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Opening of the first local FRITSCH World of Bakery in Canada

May 20^th, 2022. FRITSCH Bakery Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, a member of the MULTIVAC Group for just under three years, has a worldwide sales and service network of over 85 MULTIVAC subsidiaries. This ensures constant proximity to customers as well as broad market coverage from artisan bakers to globally active industrial bakers.

The next step has now followed as part of the internationalization process. In April 2022, MULTIVAC Canada opened the first local FRITSCH World of Bakery in Brampton, Ontario, after a year of construction. This serves in particular as a technology and test centre for customers from the North and South American markets. The World of Bakery at the FRITSCH headquarters in Germany, which offers customers optimal practical conditions for testing FRITSCH lines, served as a model for this.

A ROLLFIX plus and a PROGRESSA prime (consisting of a DOUGHLINER 700 and a MULTIFLEX L 700) are located in a completely newly built space of 320 m² in Canada. In order to be able to demonstrate the FRITSCH machines in their versatility and the complete value-added process of a bakery under real production conditions, ovens, proofing cabinets as well as professional cooling facilities are available in addition to the FRITSCH machines.

FRITSCH presents the 3rd generation of ROLLFIX

May 2^nd, 2022. FRITSCH Bakery Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of the MULTIVAC Group, relaunches the centrepiece processing line of its extensive portfolio, the ROLLFIX, now in its third generation. The engineers of FRITSCH have made the dough sheeter even easier to control and more user friendly than ever. The machine design has been updated to make the flour duster easier to remove and the line quicker to clean. “This is our response to the increasing quality requirements of bakers and what they expect from our machines,” says Fred Dorner, Head of Research & Development at FRITSCH.

Because customers’ performance requirements are very different in the artisanal and mid-sized sectors, FRITSCH offers the ROLLFIX in three models. The ROLLFIX basic is a manual dough sheeter that leaves most of the control to the operator. It can process dough portions of up to about 15 kilograms. The computer-controlled ROLLFIX plus offers numerous predefined programs with special rolling factors. This allows extremely gentle sheeting of the dough. The ROLLFIX prime, thanks to its powerful drive system, handles dough portions of up to about 20 kilograms. It gives the operator many intuitive control options, for example for producing thin dough. The dough sheets produced on a ROLLFIX can then be processed further into final products on the VARIOCUT, VARIOFLEX and MULTIFLEX.

FRITSCH presented its first ROLLFIX in 1956 – and thus helped significantly to make the traditionally strenuous trade easier for bakers. The dough sheeter enabled them to easily produce a uniform dough sheet, ready for further processing either manually or by machine. “The outstanding sales success of the ROLLFIX at the time laid the foundation for the company’s advancement, which is still characterised by numerous innovations today,” says Managing Director Andreas Eyd.

April 22nd, 2022. FRITSCH Bakery Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, which was taken over by the MULTIVAC Group nearly three years ago, accepted incoming orders amounting to more than 35 million euros in the first quarter of 2022. “That means we achieved the best quarterly result in the history of FRITSCH Bakery Technologies in terms of incoming orders,” says Managing Director Andreas Eyd. “This also came right on the heels of the extremely successful fourth quarter of 2021.”

One of the leading manufacturers of bakery machines and lines, the company from Markt Einersheim, Lower Franconia, owes the upswing to many factors. In addition to its broad market coverage, from small artisan bakers to globally operating industrial bakeries, it can rely on the extensive sales and service network of the parent group. “Thanks to the worldwide MULTIVAC network with more than 85 subsidiaries, we are always close to our customers,” explains Andreas Eyd. “This means we can provide quick help to each customer, individually.”

To strengthen this network, FRITSCH Bakery Technologies GmbH & Co. KG invited its international subsidiaries to a sales meeting at the World of Bakery (WoB) on 3 April 2022. Andreas Eyd first took the opportunity to thank the 76 participants from 48 countries and five continents for their commitment, without which the extremely positive upswing in business would not have been possible.

The meeting focused on the advantages of the newest lines from FRITSCH. This included the new bread line PROGRESSA bread, which was already sold to customers in and outside Europe immediately upon its market launch. A product demonstration on the MULTITWIST as well as training sessions about the FRITSCH brand and the market for bakery lines rounded off the programme. The knowledge transfer on the subject of dough was made especially entertaining, among other things, by a pretzel-twisting competition. The participants were challenged to twist as many delicious-looking pretzels as possible in one minute. A task that is easier said than done.

15th March 2022. FRITSCH Bakery Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, a subsidiary of the MULTIVAC Group, launches a new processing line: the PROGRESSA bread. Thanks to numerous innovations, it operates highly efficiently and allows great variability of products. It has been specially designed for the best possible processing of breads made from soft dough, a strong trend among consumers. “With this very compact machine, we close a gap in our portfolio and cater above all to artisanal and retail bakers,” says engineer Fred Dorner, Head of Research & Development at FRITSCH.

Depending on product size, the PROGRESSA bread can process between 800 kilograms and two tons of dough per hour – achieving a processing quality and product variety that was only seen before in the category of industrial systems. “With the PROGRESSA bread, you can produce a wide range of breads with extreme weight accuracy and gentleness on the dough. You can almost do without the use of separating agents like oil, which benefits the product quality and keeps the effort of cleaning the system low,” explains Dorner.

