Michael Käfer - Restaurant, Party Service and Oktoberfest
It was clear that the Creative Hall at the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship was booked to capacity when legendary club owner Michael Käfer did the honors.
Right from the start, Käfer captivated his audience with his very authentic talk that didn't need any well-arranged commercials or Power Points.
For Michael Käfer, who opened the legendary discotheque P1 directly after his business studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, it was clear very early on that he wanted to take over and further develop the family business as an entrepreneur. In 1988, he joined the management team and in 1995 became the sole managing director and shareholder of the Käfer Group, which by then was already a force to be reckoned with in gastronomy, delicatessen and party service in Munich. Under his leadership, the company expanded steadily and today has an annual turnover of around 140 million euros with over 1,100 employees. In 2013, the Galut&Millau named Michael Käfer "Restaurateur of the Year".
The center of the Käfer Group is still the well-known flagship store in Munich's Prinzregentenstraße with the delicatessen and the Käfer-Schänke restaurant. In addition, the Käfer Wies'n-Schänken at the Oktoberfest and the theater gastronomy in the state theaters in Munich are among the traditional pillars of the family business, to which Michael Käfer is adding new business areas step by step.
One of the first projects was the expansion of the licensing business, which established the Käfer name as a premium brand in the German food trade. This was followed in 1998 by the takeover of the catering business in the eastern section of the Munich Trade Fair Center and the management of the catering for members of parliament and the public rooftop garden restaurant in the German Bundestag in Berlin.
Michael Käfer also continuously expanded the party service business and opened up new business areas abroad. Today, he is the European market leader in the premium segment of event catering and was awarded the Leader of the Year Award as "Caterer of the Year" in 2013. However, the biggest event in the company's history to date was the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where Käfer Party Service managed the Sky Box and Elite hospitality programs in all 12 host cities and catered for 174,000 guests over the four weeks.
Another concept with growth potential is that of Käfer Delikatessenmärkte, which has now been realized in Parsdorf, Brunnthal and Schwabing, with further locations in the pipeline.
Most recently, Michael Käfer secured the catering business at BMW Welt, where the gourmet restaurant EssZimmer and Käfer chef Bobby Bräuer were awarded two Michelin stars in only their second year. Finally, in 2013, Blue Lion GmbH entrusted Käfer with the management of the historic Kaltenbrunn estate on Lake Tegern, where the restaurant and beer garden celebrated their opening in 2015 after extensive renovation.
Michael Käfer has been married to his wife Clarissa since July 2007. In March 2011, they became parents to twins Nikolas and Raphael, who have been their absolute center of life ever since. The relationship is also important for business decisions, Käfer emphasized, because his wife, a business lawyer, always has a different perspective on things. This is especially important for Käfer, who has a "gut feeling".
In addition to all the success stories, Käfer also emphasized that he has not only had success. On the contrary, there was a time when he was very close to the abyss with his companies. At that time, he realized how visible liquidity is for a company. Even small failures - a lost tender or an order that doesn't come in after years - are part of the story of a successful company. Käfer even dared to claim that his success story consists of 60% successes and 40% failures. This is where the entrepreneur needs to find the necessary resilience. For outsiders and observers, only the successes count in the end.
Käfer answered many fascinating questions with great dedication and authenticity. Even after the event, he was available to the participants for one-on-one discussions until late into the night. A successful evening that will be remembered by the audience and the organizers for a long time to come.