Change of ownership
Peter Häfner hands over Top Location to Karolina and Alexander Küntzler
Rüdesheim am Rhein, March 2022. With the handover of the restaurant ""Am Niederwald"" to his two long-time employees Karolina and Alexander Küntzler, Peter Häfner concludes his successful engagement there. For six years, he managed the gastronomy of the well-known location with a great deal of expertise, empathy and imagination. The Küntzler couple was at his side from the beginning. Now Alexander Küntzler is buying Peter Häfner's shares in the business and will become the new main shareholder and managing director. The Küntzlers are full-blooded restaurateurs and thus guarantors for a smooth transition. They will take over all employees and are looking forward to the coming season together with their team. The leaseholders of the property are the "Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten Hessen" (State Palaces and Gardens of Hesse) based in Bad Homburg. They have every confidence in the new tenants and have extended the lease for another 10 years in view of the issue of planning security. Peter Häfner, who is on friendly terms with the Küntzler couple, will be available to the Küntzlers for another year in an advisory capacity. This sets the course for a smooth transition and a successful future at this special place.
Just in time for the start of the season, the new management duo will then show what they can do. Karolina Küntzler, 42, has also worked internationally in the 4-star hotel industry for many years. Germany, Cyprus, Iceland and Switzerland are among the countries where she has worked: at the hotel reception, as Chef de Service as well as Restaurant Manager. Karolina Küntzler speaks fluent German, English and Polish. In May 2008, she graduated with a Bachelor's degree from the University of Applied Sciences for Economics and Tourism in Szczecin, specialising in "Tourism Services". Before Alexander Küntzler, 43, came to the gastronomy ""Am Niederwald"", he worked for many years in 4- and 5-star hotels in Switzerland and Germany. Whether as chef de service or banquet or restaurant manager, the proven hotel specialist was able to succeed everywhere. The Küntzlers met and fell in love while working in Switzerland.
In Davos, at the annual World Economic Forum, they worked together with their own service team until 2020.
"We are very much looking forward to the step into self-employment and the challenges that come with it. The experience we gained as employees in the hotel and catering industry is a rock-solid foundation for the successful continuation of the gastronomy ""Am Niederwald"". Even if we still have to live with Corona for a while, we are convinced that the most difficult time of the pandemic for the gastronomy and hotel industry is behind us " says the Küntzler couple.
Peter Häfner, 51, is also sure that he has placed the business in good hands. "The two of them will certainly continue to have a lot of success and advance the gastronomy ""Am Niederwald""," says Häfner. Together with his wife Ulla, Häfner will in future concentrate on the management and further development of the Hotel Trapp in Rüdesheim's old town. The Häfners acquired the hotel two weeks before the first Lockdown 2020.
Press info: Lydia Malethon, PR Profitable. Tel. 06723-9137674 or by e-mail at: l.malethon@pr-profitable.de
