Tönnies Holding

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Tönnies Holding ApS & Co. KG

logo
legal form ApS & Co. KG
founding 1971
Seat Rheda-Wiedenbrück , Germany
management
  • Andres Ruff
  • Daniel Nottbrock
  • Stefan Gros
Number of employees 9007 (2018)
sales 6.1 billion euros (2018)
Branch Food , meat processing
Website toennies.de
As of December 31, 2018

Tönnies main plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück (2006)

The Tönnies Holding [ tœnjəs ] is part of the food industry , based in Rheda-Wiedenbrück . The family is Germany's largest slaughterhouse for pigs. Tönnies is also active in meat processing and is involved in numerous food companies. Clemens Tönnies and his nephew Robert Tönnies are equal owners .

The Tönnies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrück has been the cause of the largest mass infection during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany since June 2020 . Due to the working conditions in the slaughterhouse in Tönnies, over 1700 people (Tönnies factory employees and their relatives) have been infected with COVID-19.

Company history

Company foundation (1971)

The company emerged from a small artisanal butcher's business in Rheda . In 1971 Bernd Tönnies founded a company for meat and sausage trading in Rheda-Wiedenbrück . His business idea was not just to slaughter animals, but to offer the meat directly as finished products for the food retail trade . To this end, slaughtering and deboning with a high level of machine use have been bundled centrally. Because of the rapid expansion and the tight location in Rheda, the company moved to neighboring Herzebrock in 1975 . With around 60 employees, production was carried out at the new location from 1977 until the need for structural extensions arose here too. The company, now run by the brothers Bernd and Clemens Tönnies, was to return to their hometown according to the wishes of the two brothers. In the course of the 1980s, the plans for a large-scale new building for the company on the green field became more concrete . The planning implementation was carried out by the Austrian architecture firm ATP Architekten und Ingenieure , Innsbruck. In 1992 the new dismantling plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück with 400 workplaces was put into operation. In 1990 Tönnies acquired the slaughterhouse in Weißenfels ( Saxony-Anhalt ), which looks back on a tradition dating back to 1898.

Death of Bernd Tönnies (1994)

Bernd Tönnies died on July 1, 1994 of the consequences of a lung infection after a kidney transplant . He left his two sons, Robert and Clemens jun., A million dollar fortune and 50% of the property rights of his company. His younger brother Clemens , who owns the other 50% of Tönnies Holding, took over the management and has been responsible for corporate development ever since.

Expansion into Germany's largest slaughterhouse for pigs (from 1997)

The Tönnies Group was supplemented by the slaughterhouse completed in 1997 and since then has formed a production unit with 3,200 employees (as of 2007) and a covered production area of ​​50,000 m² (self-reported as of 2000). The sales department ( meat exchange ), which was completed in 2001, is intended to ensure short distances and information on all of the company's product lines. In 2007, Tönnies opened a new logistics center in Rheda-Wiedenbrück which, according to the industry, is the most modern of its kind in Europe. The new logistics center is designed to meet the requirements of the sensitive 0 to 2 degrees Celsius area ( minced meat products, etc.). In July 2011 it was announced that Clemens Tönnies would take over 100 percent of the Zur Mühlen Group within three years .

In 2013 the company began building a factory for raw heparin , which is extracted from the intestinal lining of pigs. It went into operation on November 4, 2014.

As of mid-2014, the Federal Cartel Office had imposed fines totaling 338 million euros on 21 sausage manufacturers and 33 responsible persons for illegal price fixing in the meat industry; the investigations into this had been ongoing since 2009. These included Tönnies companies. In mid-October 2016, the Cartel Office was unable to collect a fine of 128 million euros for proven price agreements from the Tönnies subsidiaries Böklunder Plumrose and Könecke Fleischwarenfabrik because the subsidiaries were liquidated in good time, which became known as the sausage gap . The Tönnies Holding had the activities with a simple and effective trick Böklunder Plumrose and Könecke Fleischwarenfabrik to other companies of its affiliate company to mills Group transfer and its subsidiaries subsequently liquidated. Since the Tönnies companies no longer existed legally, there was no longer any addressee for the fine notices and the fine proceedings were consequently discontinued. Clemens Tönnies himself disputed this representation, since according to his representation the renovation had already started before the fines were issued.

