Campina GmbH
Encyclopedia
Heilbronn
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is completely surrounded by Heilbronn County and with approximately 123.000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state....
, about 60 km north of Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, Campina GmbH is a leading German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
dairy and subsidiary of the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
dairy cooperative Campina
Campina (company)
FrieslandCampina is a Dutch dairy cooperative. It is the result of the merge between Royal Friesland Foods and Campina. Main brands include Friesche Vlag, Chocomel, Fristi, Dutch lady, Appelsientje, Milner, Campina, Landliebe, Optiwell and Mona.-History:...
. The company was formed in 1996 after the Stuttgart-based Südmilch AG was renamed.
Milchversorgung Heilbronn GmbH (MVH)
MVH was founded in July 1924 in the town of Heilbronn. A follow-on company from the local "dairy department", MVH was owned by the town and a cooperative group of dairy buyers and sellers. In 1933 MVH acquired local dairies in the nearby towns of IlsfeldIlsfeld
Ilsfeld is a town in the district of Heilbronn in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Ilsfeld is twinned with Ottery St Mary , Auenstein and Moşna ....
, Bretzfeld
Bretzfeld
Bretzfeld is a municipality in the Hohenlohe district, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located 17 km east of Heilbronn....
, Neuenstadt am Kocher
Neuenstadt am Kocher
Neuenstadt, usually known as Neuenstadt am Kocher is a town in Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany with 9,600 inhabitants...
and Mainhardt
Mainhardt
Mainhardt is a town in the district of Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg in Germany....
. In 1968 a new dairy factory was built in the Neckargartach area of Heilbronn. At the time it was one of the most modern milk processing plants of its kind. Branch dairies were closed down and merged into the one factory.
Südmilch AG
In 1969, MVH entered into an alliance with the interregional dairy Interessengemeinschaft Milch (Intermilch), Stuttgart-based Württ. Milchverwertung Südmilch AG (WMV) and Dauermilchwerk Hohenlohe-Franken GmbH from Künzelsau, to form the largest milk-processing company in Germany. In 1972 MVH merged with WMV to become Südmilch AG. The company went into receivership in 1993 following a scandal over government subventions and company investments in former East Germany. This resulted in the chairman going into hiding in South America and a takeover by the DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
dairy cooperative Campina Melkunie.
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Südmilch AG operated from a head office in north Stuttgart directly next to the tram stop Milchhof (which translates as 'milk yard'). The tram stop still exists to this day but only one of the former buildings still remains.
Campina GmbH
In 1996 the former Südmilch AG company was renamed Campina AG. There followed a string of mergers with other Campina Melkunie subsidiaries in Germany culminating in the new company Campina GmbH in 1999. At this point Campina closed down its head office in Stuttgart to centralise all operations in Heilbronn. In 2002 the company was renamed Campina GmbH & Co. KG. In 2000 the former cooperative of Milchwerke Köln-Wuppertal was merged into the company, along with former factors in CologneCologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Wuppertal
Wuppertal
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
, Essen
Essen
- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...
, Iserlohn
Iserlohn
Iserlohn is a city in the Märkischer Kreis district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city by population and area within the district and the Sauerland region.-Geography:...
and Lindlar
Lindlar
Lindlar is a municipality in the Oberbergischer Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located about 30 km east of Cologne.-Geography:Lindlar is located between latitudes 50°58' and 51°5' N. and longitudes 7°15' and 7°28' E...
. Other companies, formerly acquired by the mother company in Holland, were merged under Campina in Heilbronn: Emzett, Kutel and Molkerei Strothmann. In September 2007 the company was named Campina GmbH, a German limited liability company.
Key company data
Campina currently employs around 2200 people in Germany. Its works process around 1.4 billion litres of milk p.a. (Basis:March 2004).Turnover in 2005: €846 million (Campina worldwide: €3.569 billion).
Since 2005, Campina GmbH has been headed by managing director Michael Feller, reporting into the Dutch Campina unit "Consumer Products Europe" (CPE) .
Criticism
The company came under fire from environmental campaigners in 2005 for sourcing milk from farmers who also grew genetically modifiedGenetically modified organism
A genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one...
corn
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
. Greenpeace demanded that the company ensures that farmers were not feeding corn to their dairy cows, a move already taken by competitive dairies. Chairman of German watchdog Foodwatch
Foodwatch
Foodwatch is a German organization that focuses on protecting consumer rights and food quality. was founded in October 2002 in Berlin by former Greenpeace executive director Thilo Bode....
, renewed the attack on Campina in October 2007.
In October 2008 Campina reacted to public criticism by removing genetically modified ingredients from animal feeds used in the production of milk for its Landliebe brand. The company plans to start making "GM-Free" yogurts and desserts in April 2009.
Selection of brands
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General references (German)
- Kultur und Wirtschaftschronik Heilbronn, J. Bühn publishing house, Munich
- Volker Grub: Das gerichtliche Vergleichsverfahren der Südmilch-AG (The court receivership of Südmilch AG), Brugger, Schöngeising 1998, ISBN 3-9805758-2-9
- Martin Born: Landliebe, Filz und Betrug. Die Südmilchpleite. (Landliebe, sleaze and corruption. The collapse of Südmilch), Campus publishing, Frankfurt 1996, ISBN 3-593-35484-5
External links
- http://www.campina.de/
- http://www.campina.nl/
- http://www.landliebe.de/