Wendelin Wiedeking In Trouble Again, This Time For Pizza Pies

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Remember Wendelin Wiedeking? The dethroned Porsche CEO that saw himself as chief of Volkswagen and possibly the world’s largest automaker, has found a new market niche: Pizza. He started a pizza & pasta chain called Vialino, which hopes to feed the hungry mouths of in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with faux Italian food. Before the first pizza is out of the oven, there is already new trouble: Two German companies feel duped.

There already is a successful chain called Vapiano, and they are irritated by the similarities in the name. Currently, they are planning no legal steps, says Manager Magazin. (Legal steps are more painful when the business is going, which will happen in late December.)

Another Italian fast food chain called L’Osteria discussed a partnership with Wiedeking in 2011, and opened wide for alleged due diligence. No partnership happened.

In the meantime, the criminal probe into Wiedeking and his former finance chief Haerter is still on-going.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • CJinSD CJinSD on Nov 14, 2012

    Now I want pizza.

  • -Cole- -Cole- on Nov 14, 2012

    what a funny picture

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Nov 14, 2012

    Wow, Bertel, I urged you to write a book and then suggested that you fictionalize it when you mentioned the potential wrath of Piech, and here's the sequel, ready to fall into your lap! If you had written the first book, the advance for the sequel would have been in six figures, at least. Incidentally, whatever happened to that blonde foreign mystery woman?

  • Robert Gordon Robert Gordon on Dec 19, 2012

    "Incidentally, whatever happened to that blonde foreign mystery woman?" What happened to the third part of the BMW 'M' Series story?

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