sisters Anne and Eva
2013 The naming question – a lonely decision
Especially the questions that exceed the everyday business – such as the introduction of a new company name - should be thoroughly considered. From a conversation note by Peter Overlack in November 2013 – the change of name of Overlack AG to OQEMA will not take place until 5 years later:
"In this far-reaching context, we should once again deal creatively with the Overlack name issue. We are faced with the situation of buying companies in Europe that have common sensible names, Telko in Finland, Arcon in Norway, Quaron in France ... The first thing we have to do is to tell these companies that they will be called 'Overlack' in the future – at best a 2- name for a chemical distribution company. Now (and only now) is the opportunity to consistently row away for the first time and to creatively realign within the framework of finding a brand name, a brand.
From the countless proposals of Nomina AG from Switzerland in the early 90s, the name OKEMA has remained in my memory. It has the advantage that the O of Overlack appears in the name – and the addition of KEMA refers to chemistry. OKEMA, sonorous, short, catchy, melodic – much better than Overlack.
I think the enforcement of this idea must remain a lonely decision. To democratize it and to get backing from countless employee circles again and again is simply wrong.[...] A historic hour – decided and proclaimed. Let's see how we manage to implement it clearly and consistently."
Foundation of the company in Austria
today: OQEMA, Austria
On the road together from now on: Jürgen von Wendorff (Board of Management of Hannover Finanz) and Peter Overlack in front of the villa and in the warehouse
2014 Hannover Finanz comes on board
Hannover Finanz is coming on board as an investor whose capital contribution should enable greater leaps in development in the coming years. Jürgen von Wendorff, who will accompany Hannover Finanz's involvement with Overlack on the company's supervisory board, knows one thing for sure: "Only those who think outside the box can be successful." He is confident that he has found the right partner for this in Peter Overlack.
From now on, the Overlack family of owners will manage the company from a newly founded umbrella company, thus forming a family office that will resume the old name of "Gebrüder Overlack".
Acquisition of all shares in Novochem Hungary
today: Novochem, Hungary
Acquisition of all shares in Pecsi Agroker
today: Pecsi Agroker, Hungary
Acquisition of all shares in Novochem Romania
today: OQEMA, Romania
Peter Overlack and Jürgen von Wendorff tell of the negotiations between OQEMA AG and Hannover Finanz that preceded their temporary marriage – in the process they also reveal what they value about each other and where their joint journey should lead.
In some places on this earth, corporate shopping is particularly fun, even if you have to wear a mask – for example in Barcelona. Here, Proquibasa's employees wave and laugh with Peter Overlack in the spring of 2021 ...
2015 Growth III
With the acquisition of Lansdowne Chemicals in the United Kingdom, the first decisive step toward Western Europe is taken in 2015. The new goal of the financially stronger company is its presence throughout Europe.
In the following years, there are further start-ups and company acquisitions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Italy, Ireland, Switzerland, France, Spain and Denmark.
Purchase of K.H. Klink Chemierohstoffe GmbH, Stuttgart
today: OQEMA Contract GmbH, Germany
Foundation of Overlack-Klink AG, Switzerland
today: OQEMA Contract GmbH, Switzerland
Purchase RTG, Ludwigshafen
today: OQEMA Terminal GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
Purchase Lansdowne Chemicals, Great Britain
today: OQEMA, Great Britain
Purchase Lansdowne Chemicals Europe, NL
today: OQEMA Rotterdam, Netherlands
Purchase Inorchem, Belgium
today: part of OQEMA BV, Netherlands
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world," says George Bernard Shaw. "the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore," Shaw said, "all progress depends on unreasonable men ..."
This conviction is matched by one of OQEMA's beliefs, pictured here by Martin Lersch: "We dare to be different." The six values will be developed jointly throughout the company network in a discovery process in 2020 and illustrated by Martin Lersch. His pictures accompany the last decade of this company history.
2016 Yes, We Can … or: Forever young
How to constantly rejuvenate yourself as a company, remain marketable and thus able to survive – an exciting and essential topic ... Excerpts from a speech by Peter Overlack in December 2014:
"Why is it that companies can basically have an 'eternal life'? That some pass away early – and others apparently stay young forever?
The reason is that a company is ultimately nothing other than the sum of its employees, the sum of the people in it. And by that we don't mean their biology, we mean the sum of the energies, desires and ideas that these employees transport and move. And these wishes and ideas, the ideals, thoughts - they basically never age. Thoughts have no expiration date. Sure, they can go out of fashion – but they also have the potential to reinvent themselves again and again, to be thought of in new and different ways – and thus to be eternally in renewal, to remain young, to adapt to changing times.
It is logical that, against this background, we are well advised to subject a company to a "horse cure" at certain intervals. To shake everything that is flexible – and to see whether it still functions properly. To question all processes and structures. To review responsibilities, to compare the market presence with what is happening outside, in short, to reinvent the company in its entirety, so to speak. If this happens, if it is done wisely (important!) – we are forever young ... If this is neglected, delayed, tackled half-heartedly and then not at all in the end – a company gradually ages unnoticed. A dangerous condition! It always leads, sooner or later, to elimination from the market."
Purchase Ceepal, Belgium
today: OQEMA, Belgium
For more than 20 years, St. Nicholas accompanied the changing fortunes of Gebrüder Overlack AG in lyrical form, consoling and encouraging employees and handing out chocolate Santas every December 6 – now he is coming for the very last time.
2017 Santa Claus weeps Overlack and welcomes OQEMA
Office and community space at its best – in Liedberg Castle
2018 Overlack becomes OQEMA
In the year in which Hans Overlack dies at the age of 93, the thoroughly prepared rebranding takes place: Overlack becomes OQEMA. Since the family name is well kept and preserved in the family office "Gebrüder Overlack", the old man would have supported his son's bold decision – we can safely assume that.
