Haniel opens digital unit “Schacht One” with etventure: Instead of coal, digital ideas for future growth are being mined at the Zollverein Coal Mine

Berlin/Essen ‒ April 22, 2016 – Coal in the past, digital ideas in the present: Family-owned company Haniel aims to promote fuel for future growth at the Zollverein Coal Mine with the support of digital consultancy etventure. In line with this objective, a new digital unit ‒ Schacht One ‒ has been founded that will drive digitization within the Haniel business divisions by providing a digital workbench.

NRW Minister for Economic Affairs Garrelt Duin (SPD), who also highlighted the opportunities that digitization will provide for NRW as a business location, Stephan Gemkow, CEO of Franz Haniel & Cie., Schacht One driving force Dirk Müller, CIO of Franz Haniel & Cie. and CEO of Schacht One, and Philipp Herrmann, Founder and CEO of etventure, opened the digital unit at the Zollverein Coal Mine this Friday in front of over 50 guests from the business and political world.

“This will enable us to create added value for our investments and to actively promote their continued growth. This distinguishes us as a family-owned company from other investors,” noted Stephan Gemkow at the opening ceremony. “With Schacht One we have created an accelerator for digitizing our portfolio. We are going to develop ideas for digital products and processes and get them market-ready in short order.”

Haniel has obtained the support and expertise of digital consultancy and startup builder etventure for the operational development and operation of the digital unit. etventure has already executed similar projects for steel merchant Klöckner, financial group Wüstenrot & Württembergische and plant engineering and construction firm SMS group. At the same time, etventure is celebrating the opening of its own offices at the Zollverein Coal Mine, its fifth location in Germany.

Philipp Herrmann, Founder and CEO of etventure, said: “We see that digital ideas and business models that are developed within a company, in other words not in protected spaces, very often fail. With methods we adapted from Silicon Valley, combined with our focus on clients and execution, we bring a startup mindset to companies that is important for digital innovations. For us, it’s important to enable company employees to adopt this approach themselves and thus successfully become integrated into the existing corporate culture. The founding of Schacht One created the ideal environment for this process at Haniel.”

For Haniel, the founding at the Zollverein Coal Mine also represents a commitment to North-Rhine Westphalia as a location. “Schacht One also aims to be an important catalyst for the local business and startup scene that goes beyond Haniel’s own investment,” according to Schacht One Managing Director Dirk Müller. “Together, we want to create a hub for digitizing existing companies and startups that promotes networking on both sides and drives digital transformation forward.”

The choice of location is also ultimately a return to Haniel’s own roots. Entrepreneur Franz Haniel first mined the highly-desired bituminous coal at the Zollverein Coal Mine on a large scale some 165 years ago, thereby creating the foundation for the industrialization of the Ruhr Region. Now, supported by etventure, Haniel is going to fuel future growth at that historic location ‒ by mining digital ideas.