In November 2014, Tönnies announced the intention to take over the beef division of the Lower Saxon meat processor Gausepohl to the cartel office for examination, but in the same month again withdrew from the project, whereupon Gausepohl filed for insolvency for this division. With retroactive effect from October 1, 2015, Tönnies took over one of the largest Danish pig butchers , the Tican group.

In November 2019, the Bielefeld Regional Court sentenced three former employees of the group to imprisonment between three and four years and payment of 210,000 euros to the state treasury. Since the beginning of 2016, they had manipulated scales with employees of two Polish companies and swindled 3.5 million euros for undelivered goods.

Group structure

The Tönnies group with several subsidiaries is spread over different locations . Overall, the group is divided into seven divisions: Meat, Convenience , Sausages, Ingredients, Logistics , International and Central Services. There are German production sites in Rheda-Wiedenbrück , Sögel , Wilhelmshaven , Kellinghusen , Badbergen , Kempten , Weißenfels ( Saxony-Anhalt ) and Brandenburg an der Havel, among others . The companies in Weißenfels and Rheda-Wiedenbrück have approvals for the EU and Japan . The plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück also fulfills the hygiene regulations for exports to Europe, Asia, the USA, Australia and South Africa . Tönnies also has production sites in Denmark, Poland, Great Britain and France.

In 2016, Tönnies companies slaughtered 20.4 million pigs worldwide, 16.2 million of them in Germany. This makes the group the market leader in pig slaughtering in Germany. The sales in fiscal 2016 amounted to approximately 6.35 billion euros. Meat products manufactured at Tönnies are sold under the brand name Tillman’s and under the retailer 's own brands such as Landjunker ( Lidl ) and Meine Metzgerei ( Aldi Nord / Aldi Süd ) in discounters , but also via Rewe , Edeka (Gut & Favorable) or Kaufland (K -Classic) . According to the Lebensmittel Zeitung , the company is one of the largest suppliers to the German food trade . Tönnies Holding is involved in the following companies:

  • Pasture mark
  • Jade Schlachthof, Wilhelmshaven
  • Tevex Logistics GmbH
  • Reisinger Schlachthof GmbH
  • Schlachthof Gütersloh GmbH
  • Schlachthof Beckum GmbH
  • Union Protein GmbH
  • Tönnies Software Innovation GmbH
  • Slagteriet Brørup A / S (SB Pork A / S)
  • Purchasing Alliance North GmbH
  • FIRoWa Handels GmbH
  • B. & C. Tönnies Holding GmbH u. Co. KG
  • SB-Fleischwaren GmbH
  • Tönnies Foodservice GmbH
  • Garant Fleischnebenprodukte GmbH Rheda-Wiedenbrück
  • Tönnies Außenhandels Beteiligungs GmbH
  • B. & C. Tönnies Bauplanungs-GmbH
  • KUB Unternehmensbeteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
  • WestfalenGelatine GmbH
  • Rüdiger Thomsen EG-Zerlegebetrieb GmbH

Criticism and controversy

The company had been suspected of fraud since September 2007. The prosecution investigated. During the course of the proceedings, it became clear that this allegation was being made by competitors . Tönnies was able to prove that an employee of the calibration office had deliberately manipulated scales in order to substantiate the charge of fraud. Der Spiegel researched intensively in this connection and raised the question of the extent to which the allegations were not part of a campaign by the largest competitor Vion NV , which had apparently failed with an attempt to take over. On December 15, 2010, the Essen Regional Court announced that it would not admit charges of fraud and that the Bochum public prosecutor's charge had finally been dismissed. Spiegel Online described the setting as a "bitter defeat for the Bochum public prosecutor's office".

In November 2009, Report Mainz reported that the public prosecutor's offices in Oldenburg and Bielefeld were investigating Tönnies' subcontractors on suspicion of bribery and tax evasion. According to the public prosecutor's office, the companies are said to have declared bribes to Tönnies in the millions as operating expenses. The bribes are said to have been paid in order to receive preferential work contracts for low-wage workers from Tönnies. The magazine also reported that the Bielefeld public prosecutor's office was investigating another former Tönnies subcontractor, a German businessman living in Lithuania, for bribery and tax evasion. A well-known subcontractor was sentenced to several years imprisonment for 107 times tax evasion.

