Playmobil chief executive calls it a day

Playmobil today announced the retirement of Helga Ellul, who over the years has occupied the post of CEO of Playmobil Malta, been a top management member of the Brandstätter Group and acted as chairman of the board of directors of Playmobil USA.

A corporate leader held in high regard in local business circles and beyond, Ellul traces a career with the German Brandstätter Group that goes back to her employment in the company's sales and exports department in 1968.

Matthias Fauser, who to date has occupied the post of Chief Operations Officer at Playmobil Malta, has been appointed as the company's new CEO. Fauser joined the company in 1992 as head of the printing department.

Ellul came to Malta as plant manager of Brandstätter Group's manufacturing facilities in 1974 after spending the first seven years of her career at the group's head office in Zirndorf Germany, her hometown.

She was appointed general manager of the local plant in 1976 and managing director of the Brandstätter Group in Malta in 1982. Since then, Ellul has established herself as a champion for embracing change and as a strong believer in the potential and competence of the Maltese workforce, two important pillars which led to Playmobil Malta's establishment as one of the islands' foremost industrial success stories, which today employs some 1,000 workers.

In 1994, Ellul was presented with the prestigious Midalja ghall-Qadi tar-Repubblika - the first foreigner to receive the award - as a tribute to her outstanding entrepreneurship and her overall contribution to the local manufacturing industry.

"Playmobil's Malta story is full of moments of great satisfaction," Ellul in a statement in which she recalled the company's milestones, which include the 2002 relocation to the current state-of-the-art factory, the numerous awards received by Playmobil in Malta - particularly in the fields of quality and HR - and perhaps above all "the amazing fact that all Playmobil figures, some 100 million per year and more than 2.5 billion to date, are today being produced in Malta."

Playmobil owner Horst Brandstaetter lauded Ellul's role in building the Playmobil group into the status it enjoyed today. "Building something up is a big accomplishment, to continuously improve on it requires strength, energy and tireless effort. To hand it over to the next generation in an orderly manner is a masterpiece of leadership.

"Over the past years, Mrs Ellul has mentored Mr Matthias Fauser as her successor and the responsibility for Playmobil Malta will now be handed over with full confidence in his capable hands. Mr Fauser boasts a long and successful career at Playmobil where he has proven himself at all levels, particularly in his role as Chief Operations Officer, where he has gained the respect of his colleagues and Maltese stakeholders."