History
Aachen – The beginning
Zentis’ history traces back to June 20, 1893, when Franz Zentis opened a grocer’s shop in Adalbertsteinweg, Aachen. Seven years later, he made his most important discovery. Almost by chance, he made a delicious jam from dried apricots and sugar. He named it “Famos” – Feinste Aprikosen-Marmelade ohne Sirup (Finest Apricot Jam without Syrup). It was a roaring success. This was his first step from shop keeper to jam producer.
An appetite for sweets
After the Second World War, Zentis quickly joined in the Wirtschaftswunder, the German post-war economic boom. To satisfy Germans’ appetite for sweets, he added fine confectionery products in 1954. First, he concentrated on chocolate products. Then, over time, he shifted production to marzipan products and pure marzipan for industrial processing.
The power of innovation
The next product expansion – an important company milestone – occurred in the early 1960s when Zentis started developing and producing fruit preparations for the milk processing industry.
This was the start of a close, cooperative partnership with all Europe’s well-known dairies. Over time, Zentis developed numerous innovative products for the dairy industry. These included fruit preparations with cereals, UHT products for perishable dessert products, stable and sterile chocolate chips, and stable, chocolate-covered cereals. In 1988, dairy industry officials honored Zentis’ many special achievements with a milk marketing sponsorship award.
Zentis also focused its inventive skills on the end consumer market. In the 1970s, new Zentis products – breakfast jam, Aachener plum jam and Nusspli hazelnut spread – were successfully introduced. Innovative plastic packaging made shopping, storage and disposal easy for the consumer. Belfrutta, still the No. 1 Zentis jam in a distinctive, original spherical jar, followed at the end of the 1970s.
Growth
Zentis’ success led to steady operations expansion. The central location in the center of Aachen became increasingly problematic. Zentis had to expand and decided to move confectionery and cereal production. In 1995, after a construction period of only 17 months, confectionery production started in Eilendorf. In 2004, Zentis then invested 28 million Euros to expand its Jülicherstraße site. Expansion and renovation guaranteed optimum production processes for this 70,000-millimeter site.
Expansion
Growth means you cannot be limited by geographic borders. In 1997, Zentis opened a subsidiary in Poland and three years later, a second operation in Hungary. They were followed by a Russian subsidiary, in 2003, and by Zentis’ first United States factory, in Plymouth, Indiana, in mid-2008.
The re-launch
Zentis considers the “sweet spreads” retail sector as the most important area to present its image to consumers. For that reason, the company redeveloped and re-launched its entire spreads line in 2008 and 2009. There is every indication that Zentis products are gaining popularity, leading to even greater company success.
The goal
Our objective is to continuously expand production. Zentis is consistently developing high quality, innovative fruit preparations for the international milk, bakery and confectionery industries. Our success is based on expertise and innovation.