At the end of August 2011, criminal proceedings against Clemens Tönnies and seven senior executives of the group for incorrect labeling were discontinued by the Essen regional court against a circulation of 2.89 million euros. The proceedings were based on the allegation that the mixed minced meat supplied to supermarket chains contained a lower proportion of beef than stated on the packaging.

In the Ems behind the Rheda-Wiedenbrück sewage treatment plant, a high level of contamination with multi-resistant bacteria , even immune to reserve antibiotics, was detected in 2019 and a connection with Tönnies wastewater was suspected.

Poor working conditions

The high proportion of low-wage employees had put Tönnie's meat factory in the limelight of the political discussion. In addition, the company's employment policy - also because of the accommodation of the workers in collective accommodation - at the Rheda-Wiedenbrück location had led to nationwide criticism. In 2007, the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labor Gerd Andres named the Tönnies company as an example of unsustainable conditions in the meat industry at a press conference . Andres emphasized that the company had 2000 Eastern European and 250 German employees at its plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Andres accepted a personal invitation from Tönnies a few weeks after his statements, visited the headquarters in Rheda-Wiedenbrück and then made positive comments about the company.

In April 2008, the ARD magazine Report Mainz reported that Tönnies employees were under video surveillance. According to witness statements, company employees themselves were filmed in changing rooms and toilets with extensive camera surveillance. The company partially admitted video surveillance to Report Mainz and justified it with hygiene controls. The cleaning of hands and the putting on of protective clothing are monitored. "Cloakroom rooms, [...] but in no case showers or changing rooms are filmed. In all cases the surveillance is carried out by visible cameras. [...] The employee representatives have also been informed and have expressly agreed to this system. ”However, according to the union, Tönnies has neither a works council nor any other legally authorized employee representation. The company observed its employees with over 200 cameras in all operational facilities, including the shower and changing areas. The evidence was clear; Tönnies agreed to a fine of € 80,000.

In the summer of 2013, the broadcaster ARD reported in the report Germany's new slums - the business with immigrants from poverty that the Tönnies meat factory in Rheda-Wiedenbrück would work through subcontractors from south-east European meat cutters. The article reported on specific cases in which pay below the minimum wage, overtime, lack of health insurance, threat of dismissal, dismissal in the event of illness and dangerous work clothing were characteristics of the employment of workers. According to the food-pleasure-restaurants union , this was practiced for two decades until 2020. The subcontractors, mostly limited liability companies run by Eastern European bosses, had also acted as accommodation organizers for the employees; they would not have rented apartments or rooms to the employees, but only beds for some 300 euros a month. According to the food-pleasure-restaurants union , Tönnies had tried to smash all union structures at the Zur-Mühlen-Gruppe subsidiary .

In 2020, the magazine Emma reported that a third of the approximately 7,000 workers were women who also did heavy work on the production line and were also exposed to sexual harassment and assault, for example by foremen. This also leads to unwanted pregnancies, which are concealed for fear of losing one's job.

For some time now, NRW Labor Minister Karl-Josef Laumann has been criticizing the poor working conditions in German slaughterhouses . Laumann calls for a radical change in the German meat industry:

“I've stopped being angry about the conditions in the meat industry. I've known how they are for a long time. In structures without transparency, such as in the meat industry, there can be no trust, only clear legal requirements. "

- Karl-Josef Laumann

Rat infestation in Tönnies meat (2020)

Rats have settled in a cold store for food in Dissen am Teutoburg Forest (Lower Saxony), where meat from Tönnies was also stored . Feces pills, walkways, remains of fur and signs of the rats' nest building were found to an extent that indicates a very large rat population, according to a statement from the 3rd Chamber of the Osnabrück Administrative Court. When asked, André Vielstädte, spokesman for the Tönnies Group, confirmed that the cold store had been used sporadically to a small extent, for example for the storage of goods. Tönnies does not seem to be responsible for the rodent infestation himself. The company assures that the meat concerned has been seized.

