Wolfgang Grupp drives Russian cars out of conviction and criticizes boycotts
Created: 07/04/2022 04:56
By: Sina Alonso Garcia
Wolfgang Grupp swears by his white Lada Niva (symbol image/photo montage).
© Chtistoph Schmidt/dpa/Imago/Cavan Images (photomontage BW24)
Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp has been a committed Lada driver for many years.
He mainly uses his SUV for hunting.
The fact that the Russian state is behind the manufacturer doesn't bother him.
Burladingen - While other wealthy entrepreneurs keep their private lives covered, Wolfgang Grupp makes no secret of it: the Trigema boss consciously shows his family, his house and his hobbies in public.
So it's no secret that the company patriarch likes to go hunting.
His all-terrain vehicle - a model of the Russian brand Lada Niva - should not be missing, as BW24 reports.
"The Lada is in my hunting lodge in the Allgäu, where I often spend the weekends with my family," says Grupp in an interview with
WirtschaftsWoche.
He has been an enthusiastic Lada driver since 2005 - the off-road vehicle is already his third model from the brand.
Trigema boss Wolfgang Grupp has no sympathy for Russia boycotts
Grupp is not bothered by the fact that AvtoVAS, the manufacturer of the Lada hunting vehicle, was taken over by the Russian state after the outbreak of the Ukraine war.
"I am against a boycott of Russian companies and products," he said openly to
WirtschaftsWoche
.
“We also employ people of Russian nationality at Trigema and I would never consider laying off these reliable employees.
If I've had a good relationship with customers or suppliers for decades, then I don't just dissolve it just because politicians think they have to punish them."
As Grupp further explained, he appreciated that France showed Russian films at the Russian film festivals.
"But I didn't understand why Russia wasn't allowed to take part in the Paralympic Games.
The athletes can't do anything about this war.
And it's the same with my car, the Lada is great.
If you offered me 50 percent more today than I paid for this Lada, I certainly wouldn't give it up.
I would regret not getting a new one.
I'm not a car collector and if a car is old enough, it's given away, but not because I'm against Russia."
Wolfgang Grupp is "neither friend nor foe" of Vladimir Putin
For some time now, Grupp has been saying that he doesn't believe in economic sanctions against Russia as a war leader.
For example, he explained that he supports gas imports from Russia.
In an interview with
Business Insider
, he went even further.
There he said he was "neither friend nor enemy" of Russian President Vladimir Putin - after all, he didn't know him.
He also blames the United States for the Ukraine war.
