Eckes-Granini Group
| Eckes-Granini Group GmbH
|
|
|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1857 |
| Seat | Nieder-Olm , Germany |
| management |
Thomas Hinderer (CEO) Status: July 2020 |
| Number of employees | around 1719 |
| sales | around EUR 921 million |
| Website | www.eckes-granini.com |
The Eckes-Granini Group GmbH is the largest company in Europe that specializes in the production of fruit juices . The financial holding company Eckes AG , which is also based in Nieder-Olm in Rhineland-Hesse, has been active in the production of beverages in the past.
Company structure
The Eckes-Granini Group GmbH offers fruit juices, fruit juice drinks, fruit syrups, smoothies and fruit-based soft drinks for the food trade and gastronomy.
History and holdings
According to the company, the company's history began in Nieder-Olm, Rhineland-Palatinate, where the haulier and farmer Peter Eckes (1804–1873) laid the foundation for the beverage group in 1857 by founding a distillery with wine by-products. Peter Eckes' descendants were able to expand agriculture and the distillery. In addition to the production of spirits and the production of grape oil and pure tartar , the sale of semi-finished products for the production of finished products was added in 1922. One of the most famous brands was named after Ludwig Eckes ' wife , Marianne Chantré. The company also began manufacturing and marketing fruit juices in the 1920s.
Eckes had the idea to introduce the American culture of orange juice consumption in West Germany. In November 1957, high C was registered in the trademark register. For this purpose, Ludwig Eckes recruited Julius Koch from the Geisenheim research institute and built him his own institute for beverage research in Nieder-Olm. The market launch of high C, the first ready-to-drink orange juice in bottles according to Eckes-Granini Group GmbH, followed in 1958.
The Zinn 40 brand , a clear spirit made from wine that was launched in 1961, is also reminiscent of the tradition of the wine distiller . Another product innovation introduced by Eckes is the wine-based drink Criss , which opened a new market segment in 1974.
After the reunification of Germany, Eckes bought the traditional distillery Nordhäuser (Nordbrand Nordhausen ) and relocated part of its spirits production. Many employees had to move to the new federal states or look for new jobs. With the opening of the borders to Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, Eckes-Granini Group GmbH took over SIÓ-Eckes (Hungary) in 1993. One year later, 74 percent of Granini from the Melitta Group was taken over, and in 2006 the entire takeover .
1995 Eckes bought the Italian competitor Stock Spa . Eckes & Stock was one of the leading branded spirits manufacturers in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Italy with brands such as Chantré , Mariacron , Grappa Julia and Stroh Inländer Rum . In the following years attempts were made to use the well-known brand names for the introduction of various international branded wine lines. This is how Collection de Chantré (French wines), Mederano de Freixenet (Spanish wines) and Passione di JULIA (Italian wines) came into being. A joint venture with Freixenet sold Cava in Germany until 2006 .
In November 2006 Eckes sold the German spirits business to the Rotkäppchen-Mumm sparkling wine cellars . This was partly an intra-family business, because Rotkäppchen-Mumm mostly belongs to the Eckes-Chantré family, one of the four Eckes family lines. In 2007 the company sold the spirits business to investor Oaktree Capital Management . Eckes-Granini Group GmbH thus completely withdrew from the spirits business, while further partnerships and takeovers followed.
Present participations
At the end of 2012, the company acquired the Austrian fruit juice manufacturer Pago from Brau Union Österreich AG . In 2016 it was taken over by Rynkeby Food A / S. In mid-2018, Eckes-Granini Group GmbH also acquired shares in the smoothie producer true fruits.
Brands and products
Today the Eckes-Granini Group only offers fruit juices or products based on them. The portfolio includes the international, so-called “ premium brands ” granini (24%) and Pago (7%) as well as regional brands such as high C (19%) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary, Joker in France and Yo in Austria , Germany and the Czech Republic, God Morgon (6%), Brämhults and Rynkeby (6%) in the Nordic countries, Marli (3%) in Finland, SIÓ (3%) in Hungary, Elmenhorster in Lithuania and Mehukatti in Finland. (Proportion of total sales 2019, if broken down, in brackets)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eckes-Granini Group / Our Management. Retrieved July 27, 2020 .
- ↑ a b https://www.eckes-granini.com/fileadmin/eckesgranini/eckes-granini.com/PDFs/EGR_GB_2019_DE.pdf
- ↑ Juice ranking: Eckes-Granini leads the juice industry . In: Lebensmittelzeitung.net . ( Lebensmittelzeitung.net [accessed October 26, 2018]).
- ↑ history . ( eckes-granini.com [accessed October 26, 2018]).
- ↑ Eckes-Granini Deutschland GmbH: Orange / Klassiker / Home - high C - rich in natural vitamin C. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 6, 2018 ; accessed on October 26, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Hungary . ( eckes-granini.com [accessed October 26, 2018]).
- ↑ 1990s . ( eckes-granini.com [accessed October 26, 2018]).
- ↑ Eckes-Granini sells spirits division . ( finance-magazin.de [accessed October 26, 2018]).
- ↑ . Arla sells Rynkeby Foods A / S to the Eckes-Granini Group. Retrieved October 26, 2018 (German).
- ↑ Beverage manufacturer: Eckes-Granini buys true fruits from smoothie manufacturer . ( handelsblatt.com [accessed October 26, 2018]).
- ↑ Brands. Eckes-Granini Group GmbH, accessed on April 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Eckes-Granini - Annual Report 2019 (PDF 17.8 MB) Eckes-Granini Group GmbH, May 2019, p. 12 , accessed on May 27, 2020 .
