one: Mr Souque, your contract as our CEO has just been extended for another five years and since 1 January you have six colleagues on your REWE Group Management Board team. This is a good time to give our readers an overview of the current situation and priorities for the future. We are facing multiple crises and it doesn't look like things will calm down completely any time soon. How do you navigate a large company in such turbulent times?

Lionel Souque: We can only face up to this. The next few months will certainly remain sporty and exciting, but also unpredictable. When the environment is unpredictable, the most important thing is to have a clear strategy and stick to it consistently. We have that. At the same time, you also need to be flexible enough to be able to adapt tactically at lightning speed where necessary. In other words, you have to show vigour, create facts and use the right tactics. You can't just react, you have to act proactively.
Strategically, we focus on our customers, drive digitalisation forward and continue to improve our merchandise business. We can only achieve this thanks to the great commitment, passion and expertise of our 380,000 employees. Our employees are central to our company's success. We can only be successful if we stand together as a team and lead the way: Team spirit, cohesion, error culture and performance are elementary components of our success. We need to further strengthen our team and our corporate culture, retain our employees, find the right new colleagues and convince them that we are the right team for them. A big task.

one: sticking consistently to our strategy, always keeping an eye on the big changes and adapting at lightning speed where necessary. How does the fact that we now have a seven-person Management Board team fit in - doesn't that make us rather cumbersome?

Lionel Souque: When done properly, it makes us faster, more efficient and more competitive. We currently have such a complex environment that nobody can manage it linearly on their own. You need a good network and team spirit - but that also needs to be organised. We have grown strongly in recent years and we need to be able to put our horsepower on the road. Christian Mielsch as CFO and Sören Hartmann as CEO Travel and Tourism have done a very good job in their roles and laid the foundations for a successful generational change. Telerik Shishmanov took over from the CFO, his previous position was not filled - I have taken personal responsibility for Travel and Tourism. As a result, we have ultimately reduced the size of two top positions. Very importantly, we have also filled the other new roles on the Group Management Board internally. With colleagues who have already proven their expertise in their respective areas over the years. And we also did not fill the intermediate level at Retail Germany.

Our reasoning behind this: By filling the CFO position internally, we have ensured continuity and experience. As Travel and Tourism, a key pillar of our business, is now my personal responsibility, digitalisation has been given its own place and a strong boost at Group level, which we will urgently need in all areas - from Retail to Travel and Tourism to Convenience. It goes without saying that having a Chief Procurement Officer at Group level makes sense for a retail company of our size. The same goes for a Management Board that takes care of logistics and supply chain management in a superordinate and coordinated manner. From our largest SBU, which he continues to manage operationally. This means that the strongest operational unit is also represented at Group level. I consider People and Sustainability - i.e. HR and Sustainability - to be two of the most crucial areas for our successful future, alongside digitalisation. I know that these are often dismissed as soft facts - I think that's one of the biggest mistakes you can make. If you don't manage to be an attractive employer so that good people stay and new top people decide to join us, you will have a problem in the coming years.