Corona infections (2020)

Clemens Tönnies , co-owner and managing director of Tönnies Holding (2017)

In June 2020, officially ordered mass tests for the SARS-CoV-2 virus showed that 6,139 Tönnies factory employees tested at the Tönnies main plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück had infected 1,413 employees, as well as a further 353 people in the vicinity of these employees, in total 1,766. There are also other infected people in the double-digit range (as of June 24, 2020 / Prime Minister Armin Laschet in his speech in the Düsseldorf state parliament).

At the beginning of May, there was a similar incident with numerous infections with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in a Westfleisch slaughterhouse in Coesfeld . In this context, a spokesman for Tönnies said: "We were asked in the food industry eight weeks ago to continue working during the lockdown, such as hospitals, nursing homes and the energy supply ... knowing that we have an increased risk of infection." if this order has been fulfilled, despite the considerable measures that Tönnies is implementing, there remains a residual risk - as in hospitals or nursing homes. "In the light of this well-known conflict of goals, an entire industry must not now be placed under general suspicion," said the spokesman. At that time there was no increased infection rate in the Gütersloh district , in mid-May the district announced that none of the 784 tests evaluated at Tönnies at the time had been positive.

Since the coronavirus outbreak in the Tönnies meat factory, the Bielefeld public prosecutor's office has been investigating the initial suspicion of negligent bodily harm and violation of the Infection Protection Act . According to Chief Public Prosecutor Martin Temmen, there are five criminal charges that give rise to the investigation. Among other things, the parliamentary managing director of the Bundestag faction of the Greens , Britta Haßelmann , filed a criminal complaint against the Tönnies Group.

Criticism of Sigmar Gabriel's consultancy work

Federal Minister of Economics a. D. Sigmar Gabriel worked for Tönnies Holding in 2020

At the end of June 2020 it was announced that Sigmar Gabriel , contrary to his criticism of the Tönnies company, had been working in an advisory capacity for Tönnies Holding for three months until May 31, 2020. Gabriel said he was supposed to find out which trade restrictions for meat products when exporting to Asia in the wake of the African swine fever were planned and how export permits could still be obtained. The monthly fee is said to have amounted to 10,000 euros (gross).

In a letter from which the Bild newspaper quoted in July 2020, Robert Tönnies (co-owner of Tönnies Holding) had raised corresponding allegations. In the letter, Robert Tönnies asks whether the fee for Gabriel can be understood as a retrospective reward for advantages of the company during the time of government activity. He feared considerable damage if it were publicly discussed whether Gabriel had helped to suppress the cartel fine that the Federal Cartel Office had initiated against the meat company in 2013. The Federal Cartel Office is subordinate to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Gabriel said:

“He (Sigmar Gabriel) doesn't know Robert Tönnies 'letter, but he knows that Clemens Tönnies' nephew is enemies of Clemens. But he doesn't want to comment on these family disputes. "

- Sigmar Gabriel

Coronavirus outbreak restrictions

CDU district administrator Sven-Georg Adenauer ordered a production stop. The slaughtering has stopped, but the meat of animals that have already been slaughtered can still be processed. In addition, a quarantine of at least 14 days was ordered for all 7000 employees including the management level including Clemens Tönnies, and a work quarantine applies to some of the Tönnies employees who did not test positive; that is, they are only allowed to move between their place of residence and their place of work. Schools and day care centers in the Gütersloh district were closed until the 2020 summer holidays. Also affected were the neighboring district of Warendorf and the city of Bielefeld , which had excluded the children of Tönnies employees from attending school. According to Adenauer, the German market was short of 20 percent of meat products due to the discontinuation of production. A spokesman for Tönnies named the return of workers after home leave in Bulgaria and Romania and the necessary cooling in areas of the company as possible reasons for the numerous infections. North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet initially took over Tönnies' allegation about the outbreak without having any evidence and said "... because Romanians and Bulgarians came here and the virus comes from". This statement sparked criticism from the public, and sometimes even outrage. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil criticized Laschet's claim. Isabella Eckerle, head of the Emerging Viruses research group in the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University of Geneva , on the other hand, considers home leave over long weekends to be an unlikely cause due to the relatively long incubation period. The high number of employees affected indicates an unnoticed, long-term “ superspreading event” in the company. According to its own information, the Tönnies Group is trying to increase production at other locations in order to compensate for failures.

