Region
Succession between the Rhine, the Moselle and the Eifel.
Jonas Schmitz is looking for companies in northern Rhineland-Palatinate. Not nationwide and not at random, but where he lives — close enough that a company can reach him without the journey becoming the obstacle.
Region
Where exactly
The radius is deliberately narrow. Anyone handing over a life's work should be able to reach their successor within the same week, not see them four times a year.
- Middle Rhine
- Koblenz, Andernach, Neuwied, Bendorf, Lahnstein, Boppard
- Lower Moselle
- Winningen, Kobern-Gondorf, Treis-Karden, Cochem
- Eifel and Vordereifel
- Mayen, Mendig, Polch, Kaisersesch
- Westerwald and Rhine-Lahn
- Montabaur, Höhr-Grenzhausen, Bad Ems, Diez
- Ahr and northern Rhine
- Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Sinzig, Remagen, Bad Breisig
Is your company just outside this area? Write anyway. The list is an orientation, not a boundary. Arrange a conversation
Region
What that means in practice
The first conversation takes place at your premises
Not in an office, but where the business actually is — in the workshop, the hall, the shop. Within this region the journey is not an argument; it is a given.
Short distances still matter after the handover
A handover does not end with the signature. Someone based in the same area can be there during the transition instead of making phone calls.
The region is not arbitrary
Knowing the companies, the suppliers and the people of an area leads to different decisions than reading a spreadsheet. That is precisely why the radius stays narrow.
Region
What the figures say about this region
And what they do not say. Anyone claiming a special role for this region should be able to show it.
The Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Koblenz represents more than 105,000 businesses across northern Rhineland-Palatinate, with nine regional offices from Altenkirchen and Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler through Mayen-Koblenz and Montabaur to Simmern and Idar-Oberstein. Add to that the crafts businesses, which belong to the Chamber of Skilled Crafts rather than the IHK. This is not a region of a few large employers; it is carried by owner-run companies.
The Institut fuer Mittelstandsforschung Bonn estimates around 8,800 companies in Rhineland-Palatinate facing a handover between 2026 and 2030. Measured against the stock of companies, that is 52 handovers per 1,000 - exactly the national average. The federal states range from 40 in Berlin to 61 in Lower Saxony.
So a regional special case cannot be argued from these figures, and it will not be argued here. What can be said is narrower and more useful: the companies concerned are here, they are owner-run, and their owners are getting older at the same pace as everywhere else. Whoever wants to continue them has to be present - not because the region is exceptional, but because a handover is decided in conversations that do not happen at a distance.
One thing these figures deliberately do not do is get broken down further. Converting the state estimate to a chamber district or a single town would be methodologically inadmissible: the underlying survey does not carry that resolution. A number invented at that level would look precise and mean nothing.
Sources: IfM Bonn, Daten und Fakten No. 37; IHK Koblenz, own figures (2022). Both publicly available.
Region
Where to get advice, independently of me
A handover starts long before anyone talks about a buyer. These bodies advise free of charge and have no interest in the outcome - worth using before and alongside any conversation with me.
Why here in particular
Between the Rhine, the Moselle, the Eifel and the Westerwald, small and medium-sized companies carry the regional economy: trades, manufacturing and services — mostly owner-led, often for two or three generations.
When such a company closes, more than a firm disappears. Jobs, apprenticeships and supplier relationships go with it, and the place loses part of what defines it.
These companies deserve more than being wound down. That is the entire reason for this page.
Enquiries are treated confidentially and passed to no one. Getting in touch commits you to nothing.