Lambertz Group

Aachen printen and chocolate factory Henry Lambertz GmbH & Co. KG
legal form	GmbH & Co. KG
founding	September 15, 1688 (original foundation) July 8, 1899 (entry of the name patent)
Seat	Aachen , North Rhine-Westphalia
management	Thomas Ulrich Wrede
Number of employees	540 (2019)
sales	355.2 million euros (2018/19)
Branch	food industry
Website	www.lambertz.de

The Aachen Printen- und Schokoladenfabrik Henry Lambertz GmbH & Co. KG (Lambertz Group) is one of the leading German manufacturers of baked goods and the world market leader in autumn and Christmas biscuits . Its name goes back to the master baker and pastry chef Henry Lambertz , who led the company to the purveyor to the court with his new creations in the mid-19th century . The Lambertz Group sells its products through specialist and food retailers as well as predominantly through discounters , around half of which have their own and brand names. The company's extensive range includes chocolate products , Florentines , biscuit mixes, long-life baked goods , filled waffle products , ready -made cakes , pralines and marzipan as well as nougat products. In addition, there are seasonal items, which make up about half of the total production, such as Aachener Printen , Christmas stollen , gingerbread products , dominoes , cinnamon stars , pepper nuts and speculoos . In addition, organic products and vitality baked goods for wellness, fitness and diet have been added to the range.

history

Lambertz headquarters at Markt 7 around 1900

Advert 1874

Historical print box

The origins of the company go back to the "original founder" Zacharias Kreinsz, who in 1688 received the concession to set up a bakery in house Markt 7 in Aachen. This house was known as the Green Shield House at the time and was later renamed the Sun House . In 1831 the confectioner Johann Werner Lambertz from Erkelenz settled in Aachen, his son Henry Lambertz after training in his father's business and further training in Huy , Belgium , in particular in the field of printen and chocolate production, finally took over the house in 1860 Sonne am Markt 7, in which the pastry and confectionery of the now retired Franz Fromm was located. Here Lambertz now produced all kinds of confectionery as well as pralines, dragees , jellies, desserts and canned fruits, as well as syrups , liqueurs and punch essences and, above all, Printen. This former bread from the Dinant area in Belgium, known as “Couques de Dinant”, was originally distributed by migrant workers, especially the copper bats here . Farin sugar and sugar beet syrup had been added to this structured bread instead of cane sugar , which was no longer available on the market, since the continental barrier , which led to a correspondingly darker, coarser, tougher and difficult to shape dough. However, this dough had the advantage of being able to be shaped and produced in the factory without any problems. This made this Printen type much more suitable for shipping and thus for opening up new Printen markets. After the list of ingredients had already been changed around 1820 by adding cinnamon , aniseed , cloves , green cardamom , coriander , allspice , but also orange peel and ginger , which led to the development of the herb print, Henry Lambertz began working in his business in 1860 the production of chocolate and now created the chocolate print.

From 1872 at the latest, the company was awarded the title of purveyor to the court by three noble houses, after having regularly supplied its products to the Belgian, Dutch and Prussian royal families, among others. The house's sun emblem has now also been adopted as the company logo. Lambertz expanded its range to include English biscuits , domestic and foreign liqueurs and medicinal tokens . In 1874 the company was equipped with a steam engine and in 1876 a branch was opened at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz 10.

Due to a serious gallbladder disease, Henry Lambertz decided with notarial effect on September 16, 1878 to sell his business in Haus zur Sonne to the former brewer Christian Geller (1829-1914), a relative from a branch of the Lambertz family. In 1895, his sons Wilhelm (1867–1939) and Josef Geller (1869–1918) joined the management. One year after Henry Lambertz's death in 1899, the company was continued under the sole name of "Henry Lambertz" and was registered as a protected word mark at the German Patent and Trademark Office on July 8, 1899 and registered on October 4, 1899, classified under confectioners and Baked goods of all kinds. Geller was also able to take over the term “court supplier”. At that time, the overall company included the headquarters on the market with the rear entrance in Augustinergasse, in which the factory was also located, the branch on Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz and another one on Dahmengraben 16. In 1900, among other things, was built on Bergdriesch 6/12 in Aachen a new factory. After the considerable destruction in the Second World War , the entire company was rebuilt at Bergdriesch by the economist Karl F. Kittelberger, who married Wilhelm Geller's daughter Paula (1898–1984) and heiress of the company and who had meanwhile taken over the management. At the beginning of the 1960s, Kittelberger relocated the company again and set up the headquarters in the Laurensberg district of Aachen in Borchersstraße, which is still valid today. At that time Lambertz was still a pure print manufacturer and only supplied specialist shops, which put the company's survival at risk in the long run.

Domino production plant Lambertz

A major fire in 1977 also caused a massive economic slump.

A year earlier, Kittelberger's nephew, Hermann Bühlbecker , had already entered the company management team as an assistant to the management and finally took over the overall management in 1978, succeeding his uncle. As one of his first steps, Bühlbecker brought the dominoes onto the market as a year-round range, which broke the pure specialization in Printen. In addition, over time, mainly through strategic acquisitions and takeovers, other classic products such as gingerbread hearts, cinnamon stars and speculoos were added. In addition to its seasonal offer, the company now produced the aforementioned year-round products such as biscuit mixes, followed by mono-biscuits, small cakes up to pralines and various biscuits as well as organic goods and vital biscuits.

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  Henry Lambertz

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  Wilhelm Geller

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  Karl Kittelberger

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  Hermann Bühlbecker

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  Bergdriesch branch around 1920 at the time of Wilhelm Geller

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  Bergdriesch headquarters around 1950 at the time of Karl Kittelberger

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  Current headquarters in Borchersstrasse Aachen

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  Aerial view of the main plant in Aachen

subsidiary company

Historic gingerbread box by Heinrich Haeberlein

In the course of securing the company on the confectionery market, Lambertz decided to expand in the 1990s and took over some of the former competing companies as well as their production facilities and product ranges as independent subsidiaries. In 1994 Lambertz first acquired Max Weiss GmbH in Neu-Ulm , founded in 1925 , a manufacturer of gingerbread with southern German characteristics, which had taken over the Wolff company in Nuremberg in 1965. At the beginning of 1999 Lambertz also acquired the baked goods division of "Schöller-Holding GmbH & Co KG", which was built up by Theo Schöller , including the "Vereinigte Nürnberger Lebkuchen- und Schokoladenfabrik Haeberlein-Metzger AG", which was merged in 1920 by Heinrich Haeberlein and whose roots go back to 1492 at Haeberlein and 1586 at Metzger. On the other hand, the Würselener pastry specialist "Kinkartz" , founded in 1872 and previously taken over by Schöller in 1991, was added through this acquisition . For economic reasons, one of the production lines there was relocated to the Polish plant in Ruda Śląska at the beginning of 2015 and the employees who became vacant were offered a takeover at the Lambertz headquarters.

In addition, the Lambertz Group acquired the "Heemann Lebkuchen und Süßwaren-Specialties GmbH" in Ladbergen in the Tecklenburger Land and in 2001 the Otto Scharschmidt marzipan and chocolate goods factory through the Otten Bakery in Erkelenz, in which it has a 50 percent stake GmbH from Alzenau in Lower Franconia , which specializes in the production of figurative marzipan as well as chocolate-coated fruits and confectionery chocolate balls.

In 1998, the Lambertz Group set up a new production facility in Katowice , Poland , which subsequently also made a breakthrough on the Eastern European market. The Lambertz Group currently has 25 baking lines at seven production locations. In the USA, there has been a sales office in Fairfield (New Jersey) for a long time , as retail chains there have added Lambertz products to their range.

In June 2014, the Lambertz Group acquired a majority stake in the large Dresden bakery Dr. Quendt , which mainly produces Russian bread , Christmas stollen, wafers and spelled. In addition, with effect from May 1, 2015, Lambertz took over all business operations of the ifri Schuhmann Group in Nuremberg, including the Nuremberg Lebkuchen- und Dauerbackwarenfabrik ifri Schuhmann GmbH & Co.KG , Burg Lebkuchen GmbH Nuremberg and Josef Wendler Nougat Fabrik GmbH & Co. KG Nürnberg , making Lambertz a supplier of nougat products for the first time.

Sustainability seal

After the Lambertz Group took precautions in 2011 to use barn eggs and sustainable palm oil for production, it joined the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) organization. All plants were then certified for the use of sustainable palm oil and the products were given the sustainability seal. In addition, the Lambertz Group joined the Sustainable Cocoa Forum in summer 2012 . Since January 1, 2017, only Fairtrade cocoa has been used in Lambertz annual products.

Sponsorship

Hermann Bühlbecker at the Clinton Global Initiative

The Lambertz Group has also been increasingly involved in social and community projects for several years. For example, in 2009 she founded the Afghanistan Initiative, with which she, in cooperation with the German Foreign Office and the German Embassy in Kabul, enables young Afghans to complete a baker's apprenticeship, after which they are then given financial start-up aid to help them Home to set up a business.

In addition, the company supports the American Foundation for AIDS Research , the Elton John Aids Foundation , the Clinton Global Initiative , which campaigns for the fight against poverty and global warming, as well as for education, health, etc., as well as several national projects.

In the field of competitive sports, Lambertz sponsors, among others, CHIO Aachen , Alemannia Aachen and the first tennis Bundesliga team of TK Kurhaus Aachen , which appears as TK Kurhaus Lambertz and was German champion for the fifth time in 2013 . From 1991 to 2010 Lambertz was also a co-host of the Lambertz Open as part of the ATP Challenger Tour .

Awards (selection)

• Elected to the group of the most successful family businesses in Germany by Impulse magazine in 2004
• 2009 the brand award "Brands of the Century" of the German Standard for his sole proprietorships Lambertz and Haeberlein-Metzger,
• 2010 to 2017 the award of world market leader, combined with the entry in the lexicon of German world market leaders and
• In 2011 the award “From the best family - 100 exemplary German family businesses” from the German standard
• In 2017 the “Superbrands Germany” award - award for excellent brand management

Movies

• Printen, Celebrities, Presidents - A German Economic History Report from 2009, first broadcast on n-tv on December 6, 2009, 45 min.
• The Printen Kings of Aachen - Lambertz. Documentary, Germany, 2010, 44 min., Script and director: Peter Scharf, production: WDR , series: Dynastien in NRW, first broadcast: November 19, 2010.

literature

• Renate Schwärzel: Deutsche Wirtschaftsarchive , Vol. 1, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1994, p. 2 google online
• Will Hermanns : Henry Lambertz. Aachener Printen- und Schokoladenfabrik in: Hermanns, Will, Heimatchronik der Kur- und Kronstadt Aachen: Pictures from past and present , Archive for German Homeland Care, Cologne, 1953, p. 254
• Karl F. Kittelberger: The Aachen Printenbuch - resolution of its enigmatic history , Meyer & Meyer-Verlag , Aachen, 1991
• Markus Plate, Torsten Groth, Volker Ackermann and Arist von Schlippe: Large German family businesses: Generational succession, family strategy and corporate development. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, pp. 45–51 ( google online )
• Florian Langenscheidt: Das Beste an Deutschland , in: Deutsche Standards (Ed.), Cologne, 2006, p. 472
• Florian Langenscheidt: Brands of the Century , in: Deutsche Standards (Hrsg.), Cologne, 2010, pp. 304/305 and 234/235
• Florian Langenscheidt / Peter May: From the best family , in: Deutsche Standards (Hrsg.), Cologne, 2011, pp. 232–235

Web links

Commons : Henry Lambertz  - Collection of Images

• Official website of the Aachen Printen- und Schokoladenfabrik Henry Lambertz GmbH & Co. KG
• Company profile 2010/11

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Timeline ( memento of the original from June 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on lambertz.de. 
2. ↑ Register.dpma A2132, Reg.Nr.40074.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Annual financial statements as of June 30, 2019 , bundesanzeiger.de, accessed on August 17, 2020
4. ↑ Florian Langenscheidt , Bernd Venohr (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German world market leaders. The premier class of German companies in words and pictures . German Standards Editions, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-86936-221-2 , pp. 45–50.
5. ↑ Vital biscuits ( Memento of the original from September 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) 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. . 
6. ↑ * January 10, 1802 in Erkelenz. Church book entry, Erkelenz. Reg. No. LA 28. (48); † May 30, 1866 in Aachen, death note . Reg.No. LA33 (86).
7. ↑ Entry in the Aachen historical address book from 1868 .
8. ↑ from the English “print” and the Dutch “prent”, stands for “tool to press” or “impressed image” or “imprint”, both of which refer to the artistically carved wooden models.
9. ↑ Aachener Printen - imperial city nibbling fun with world fame on Aachen-Information ( Memento of the original from February 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 36 kB). 
10. ^ Entry in the historical address book Aachen, 1877 .
11. ^ Entry in the historical address book Aachen 1887 .
12. ↑ Register.dpma A2132, Reg.Nr.40074. .
13. ^ Entry in the historical address book Aachen 1899 .
14. ^ Entry in the historical address book Aachen 1936 .
15. ^ Entry in the historical address book Aachen 1949
16. ↑ History of Haeberlein-Metzger .
17. ↑ Georg Pinzek: One less back street at Kinkartz , in Aachener Zeitung from January 15, 2015.
18. ↑ Homepage Lambertz sales office USA
19. ↑ Lambertz takes over Stollenbäcker ( memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on grenzecho.net from June 19, 2014. 
20. ↑ Press release of the Lambertz company from January 15, 2015  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
21. ^ Controversy over a sustainability seal , in: süddeutsche.de of September 3, 2012 .
22. ↑ Founding minutes of the Sustainable Cocoa Forum ( Memento of the original from November 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 580 kB). 
23. ↑ Lambertz Group: Lambertz Annual Press Conference 2016/17. October 5, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2017 . 
24. ^ Bühlbecker's aid projects , in: Die Welt, September 28, 2008 .
25. ↑ bildersturm-film.de .

Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '18.29 "  N , 6 ° 3' 51.72"  E