On June 22nd, Laschet did not rule out a lockdown for the entire Gütersloh district; But this is not necessary because the outbreak can be localized. The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach sharply criticized Laschet's stance against a lockdown in the region and warned against free travel from the Gütersloh region (“I'm sure that significantly more people outside of the workforce are now infected”). According to epidemiologists, the virus could spread very widely. On June 23, 2020, Prime Minister Laschet announced renewed contact restrictions (lockdown) for the Gütersloh district until June 30, 2020. In the Gütersloh district it is the "largest infection incident" in Germany to date. In the Warendorf district , in which numerous Tönnies employees live, the contact restrictions applicable in the Gütersloh district were also put into effect. In addition, indoor sports and numerous cultural events are banned, said the Minister of Health of North Rhine-Westphalia Karl-Josef Laumann . From June 25, schools and daycare centers in the Warendorf district will also be closed. On June 29, 2020, the lockdown for the Warendorf district was lifted from July 1, 2020 and extended to July 7 for the Gütersloh district. The Münster Higher Administrative Court lifted the extended corona restrictions for the Gütersloh district on July 6, 2020. After the Corona outbreak, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia should have issued a more differentiated regulation among the employees of the meat processor Tönnies. A lockdown for the whole circle would therefore no longer be proportionate. A similar decision by the state government was anticipated, according to the district administrator of the Gütersloh district, Sven-Georg Adenauer. With a few exceptions, most new infections occurred at the beginning of July 2020, according to the Gütersloh district, in people related to the Tönnies butchery.

On June 29, 2020, after several talks between NRW Prime Minister Laschet and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, Austria withdrew the general travel warning for all of North Rhine-Westphalia issued after the severe coronavirus outbreak at the Tönnies meat company and limited it to the districts affected by the infection.

On July 15, 2020, the Rheda-Wiedenbrück city administration lifted the ordered production stop for the slaughter (not for the division) of the animals with immediate effect. Martin Exner , professor at the Chair of Hygiene at the University of Bonn, sees the measures taken as a model for other companies: "We now have a very well-balanced hygiene concept that can become a blueprint for other companies throughout Germany." UV rays are used to circulate the air, the minimum distance between workers is increased and it is mandatory to wear mouth and nose protection.

Dissemination of SARS-CoV-2 by Tönnies employees

The coronavirus outbreak at Germany's largest meat producer Tönnies may be related to the large outbreak at competitor Westcrown . In the phase shortly before the first major infection event at Tönnies in mid-May, according to information from t-online.de, there were several meetings between employees of both companies who later tested positive for Corona. According to the Tönnies company and the Gütersloh district, individual employees became infected in a church service in the vicinity and then returned to the company unsuspecting. The pathogen may have been carried into the church by Westcrown employees from nearby Dissen. According to information from the district of Osnabrück, other employees from both companies met in a restaurant around the same time. In this case, too, chains of infection are further identified.

Problems in identifying contract workers

Employees were advised in advance to go to their place of residence in the event of illness. They were advised to remain silent about the situation and not attract any attention. The subcontractors threatened them with dismissal. The district of Gütersloh accused the Tönnies Holding of not cooperating in passing on the residential addresses of the employees concerned. Company boss Clemens Tönnies denied this and referred to data protection problems, since the affected employees are employed by subcontractors at Tönnies through a work contract. After a written official request, Tönnies received the necessary data from the service providers.

Demonstration on company premises in Rheda-Wiedenbrück

On July 4, 2020, more than 100 demonstrators demonstrated in front of the Tönnies Group's premises in Rheda-Wiedenbrück against slaughter and working conditions in the meat industry. Activists occupied the roof of the Tönnies factory and called for an end to the meat factory. They put up a banner saying "Shut Down Animal Industry". During the protests against Tönnies, demonstrators also blocked the main entrance to the meat factory and demanded on banners “Close slaughterhouses!” And “Stop the exploitation of people, animals and nature”.

Criticism for reimbursement of wages

The Tönnies slaughterhouse and subcontractors who worked for Tönnies have submitted applications to the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe for the reimbursement of wage costs by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The background is the quarantine measures that were imposed after the massive corona outbreak among Tönnies workers at the headquarters in Rheda-Wiedenbrück. The Infection Protection Act provides for a reimbursement if health authorities close a company and order quarantine. Tönnies' applications for reimbursement of wage costs have met with criticism nationwide.

