In 2008, he took over as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of BayWa and had since shaped the listed group with activities in the agricultural, building materials, and energy sectors.
In 2013, Lutz was appointed honorary professor of cooperative business administration by the Technical University of Munich.
[12][13] Between 1996 and 2002, Lutz took on leading positions in various industries, such as managing director of the Burda printing plants and board member of i-center,[14] a wholesaler for electrical appliances that had previously belonged to Siemens.
[16] The entire group of companies had fallen into a crisis that threatened its existence due to declining advertising revenues.
Lutz was the lead negotiator in the sale of a majority stake in Süddeutscher Verlag, including Süddeutsche Zeitung, to Südwestdeutsche Medien Holding (SWMH).
[23][5] He took over an economically sound company that had never made a loss since its founding and had announced record profits the year he took office.
[24] However, the group's historically grown structure proved unsustainable, making it difficult to invest in new business areas.
[31][32][33] The acquisition of New Zealand fruit trader Turners & Growers gave BayWa a better position in the Asian market.
[47] In 2013, Lutz was elected chairman of the supervisory board of Euro Pool System International (Rijswijk/Netherlands),[48] a leading logistics company for reusable packaging.