Page 4 - ahp.magazin 2023 EN Final Einzelseiten

INTERVIEW

with CEO Christen Merkle

ahp.magazine: Another unusual year is coming to an end. ahp.magazine: Only 4 days?
How are things at AHP Merkle? CME: EIt was 4 long days of helplessness. Then came the call from
CME: The year 2022 was indeed unusual. We started the year well, the employee of the Renate Merkle Foundation from Lviv, Halina
were able to take a great order backlog from the end of 2021 with Tomkiv. She asked if she could use the money of the foundation,
us and got off to a good start in the first 3 months. Unfortunately, which was still in Ukraine, for the purchase of medicine. Of course,
everything quieted down a bit at the end of Q2 and the second we immediately agreed.
half of the year was good to okay, but just not like the first quarter.
Unfortunately. ahp.magazine: A game changer, the call?
CME: Yes, absolutely. Immediately after that call on February 28 th
ahp.magazine: Surely this was due to the unspeakable war 2022, we launched a fundraising appeal. This runs until today very
in Ukraine? successfully. We were able to help, directly, without just having to
CME: (sighs) Yes, definitely. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on Febru- watch helplessly!
th
ary 24 2022, was a shock not only for me, but for many people.
The unimaginable happened, and one wonders how it fits into our ahp.magazine: That means 2022 was another year in which
modern, enlightened times! things were tackled?
But clearly, it completely turned the mood upside down. And sud- CME: We do this every year. For the last 50 years. I don’t remember
denly, along with Corona, we had war fears again. And the mood a year where we just waited to see what was going to happen.
was and is in the cellar. Not least because positive events and re- We tend to be the on or off people. Want to lead the way and not
sults, which still exist, no longer make it into the media. necessarily swim along...

ahp.magazine: For many years, the Merkle family has been ahp.magazine: Typical AHP Merkle. Always on the move!
active in Ukraine through the Renate Merkle Foundation. And that for 50 years. The anniversary is coming up in 2023.
The start of the war was particularly hard there, wasn’t it? Excited?
CME: It was unbelievably sad to have to watch. I sat paralyzed in CME: Rather inspired. If you’ve had the opportunity to be a part of
front of the TV for 4 days, was on the Internet and everything I saw it for 35 years and to help shape it, then it’s already an inspiration
and heard was terrible. We just know so many Ukrainian people when you think about the anniversary.
personally. It was unbearable.

4