Federal Minister of Agriculture Julia Klöckner criticized the signaling effect that such a demand brings with it:

“I have little understanding for that. An entire region has been affected by the incidents. The anger of the citizens about it will certainly not decrease with the current procedure. "

- Julia Kloeckner

For Green Party leader Anton Hofreiter , Tönnies' motions are proof that the company's announcements:

“They were just empty words and you can't trust the company management. It is bold how Tönnies now wants to cash in. Anyone who relies on a system of exploitation, risks people's health and is jointly responsible for ordered quarantine measures, should better hold back from exhausting possible claims for reimbursement. "

- Anton Hofreiter

The FDP - Secretary Linda Teuteberg urged the company to now to take responsibility, which it previously had are lacking in health:

“An entire region has already been taken hostage for this. I find it indecent to want to keep yourself harmless at the expense of the taxpayer. "

- Linda Teuteberg

In Tönnies laws are disregarded, claims the Schleswig-Holstein SPD parliamentary group leader Ralf Stegner and suggests a prison sentence for Clemens Tönnies:

“Real exploitation takes place there. He (Clemens Tönnies) has a lot to do with the fact that we had a corona hotspot there. Such a person does not need government aid through taxpayers' money, they should be held accountable. Perhaps one day he will be given state board and lodging. "

- Ralf Stegner

The North Rhine-Westphalia Labor Minister Karl-Josef Laumann clearly contradicts Tönnies' demand for wage reimbursement :

“I believe that the Tönnies problem has cost the public authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia a lot of money. Both the two counties and us. If Mr. Tönnies really had claims against us, then I'm a person who wants things to be offset against each other. As of today, I don't see that Mr. Tönnies can expect any transfers from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. "

- Karl-Josef Laumann

Compensation claims against the slaughterhouse company Tönnies

Clemens Tönnies wants to continue to take responsibility for the Tönnies Holding despite ongoing criticism of his management

Several traders and private individuals from the Gütersloh district are demanding compensation and have reported Tönnies. According to the Bielefeld public prosecutor's office, around 50 criminal charges have been received so far. The criminal charges were directed against Clemens Tönnies personally, the company management or against unknown persons because of violations of the Infection Protection Act or negligent bodily harm.

Despite strong criticism, CEO Clemens Tönnies wants to enforce reimbursement of wages because of the official closure of his main plant. About a possible resignation from the management at Tönnies he stated:

"No. When the sea is rough, the captain belongs on the bridge, not in the bunk. Of course I won't go out here with the rollator. Life is too good for that. I am looking forward to the birth of my second granddaughter. These are good prospects. "

- Clemens Tönnies

Constant dispute within the Tönnies family (since 2011)

In 2011 there was a dispute between Robert Tönnies and his uncle Clemens Tönnies over the management of the company. Both own half of the shares in the company. Robert Tönnies is demanding back 5 percent of the company shares that he gave to his uncle in 2009. With this share, Robert Tönnies would have the majority of the votes. The employees have clearly sided with Clemens Tönnies in the dispute. Robert Tönnies is accompanied by the lawyer Mark Binz and a communication agency called CNC . Clemens Tönnies is represented in the dispute by attorney Michael Hoffmann-Becking . In May 2015, the media reported that Clemens and Robert Tönnies were about to reach a dispute settlement that took place in April 2017. At the end of 2019, the dispute flared up again over a controversial China project for an amount of 500 million euros, about which Robert Tönnies was not informed.

After numerous employees at the Tönnies main plant in Rheda-Wiedenbrück became infected with SARS-CoV-2 in June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany , Robert Tönnies wrote a letter calling for Clemens Tönnies to resign from the management. In the letter, Robert Tönnies accuses the management and the advisory board of the group of acting irresponsibly and of endangering the company and the population. The company guidelines for the abolition of work contracts, which have been in force since 2017, have never been implemented.

