Changes in the management of GS1 Germany

Last week, Jörg Pretzel, Managing Director of GS1 Germany, informed the board of directors that he will not renew his contract, which ends this year. His position will be taken over by Thomas Fell, a trading IT-expert. He will join the GS1 Germany in October, and he will take the full responsibility for the management from Jörg Pretzel as of January 1, 2018.

“It is time, after 15 successful and intensive years leading GS1 Germany, to devote a bit more time to my private life and a few interesting business activities,” stated Pretzel. Under his leadership the company developed to a market-oriented service company and became a highly recognized cooperation platform for a wide range of stakeholders.

Important achievements during the fifteen years Pretzel’s leadership were, amongst others, the world's largest data pool for product information, established in the subsidiary 1Worldsync, the international rollout of the traceability service F-Trace and the creation of an unique knowledge center for the practical demonstration of GS1 solutions.

“Jörg Pretzel was crucial for the successful reorganization and the following excellent business results of GS1 Germany,” stated Stephan Füsti-Molnár, chairman board of directors. The number of customers of the company doubled from 30,000 to 60,000 and at the same time the company branched out to other strategically important industries alongside the FMCG sector.

Furthermore, we expanded our international role and, together with GS1 US, GS1 Germany is the most important GS1 organization. “With Thomas Fell, we have found a proven expert for the succession. I am convinced that we will maintain a professional and trustworthy participation, such as we had with Jörg Pretzel, with Mr Fell too,” ensured Füsti-Molnár.

After graduation, Thomas Fell worked for 16 years for IBM Germany, where he was responsible for the trading, service, transport and tourism departments. In his last post he was responsible for the support for medium-sized businesses and business customers of IBM Germany. After two years as board member of Pironet NDH, he joined Wincor Nixdorf, where he was responsible for the global retail department for the last seven years. During this period, he contributed significantly to the expansion of Wincor Nixdorf and the internationalization of the retail department. Furthermore, he paved the way for the integration of the retail department into the new Diebold Nixdorf organization.

For more information: