Billerbeck steam dairy
The Billerbecker Dampfmolkerei was a collective dairy founded by Josef Suwelack in 1884 , which, thanks to industrial innovations, became one of the largest dairies in Westphalia within four decades of its activity .
history
On September 29, 1884, Josef Suwelack founded the modern steam dairy with 55 farmers from the area around Billerbeck . Unlike many other rural dairies (compare Dampfmolkerei Fahrenwalde ), it was not founded as a farming cooperative , but as a stock corporation . Through the consistent use of innovative industrial production methods, the dairy was able to increase its sales significantly in just a few years. Shortly after it was founded in 1885, the number of milk suppliers rose to 1151 by 1908. At the same time, the dairy relied on the steam centrifuge from the start , which was invented in 1879 just five years ago. This enabled faster skimming and thus also the processing of larger quantities of milk. The skimming process was shortened from several days to an hour.
But not only time, work and space were saved, hygiene and thus the quality of the goods were also improved. Further improvements in dairy technology were the invention of modern cooling units and the pasteurization process , which made milk more durable. At the end of the 19th century, new paths were broken in marketing too, and the first supra-regional dairy farming associations were founded. When margarine was increasingly offered as a surrogate for butter on the consumer market from the mid-1890s , the company broadened its production range. Diversification was achieved through various ancillary businesses: dry milk works, mills, as well as the agricultural trade in the form of grain, concentrate, fertilizer and egg sales and a fruit processing plant. In 1910, the food factory was founded in the form of a GmbH, mainly producing pastries, waffles and biscuits. The dairy had a 50% stake, Josef and his son Richard Suwelack each with 25%. The global economic crisis led this company to bankruptcy in 1924. Josef and Richard Suwelack left the management of the dairy in the same year; The company was then leased to the Gelsenkirchen milk dealer cooperative. The other branches of the company now went their own way. On March 19, 1962, the dairy was closed.
Richard and Wilhelm Suwelack founded the Suwelack company in 1925, which existed until 2011. In 1927 Otto Suwelack founded the permanent milk factory Dr. Otto Suwelack. Josef Suwelack's entrepreneurial legacy lived on in these companies.
Web links
literature
- Katja Rösler: The collective dairy in Billerbeck in the context of small-town development and agricultural modernization around 1900. Hamburg 2012 (Master's thesis, was awarded the Jodocus-Hermann-Nünning-Prize 2013 in Vreden on January 8, 2014 ).
- Suwelack milestones. From the story of an entrepreneurial family. Billerbeck 2010.