As of 1st July 2023, Novopress is expanding its management team by appointing Jens Girrbach and
Volker Rühle as two additional Managing Directors to join the existing Managing Director Gert Rieger. The
reasons for this capacity expansion are the further acceleration of the increasing production figures, the
expansion of the innovation leadership, the further improvement of the customer service and the increased
internationalization of business. The focus here is particularly on the markets Asia and Africa.
Jens Girrbach (37) has been with Novopress for ten years, most recently as Sales Manager and
authorized signatory. Prior to that, he held several positions and responsibilities within the company,
including development engineer and Sales Manager for Australia, Great Britain and the Netherlands. He
started his professional career after his mechanical engineering studies as a development engineer in the
field of cold forming in the automotive supplier industry.
Volker Rühle (51) joins Novopress as a new Managing Director. From the beginning of 2020, the graduate
engineer for supply engineering was Managing Director of Wavin GmbH. Volker Rühle was responsible
for two production sites with a turnover in a 3-digit million range. In addition to winning new key accounts
and wholesale partners, he was responsible for a significant increase in turnover and profitability. Volker
Rühle has been active for the Plastic Pipe Association as Chairman of the Board since 2022.
After his SHK training and studies, he spent more than 10 years in TGA planning and project management.
Volker Rühle then moved to international sales and built up the project business in the field of building air
conditioning as Director of Sales & Marketing in the Middle East. Prior to this, Volker Rühle was successful
at Glen Dimplex as Director of International Sales through the transformation and reorganization of country
subsidiaries and later became a member of the Board of Directors of Glen Dimplex Swiss AG.
Gert Rieger (54) has already been Managing Director at Novopress since May 2012. At this time, Gert
Rieger joined Novopress after holding several management positions in the construction industry in the
field of structural and civil engineering, as well as in foundation engineering.
Richard Grohe, Managing Director of Syngroh Capital, said: "Since our majority investment in 2019,
Novopress has developed outstandingly. In order to accommodate this growth and to be able to maintain
the pace, we as shareholders together with Gert Rieger, have decided to also develop the organization
accordingly and to equip the management team with broader management capacity and expertise."
Stefan Zangen, shareholder of Novopress, said: "As a representative of the founding family, I am very
pleased to see how Novopress has gone from success to success for more than 50 years. The entry of
Syngroh Capital has once again set new impulses, especially in the areas of innovation and
internationalization. We all want to anchor this together also in the company management in order to
secure and expand the innovation and quality leadership of Novopress."
About Novopress
Novopress, founded in 1969 by the families Zangen and Dischler, stands for high-quality tools that have
achieved great success through reliability and great know-how in development and ergonomics. The
product range includes press tools for the installation of pipes and fittings made of steel, copper or plastic
in industry and construction. Novopress is extremely flexible in developing the appropriate tool for each
fitting, enabling safe connections all over the world. Thanks to more than 50 years of accumulated
knowledge and continued high investments in research and equipment development, Novopress is one
of the technologically leading manufacturers of press tools. Around 200 employees are now working for
Novopress and has a sales and service network in Europe, the USA, Australia and Asia.