Hilde Umdasch, an entrepreneur, died on Saturday at the age of 83 following a short illness. Born in Amstetten, she was a stockholder in the Umdasch Group and Bellaflora until the end.
During her tenure as CEO of the Umdasch Group, she and her brother Alfred spearheaded the group’s foreign expansion, setting the groundwork for the company’s current global success. Umdasch is considered Lower Austria’s largest private industrial enterprise.
She retired to the supervisory board in 1999. Umdasch also started bellaflora in 1976, which she later grew into a garden store network across Austria.
“She was an entrepreneur with a clear compass of values, a great sense of responsibility and entrepreneurial vision. Her work was characterized by a deep bond with her companies and employees. At the same time, her actions were always accompanied by a high degree of social responsibility and social commitment,” the Umdasch Group said in a press release on Monday.
Umdasch used her foundation to build the Hilde Umdasch House in 2015. The home serves critically sick children, adolescents, and their families. Patients with a “life-shortening” diagnosis and very complicated care demands might get inpatient treatment.
In addition, the home features residential quarters for parents and provides short-term and long-term care to impacted children and their parents, as well as hospice and crisis services. The Malteser Kinderhilfe runs the residence.
“With Hilde Umdasch, Lower Austria loses a great entrepreneur who always combined economic success with a high level of social responsibility,” Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) remarked. Her work was distinguished by vision, inventive power, and a strong connection to her own region and the province of Lower Austria. In doing so, she not only shaped the Umdasch Group’s success story but also authored a significant chapter in Lower Austria’s economic history,” stated the Governor.
In a press release, the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV) expressed its great sadness over Hilde Umdasch’s death and praised her as an “extraordinary entrepreneurial personality”. Umdasch served on both the IV Federal Board and the IV Lower Austria Board for many years.
Hilde Umdasch exemplified boldness, vision, and entrepreneurial responsibility. With her dedication, she provided significant impetus for Lower Austria as a business site,” stated Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce President Wolfgang Ecker. “We mourn the loss of an outstanding entrepreneur whose contributions to industry in Lower Austria will not be forgotten,” says Johannes Schedlbauer, Director of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce.
