Down Under – Mr. Australia

“It fills me with joy when I see how many people live off and with our brand.” Listening to the charismatic Vincent Prinzing talk about his work, you will find yourself reveling in thoughts of faraway lands, cultures and even a bit of adventure.

The 38-year-old has been CEO of the subsidiary LIQUI MOLY Australia since 2023. Until then, he led outstanding work as Export Area Manager at LIQUI MOLY in the Southeast Asia region. He has been part of the LIQUI MOLY family worldwide for ten years now. As the first trainee in the company’s history, he went through all the departments from the ground up, working his way with a great deal of diligence, dedication and ‘curiosity’ – as he says, from trainee to junior sales rep to export area manager and then to CEO of a subsidiary. This experience is still worth its weight in gold for him today.

“I got to know a wide variety of jobs and co-entrepreneurs, whether in container loading, production or accounting. It is important for me to know all the operations and structures.”

Together with his team, he is now the point man for business in Australia, New Zealand and parts of East Asia. “I’ve always been interested in other cultures and faraway countries. I was and am still a globetrotter. During my studies, I spent my internship semesters in Vietnam and Indonesia. For me, it was then clear that I would like to leave Germany,” is how Vincent Prinzing describes it quite naturally.

His open-mindedness towards other people and cultures fell on fertile ground at LIQUI MOLY: “Here, everyone can be just as they want! It’s the person that counts, not a dress code. I can also come to work in a casual hoodie and nobody is bothered by it.” And it is precisely these values that LIQUI MOLY brings to the world with products as well as with the entire sales team: Love, respect and tolerance. “On the first day, I already sensed that these were not empty words. So many people of different cultures come together at our company and probably form an unbeatably efficient team for that very reason. This also gives us incredible intercultural competence in the team alone. We also need this to be successful in 150 countries around the world.”

You can feel the joy in his job and also his intrinsic motivation to bring the brand forward and to create solutions in order to boost sales. “Above all, you have to engage with people, you have to be curious and have a thirst for knowledge. You have to be up for the job. Otherwise it just won’t work out.” In fact, the job of Export Area Manager was more than a full-time job for Vincent Prinzing. Nor does his new job as CEO offer more free time. Days off, weekends, closing time at 4 pm? Wrong! There is always work going on somewhere in the world and, as a key partner, you are always in demand. “I truly live my job and for me it doesn’t feel like work. Customers become friends. I love doing this.”

As CEO, his tasks then and now include strategy development, sales planning, marketing and communication measures, as well as compliance with import regulations and agreements with individual countries on import permits. “Sometimes, it is laborious to talk to ministries of commerce about trade barriers.  This was the case, for instance, during my time as Export Area Manager in Sri Lanka. There, the procedural paths are extremely long and an incredible amount depends on interpersonal relationships. As a European, you can’t even imagine that. On the other hand, we have licensing disputes in other countries. But such challenges are there to be solved.”

He laid the groundwork for such negotiations through his bachelor’s degree in Asian Business Languages and Management and has filled it with plenty of experience over the years. It is clear that Vincent Prinzing is a hands-on doer who, together with his team, has the market under control.

“They just let me get on with it. LIQUI MOLY offers me all the freedom I need. There are hardly any guidelines on how to implement something. I can work that out for myself. Of course, this entails a great deal of responsibility, but that is exactly what is so appealing and exciting. I can put my ideas into practice, get involved and ultimately reap the rewards for the entire company. After all, a lot of jobs are tied to the orders.”

And the planning, as he says, begins on a very small scale: “There are business partners who are completely new to the business. For example, with some we started with five people. But we first had to lay the foundation. Before we could talk about marketing or sales, for example, we had to talk about proper warehousing and occupational safety. Today, the same company has 25 employees. It’s nice when I see people identifying with our brand, living off it and also seeing it as their family.” And so every market is different, as Vincent Prinzing says: “I have to constantly deal with the various markets. Every country needs a different concept, because there are different constraints. How are the people, what vehicles are on the market, what is the political situation, what are the competitors doing, are there any special requirements? You can’t simply go by the book.” And here LIQUI MOLY offers him the perfect stage.

“We are a medium-sized company with very short decision-making paths. Of course, this is also special, because in other companies it is rather unlikely that you will receive a decision and personal feedback from top management directly. Today, I am in management myself and try to keep the decision-making processes short and fast as well. That’s exactly what makes us different. We deal with each other directly, personally and fairly.”

This is also felt by our customers around the world, who receive the same appreciation. Our role in the world of motorsport allows us all to grow together to form a kind of family or to become buddies. Our brand connects hundreds of thousands of people around the world. And in doing so, “every individual is special – that’s the credo we work by!”