Herakles Management
DEEN
Industry expertise

Seven industries. Lived practice.

Our partners have led companies in exactly these industries for decades, as CEO, CFO, COO or CSO. Industry depth is what makes crisis and interim management actually work.

Overview

Industries we know

Seven industries in which Herakles partners bring many years of operational experience. A detailed view for each industry will follow.

Automotive

OEMs, tier-1 and tier-2 suppliers. Transformation towards electrification, working capital pressure and global footprint questions.

Challenges we see

  • Combustion programmes running out while the EV ramp-up is delayed, leaving capacity gaps in plants and tooling
  • OEM price pressure meets high material and energy costs; renegotiation decides the margin
  • Tier-2 failures put the supply chain at risk; safeguarding and resourcing tie up liquidity
Transformation Restructuring Transaction

Engineering and Machinery

Project business, contract manufacturing and series production, with the familiar margin, lead time and complexity questions.

Challenges we see

  • Order intake weaker than the backlog; capacity is sized for yesterday
  • Project business without solid claim management: variations are recognised too late and never enforced
  • Bottlenecks in assembly and commissioning stretch lead times and tie up working capital
Transformation Restructuring Transaction

Wood Processing

Sawmills, furniture and building components. Cyclical markets, raw material volatility and consolidation pressure.

Challenges we see

  • Volatile log and sawn timber prices feed straight through to the margin
  • Weak residential construction cuts demand for building components and raises consolidation pressure
  • The market power of furniture retail: a few large buyers dictate price, terms and range listing
  • Energy-intensive drying and processing: the cost position decides competitiveness
Transformation Restructuring Transaction

Plastics

Injection moulding, extrusion and composites. Energy and raw material costs, recycling requirements, substitution pressure.

Challenges we see

  • Energy and granulate costs can only partly be passed on to customers
  • Recyclate quotas and EU packaging regulation force investment in material and equipment
  • Substitution by fibre and paper solutions, plus relocation to Asia, puts volumes under pressure
Transformation Restructuring Transaction

FMCG, Food and Packaging

Brands, retail power and scale effects. Pricing, promotion and supply chain questions under rising cost pressure.

Challenges we see

  • Retail power and listing negotiations limit price enforcement
  • Rising promotion shares depress the net-net price, and per-item profitability is often unknown
  • Range complexity ties up capital in inventory, changeover times and write-downs
Transformation Restructuring Transaction

Construction and Building Trades

Building and civil engineering, construction suppliers and building materials producers. Economic cycles, project business, waves of insolvency.

Challenges we see

  • Declining residential construction alongside a high insolvency rate in the sector
  • Costings from the high-price period weigh on current contracts for years
  • Variations and warranty decide the result, not order intake
Transformation Restructuring Transaction

Aerospace Supply

Tier-1 and tier-2 for civil and military aviation. Certification, ramp-up risk, working capital intensive.

Challenges we see

  • OEM ramp-up rates demand capacity build-up and qualification at the same time
  • Certification and qualification effort makes every capacity expansion slow and expensive
  • Long-running programmes tie up working capital for years, and alloys and titanium remain scarce
Transformation Restructuring Transaction
Current developments

What we observe in these industries

The challenges above are not a snapshot. We evaluate industry data continuously. These sources underpin every assessment, and industry-specific briefings will follow on the detail pages.

Automotive

Engineering and Machinery

Wood Processing

Plastics

FMCG, Food and Packaging

Construction and Building Trades

Aerospace Supply

Is your industry facing an exceptional phase?

We take on mandates in industries we know from our own operational experience, and whose specific mechanics we understand.

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