Overview
- Clemens Tönnies, who turned 70 on Wednesday, says he is stepping back from daily operations while remaining an active senior figure and leaving much of the day‑to‑day work to his son and the next generation.
- The Premium Food Group is one of Europe’s largest meat processors with roughly €7.8–8 billion in annual revenue, about 20,000–21,000 employees and plants that slaughter around 20,000–25,000 pigs per day.
- Tönnies told reporters he supports raising the top income tax rate but warned against changes to inheritance tax, saying higher estate levies would risk foreign takeovers of German family firms.
- The company’s reputation and strategy still show the fallout from the 2020 Rheda outbreak when more than 1,500 workers were infected and the plant was closed for 30 days, a crisis that prompted criticism of subcontracting and spurred millions in automation spending.
- After a long family dispute settled in 2018 the group rebranded to Premium Food Group, saw a 2025 attempt to buy Vion assets blocked by the Kartellamt, and now pursues diversification into logistics, pet food and poultry processing as key next steps.