Public engagement

Company founder Bernd Tönnies has been committed to the traditional Bundesliga club FC Schalke 04 since 1994 . On February 7, 1994, Bernd Tönnies was elected the new president at an extraordinary general assembly. Before the election, the association's statutes had to be changed because Bernd Tönnies had not been a member of the association for a full year. A short time later, on July 1, 1994 , Bernd Tönnies died at the age of 42 as a result of a kidney transplant. Clemens Tönnies has been a member of the FC Schalke 04 supervisory board since 1994 and its chairman since 2001. On June 30, 2020, Tönnies resigned as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. The association Meat for the Joy of Children, founded in 2004 . V. organizes the German dismantling championship every year and also collects donations for children in need . In 2007 the association was part of Aktion Kindertäume - Verein der deutschen Fleischwirtschaft e. V. renamed. The Bernd Tönnies Prize recognizes publications as well as scientific or journalistic work that deal with aspects of animal welfare or animal welfare-related keeping of farm animals. The prize is awarded at irregular intervals by the non-profit society for the promotion of research on the future of animal welfare in livestock husbandry , Tönnies research for short . The € 10,000 prize was awarded for the first time on November 3, 2011 and went to the editor in the Nature and Science section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Christina Hucklenbroich . After FSV Gütersloh was promoted to the women's Bundesliga in 2009 , Tönnies became the club's main sponsor. Since then, the club has played its home games in the Tönnies Arena, which was built in 2012 . Due to the events related to the coronavirus outbreak, DSC Arminia Bielefeld decided not to extend the advertising partnership with Tönnies that had existed since July 2019 at the end of the season, but rather to let it expire.

literature

  • Jürgen Wiebicke : On foot through a nervous country: In search of what holds us together . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2016. ISBN 978-3-46204950-3 (describes, among other things, the visit to the meat factory in 2015)

Web links

Commons : Tönnies  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Consolidated financial statements for the 2018 financial year of Tönnies Holding ApS & Co. KG. In: Bundesanzeiger , February 17, 2020. Retrieved from the company register on May 17, 2020.
  2. Helmut Bünder, Jan Grossarth: Sausage manufacturer Tönnies presents the cartel office. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 3, 2015, accessed June 28, 2015 .
  3. https://www.haller-kreisblatt.de/region/22823012_Corona-Skandal-bei-Toennies-wird-verfilmt.html
  4. https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/unter-quarantaene-estand-toennies-mitarbeiter-lieferten-waren-aus-100.html
  5. https://www.come-on.de/verbrauch/aldi-lidl-rewe-edeka-corona-toennies-fleisch-wurst-essen-supermarkt-discounter-nrw-guetersloh-zr-13821976.html
  6. Food Practice & Meat Industry from March 12, 2008
  7. Tönnies expands its sausage empire
  8. kma-online.de: Tönnies starts building a heparin factory
  9. Press release Tönnies: Groundbreaking ceremony for the world's most modern heparin production facility
  10. Pharma Action plant starts production , press release from Tönnies Holding GmbH & Co. KG
  11. a b tagesschau.de of October 19, 2016: Cartel Office relies on the end of the "Wurstlücke" , accessed on October 25, 2016
  12. Tönnies writes legal history with the "Wurst-Lücke" , Welt Online article from October 19, 2016
  13. Tönnies plans to take over the beef division of Gausepohl , top agrar online, November 10, 2014
  14. Purchase price too high? Tönnies cancels Gausepohl takeover , Handelsblatt, November 21, 2014
  15. Gausepohl files for bankruptcy for beef division , top agrar online, November 25, 2014
  16. Tönnies is allowed to take over Tican ( Memento from April 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). agrarheute.com, February 29, 2016
  17. https://www.derwesten.de/region/clemens-toennies-um-3-5-millionen-euro-betrogen-er-hat-drastische-stufen-angekuendigt-id227634049.html
  18. Toennis homepage: Locations accessed on September 25, 2019
  19. Forum Manager - Guest: Clemens Tönnies ( Memento from May 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  20. Tönnies increases capacity in Jade Schlachthof Wilhelmshaven , accessed on March 29, 2016
  21. Logistics division: Distribution, storage, logistics . Tönnies website, accessed June 28, 2015.
  22. Alfons Deter: Tönnies takes over Thomsen from Schleswig-Holstein , March 20, 2015
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Coordinates: 51 ° 51 ′ 48 ″  N , 8 ° 19 ′ 20 ″  E