EDER Managing director in cow herd - For broadcast "Undercover Boss" he comes to his limits

Monday evening 11.02.2019, around 9 p.m. eager eavesdropping in the Rosenheim cinema: The employees of the EDER group of companies are given brief insights into the filming days and experiences of Mathias Goldbach alias Gregor Ries, managing director of the group of companies.

In September of last year, he went on an undercover mission and gained insight into the most diverse areas of the company. The first broadcast took place in mid-February, and colleagues were only too happy to accept the invitation to watch the pack with the Undercover Boss. In the best of moods, the focus was on the show's candidates and the prizes they received as recognition at the end of the broadcast.

But to the beginning: Gregor Ries, Managing Director of the EDER GmbH Group for over 8 years, got involved with the television format Undercover Boss. For his role as Mathias, who comes to try out for the new show Germany's Toughest Packers, he was introduced to his colleagues with a striking hairpiece, glasses, beard and matching work clothes. No one suspected that it was actually their boss.

In his various jobs, he then definitely worked up a sweat and had to demonstrate stamina.

On the very first day, he had to get into the middle of the cow herd: Together with herd manager Andrea Meerwarth of the Lely Center Bavaria, they went to the first milking. In addition to the technical component, driving the cows was the first big challenge and brought with it many a realization: cows are also sensitive and have different characters, according to Mathias. But there were also important insights for the work of a herd manager: It is an important service of the company, the importance of which is easily underestimated.

The disguised manager spent the second day in the DIY store with his colleague Hans-Jürgen König. There he had to climb to lofty heights, which is not really his forte, and stow away stock. Thanks to the precise instructions of the expert, the numerous quite sweaty tasks were completed here as well. But this day also brought Ries to his physical limits and the realization that the colleagues on site deliver top performance every day.

On the third day, Gregor Ries returned to a farm where a new milking robot was installed in a barn. Especially explosive here: the slightest carelessness can be very expensive - a robot costs far more than 100,000 Euro. Michael Fordey explained his tasks to Mathias directly and let him get to work according to the alleged broadcast format of Germany's toughest packers.

His last assignment took him to the agricultural technology workshop at the EDER branch in Matzing. There, trainee Mathias spent the day together with apprentice Tobias Frisch, who explained the machines and tasks to him perfectly despite his young age. However, even the best explanations do not make up for a lack of practice and routine. And so there was quite a bit of oil that day that landed next to the drip pans and had to be mopped up by the managing director himself.

There were more than astonished faces then at the dissolution at the company headquarters in Tuntenhausen. The four employees were not treated to the expected final meeting for the disguised show, but rather to the surprise of the managing director disguised as an intern. He expressed his absolute praise and appreciation to all of them for their daily commitment, their great dedication and their loyalty to the company. As a thank you, the four received something that turned out to be a passion in the personal conversations. Andrea Meerwarth gets to go heli-skiing in Switzerland, Hans-Jürgen König goes to Disneyland in Paris with the whole family, Michael Fordey can visit his brother in China and spend a vacation there with him, and Tobias Frisch, whose car broke down shortly before the breakup, is given a brand-new Ford Focus until the end of his training.

For Gregor Ries, the Undercover Boss assignment was a very important insight into the family business. He was inspired by the dedication and high level of competence of his colleagues in their respective areas and gained a completely different insight into the daily working world.