As a result, the multitude of subsidiaries now has a brand name that is suitable for the chemical trade worldwide. The new creation OQEMA, which is easy to pronounce in all languages, adopts the three Overlack vowels in the correct sequence.
And something else happens in 2018: the holding company of the Overlack family of companies moves into the spacious office wing in the reconstructed part of Liedberg Castle, which Peter Overlack, the man with the pronounced passion for architecture and cultural monuments has renovated over the course of the last few years. There's even a knights' hall.
Purchase Interact, Bosnia-Herzegovina
today: Interact, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Purchase of customer base Whyte Chemicals
today: OQEMA London, Great Britain
New members of the Works Council: Juliana Conti, Franz-Josef Massini, Katarina Czichos, David Targosz, Cornelia Kiebler-Dietzel, Uwe Krause, Katja Peter, Thomas Angerhausen, Lutz Röbbig. For the Works Council as a body, the value TOGETHER fits particularly well: "We care for each other like a family ..."
2019 Works Council
In May 2019, the employees of OQEMA GmbH in Mönchengladbach elect a works council for the first time after a long break. At 76 percent, voter turnout is similarly high as is the motivation of the 9 elected works council members, who in the following years will deal in particular with personnel matters and reach a company agreement on working hours and vacation. The Corona management also plays a major role, which is determined by the management in close cooperation with the works council.
Purchase of Breos GmbH, Germany
2 years later resold to local competitor
Purchase of Electrochimica Valle Staffora, Italy
today: EVS, Italy
Acquisition of Gezzi Service, Italy
today: Gezzi Service, Italy
Purchase of Fusion Bespoke Manufacturing, Great Britain
today: Fusion Bespoke Manufacturing, Great Britain
Purchase of Rocara Ireland, Ireland
today: Rocara Ireland, Ireland
Purchase Rocara, Great Britain
today: Rocara, Great Britain
Foundation of OQEMA AG, Switzerland
today: OQEMA AG, Switzerland
Purchase Roam Chemie, Belgium
today: Roam Chemie, Belgium
Purchase Quaron White Chemicals, France
today: OQEMA, France
Purchase of Tigro, Belgium
today: Tigro, Belgium
During the Zoomtalk after the Supervisory Board meeting: the G4 in the summer of 2022 – and the G5 is already waving into the picture.
2020 The G4 is at the start ...
"When I look back on the already decades-long history of the Overlack companies, today all OQEMA," writes Peter Overlack in September 2020 to his sisters Anne and Eva and the Supervisory Board "and look at when these companies were able to grow and prosper and when they rather stagnated, then I realize that things actually always went well when there was a consensual and trusting atmosphere within the active members of the management and between the management and the shareholders of the company. Thus it happens that in the past decades the OQEMA companies were able to take far-reaching decisions on capitalization, essential expansion measures, bank debts, relocation of headquarters, legal structure, action program, etc., quickly and flexibly oriented to the business necessities, without having to deal with 'nervous shareholders' and their concerns and questions for an excessively long time and with a delay. I would like to see this continue whenever it is possible to do so."
He suggests that a Team 4 formed from the members of the youngest generation (the G 4) should be invited to the Supervisory Board meetings and kept informed and involved as best as possible. The task of Team 4 would be to pass on the knowledge gained here to the siblings.
This is how it happens. Since November 2020, Till, Michel and Rebecca have regularly attended the supervisory board meetings as representatives of their three families and report back to the siblings. A nice side effect of their commitment is the strong friendly-family bond within the young generation.
Purchase Chemark, Denmark
today: Chemark, Denmark
OQEMA Board at the Titanic Hotel in Belfast
2021 Riding the waves and cutting trees
Since risk-taking is part of the OQEMA DNA, the Corona wave is also being ridden with a good portion of luck: In the tiny window of time that the pandemic leaves open for joint meetings, the management teams of all OQEMA companies come together for the management meeting in Belfast at the very place where 110 years earlier the legendary Titanic was welded together. In September 2021, the former shipyard has been transformed into a spectacular hotel.
In the spirit of sustainability, the family-owned company Gebrüder Overlack acquires the insolvent Lappen tree nursery, one of the five largest tree nurseries in Europe, in the summer of 2021, which is relaunched under "Baum & Bonheur. The Lappen Nursery". The siblings Peter, Anne and Eva and their ten children are delighted about the new commitment, which for the whole family is less an investment than a vocation. Together, they want to stay connected to the nursery through the decades. As co-managing director, Peter Overlack is learning tree pruning and more.
Purchse Proquibasa Spain
today: OQEMA Iberia
The new Executive Board in 2020 (from left): Hartmut Kunz (CFO), Peter Overlack (CEO), Patrick Barthels (CSO).
Sincerity is one of OQEMA's six core values. "We do what we say and say what we think. We are trustworthy, reliable, open and fair."
2022 The new Board of Management
In the third generation change at the management level of the family business, which coincides with its 100th birthday, the family shareholders no longer play a role as managing directors. Only one rule applies here: The best person gets the job. Experience is a decisive factor in this size of company.
Since 2020, Hartmut Kunz and Patrick Barthels have determined the strategic direction of OQEMA together with Peter Overlack. When Peter Overlack retires from active management in mid-2022 and moves to the Supervisory Board, he will be succeeded by Philipp Junge as the third member of the Executive Board. Meanwhile, the family feels well taken care of in the family office and trusts in the expertise of the new managing directors. There are plenty of tasks for the dynamic trio.
Together, we are looking forward to the next ten decades!
Purchase Tecnufar Madrid
today: Tecnufar Madrid
Purchase Orosolv, France
soon: OQEMA SAS