The militant voice of the middle class

Dusseldorf There was this key moment in the life of entrepreneur Natalie Mekelburger when she put down the newspaper and felt a deep rumbling in her stomach. She had just read an opinion piece. In it, companies were branded as the general main culprits of climate change and entrepreneurs were asked to make up for this financially – if necessary with income from the sale of shares.

This left her speechless and then angry. Where was the objection?

For a long time, the head of the Wuppertal-based Coroplast Group had been missing a rebellion from entrepreneurs in public debates. The 56-year-old considers this reluctance to be a big mistake. “My message is: Entrepreneurs, be vigilant and make yourself known!” she says. “Who, if not we? Otherwise it is clear that politics is only shaped by others.”

Since then, Mekelburger has made itself even more noticeable, shows attitude, gets involved in debates and politics. Be it with pointed contributions in the media, on panel discussions or as a founding member of R21. The Munich think tank represents a new bourgeois politics based on freedom, individual responsibility, pluralism and a social market economy. Above all, she wants to defend the second term in the social market economy. The idea of ​​the market, she says, has gotten a little lost in Germany.

The Coroplast boss is thus perceived as a “strong voice for medium-sized companies”. This is how Arndt Kirchhoff, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Kirchhoff Group and President of the NRW Entrepreneurs, describes it, who sits with her on the board of the Association of the Automotive Industry. Patrick Adenauer, vice-president of the association “The Family Entrepreneurs”, once described her as a “reasonable market economy activist”. Is that true?

“The market economy has far too negative connotations”

Natalie Mekelburger hesitates for a moment before answering and looks out the window. From the modern designed lounge of the Coroplast headquarters in Wuppertal she has a wide view over the company premises.

Her great-uncle Fritz Müller founded the company here in 1928, which is now the world market leader for technical adhesive tapes as well as cable and cable harnesses. Customers come from sectors such as construction and electronics, but above all from the automotive industry. Since 2006, Mekelburger has been managing the family business in the third generation.

Coroplast boss Natalie Mekelburger

The 56-year-old has been managing the family business in the third generation since 2006.

Coroplast had a turnover of 717 million euros in 2022, a good 15 percent more than in the previous year and a third more than in 2019, the year before the major crises caused by the pandemic and the Ukraine war. These difficult phases have left almost no injuries in the company – also because all shareholders pulled together.

“Even before the crises of the past few years, the shareholders had a common understanding that the company had to have a solid financial foundation,” explains Mekelburger. “Our self-financing is high because we are cautious about withdrawals and make capital available to the company.”

Pioneering international expansion

For her, three things make responsible corporate management: sensitive risk management, a responsive and adaptable organization and a strong employer brand.

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In practice, this means that none of Coroplast’s commitments should pose such a great risk that it could endanger the entire group. “But we don’t shy away from anything, on the contrary: no entrepreneur can be successful without taking risks,” says Mekelburger.

She proved that. For a long time it didn’t look like she would succeed her father Kurt Müller. Mekelburger studied business administration in Augsburg and started her career in 1992 at the Düsseldorf consulting firm Droege. But in 1994, at the age of 28, she dared to take the step into the management of the family business and became head of marketing and sales. Three years later she joined the management board and took over as chairman from her father in 2006.

Coroplast headquarters in Wuppertal

The company is a specialist in technical adhesive tapes, cable harnesses and line systems.

Mekelburger was involved in the international expansion right from the start and did pioneering work. Together with her father, she promoted the export business and dared to take the first steps towards manufacturing abroad. As boss, she then built up the global production and sales network that has made Coroplast great. The company went out into the world with customers from the automotive industry such as VW and Mercedes and now manufactures in Germany, Poland, China, Tunisia, the USA and Mexico.

She is aware of the turning point in geopolitics. The company has an eye on the risks in China and is currently examining expanding its commitment in North America. “We spread our risks across the continents and also invest in Germany,” she says.

Profiteer of e-mobility

Coroplast cannot only build on global strength. The company is one of the big beneficiaries of electromobility – Tesla is also supplied with high-voltage cables, as the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences found out in a study. In contrast to other automotive suppliers, the company does not have to convert the entire product base. The need for innovative cable systems and wiring harnesses in e-cars will continue to increase.

Nevertheless, Mekelburger is skeptical about the politically controlled ramp-up of all e-mobility in Germany. “Billions are diverted through state intervention – with the result that we are heading towards a massive shortage of resources and dangerous new dependencies on raw material suppliers,” she criticizes. “Not to mention the weak expansion of the charging infrastructure, which is slowing down the ramp-up.”

In climate policy as a whole, the entrepreneur would like to have more trust in the markets and their ability to find solutions. “The only thing that can be seen again and again is the will to solve the problems with interventions and bans. It’s crazy,” she says.

Entrepreneur Kurt Mueller

Natalie Mekelburger’s father initially hesitated to bring his daughter into the management of Coroplast.

Freedom and personal responsibility are also guidelines for her in her own company. There, the 56-year-old wants to guarantee a “free thinking and creative culture” so that the 7,500 employees think and act like entrepreneurs. Just like Thomas Zakrzowski, who heads global production in the adhesive tape division.

“Corozen” is what Zakrzowski calls the self-tailored production principle, based on the Japanese production philosophy of constant improvement. The highly automated production in Wuppertal shows how strongly Coroplast relies on its own ideas and added value. The adhesives are mixed exactly as needed according to a secret recipe; other materials are also developed and processed in-house in-house departments.

Brilliant idea on a napkin

When Coroplast was planning a new hybrid machine that can use two different adhesive processes in an integrated manner, the solution for this did not come from external engineers. Zakrzowski himself provided the impetus for how the complex challenge could be technically implemented. The idea came to him on holiday in southern Europe, where he drew the construction idea on a napkin.

With such commitment from the workforce, Mekelburger is not worried about the future. Coroplast will be 100 years old in 2028, at the latest by then the company wants to break the sales mark of one billion euros, almost exclusively with organic growth. If she worries about anything, it is about external factors such as the attractiveness of Germany as a business location.

For example, with a view to the shortage of skilled workers. Coroplast supports the Junior Uni Wuppertal with courses in natural sciences and technology and is one of the sponsors of the “Germany Scholarship” for talented students. Mekelburger himself sits on the advisory board of the StartupTeens initiative, which promotes entrepreneurial thinking among boys and girls.

Modern designed canteen by Coroplast in Wuppertal

The boss wants a “free thinking and creative culture” in the company.

“I stand for Coroplast remaining independent,” she says. “It’s deep in our genes to be independent and not to let ourselves be taken over at some point.” But a company needs the best location conditions for that. Only then is the continuation attractive for the next generation.

Her two daughters are only at the beginning of their professional lives. Mekelburger does not want to urge either of them to join the management of the family business. Back then, she felt it was just right to be able to go her own way.

Daughters should become responsible partners

Her father first observed her, she believes today, but then suggested “very gently and familiarly” that he needed support in the company. She can understand his reluctance. “In my father’s generation, no one could imagine that a woman would run a company and also take care of the family and children.”

In any case, their daughters should become mature and responsible partners who can correctly assess what is happening. Mekelburger is convinced that one thing counts above all for the success of family businesses: “The shareholders must be totally committed to the company.”

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