During the development of the PROGRESSA bread, the FRITSCH developers and dough technologists kept in close contact with their customers. This included working with those customers at the company’s technology centre, the FRITSCH World of Bakery in Kitzingen. Numerous lines are available at this centre for testing and experimenting with new recipes. “The design of a system decides how quickly and easily employees can remove or clean individual elements or parts,” says Michael Gier, Head of the FRITSCH World of Bakery. Great care was therefore taken to ensure the design would perform as many functions as possible with as few parts as possible, and that the parts can be easily accessed and removed.

“With the PROGRESSA bread, bakers can process pre-cooked doughs as well as doughs with a high rye or water content in the same quality as on a large-scale line,” Gier emphasises.  This makes the new system attractive not only for medium-sized businesses but also for industrial customers: being only five metres in length, it can be integrated effortlessly into almost any existing production hall.

February 9th, 2022

FRITSCH Bakery Technologies GmbH & Co. KG, which was taken over by the MULTIVAC Group two and a half years ago, was able to attract an inspiring increase in orders of approximately 40 percent in the previous fiscal year. One of the internationally leading manufacturers of bakery machines and lines, the company from Markt Einersheim, Lower Franconia, is profiting increasingly from the extensive sales and service network of the parent group, which has been working actively for FRITSCH since the takeover in 2019. Worldwide, MULTIVAC has more than 80 subsidiaries on all continents. “Thanks to the close cooperation based on partnership, we were able to gain a number of large orders despite the continued strain on the global economy following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Managing Director Frank Gabriel.

The global span of MULTIVAC’s sales and service network is reflected in FRITSCH’s order intake. In addition to Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and other neighbouring European countries, large orders were also received from producers in Asia and North America. “We are confident that the global economy will continue to recover from the setbacks caused by the pandemic and that we will continue our growth course under the MULTIVAC Group umbrella in 2022,” explains Managing Director Andreas Eyd. 

“We are delighted to see this absolutely fantastic trend in FRITSCH’s sales. Local and regional experts are already mobile in over 80 countries around the world. This lays the foundation for establishing the bakery segment as another solid pillar in the MULTIVAC Group,” says Christian Traumann, Group President of MULTIVAC.

Given the excellent sales trend, FRITSCH is currently looking for a new location in Lower Franconia in order to position itself optimally for further growth in the long term. Up to now, the company has its headquarters in Markt Einersheim and additionally has assembly halls in Kitzingen. The new building will serve to merge the two locations and create additional capacity. “We definitely want to stay in the region because of our employees, some of whom are highly specialised,” says Eyd. For the new location, the two managing directors are reckoning with a space requirement of 100,000 square metres. The move should take place within the next 3 years.

September 1^st, 2021

More than 2,000 FRITSCH machines perform a special task every day. While they pursue their supreme disciplines of dough sheet production and forming, they create the basis for the premium quality of baked goods that are characterized by an excellent taste. As of September 01st, 2021, some of them will now appear under new names.

The clustering of machine families according to end product groups as well as performance spectrum in the semi-automatic area creates a quick and easier overview of the FRITSCH portfolio. With the VARIOCUT, the VARIOFLEX and the MULTIFLEX, a total of three machine families are distinguished within the framework of dough processing. In addition, there is the new brand PROGRESSA. Analogous to the already known IMPRESSA lines in the industrial sector, this stand for a combination of dough sheet production and processing line. Depending on the combination and the corresponding output volume, the PROGRESSA lines bear the name suffix basic, plus or prime.

A detailed overview of the new machine names can be found on our website www.fritsch-group.com.

For many years, there have been many FRITSCH ROLLFIX machines on commission at vocational schools, at various locations of the National Bakers Academy and at many other cooperative partners of the baking industry. In total, FRITSCH machines are on commission at more than 20 establishments in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Poland, and are being used above all for training the next generations of bakers.

FRITSCH management has now decided to donate these sheeting machines to the schools and organisations. “We appreciate the long-standing cooperation with the schools and companies. A solid education in the baking craft and the future of the industry are very important to us. The establishments have been working with FRITSCH machines on commission for many years now. We have therefore decided that these schools and organisations should be allowed to keep their machines,” declares Andreas Eyd, Managing Director FRITSCH.

The Justus-von-Liebig-Schule in Mannheim, for example, has been operating a ROLLFIX 300WK since 2012. It uses this machine mainly for its masterclass and for the vocational education of bakers and salespeople. But the ROLLFIX is also used in the one-year vocational school course and orientation classes, and provides first points of contact with the bakery trade.

“This sheeting machine is of very high quality and sturdily built, and offers excellent accident protection. I already worked on a ROLLFIX back when learning to be a baker, and I love the foot operation. All FRITSCH machines I have worked with so far have always been absolutely reliable and easy to operate and maintain. I was overjoyed when FRITSCH provided me with a ROLLFIX on loan in response to my request. They even let me choose precisely the model that was most suitable for my teaching purposes,” reports Steffen Götz, senior technical teacher and deputy head of the nutrition department at the Justus-von-Liebig-Schule in Mannheim.

The Akademie Deutsches Bäckerhandwerk Südwest e.V. in Stuttgart was also pleased to receive two FRITSCH ROLLFIX machines. “One of the machines is in our pastry shop, where it is used for making sweet treats with the apprentices and the master students. The other is in our training bakery, used mainly for working booked doughs or for rolling out shortcrust pastry,” relates Tobias Pfaff, headmaster at the National Bakers Academy.

“The machines are incredibly robust and durable. Despite having inexperienced trainees working frequently on the machines, we have not had any damage to them so far. We are very grateful for the long-standing cooperation with FRITSCH. We have been cooperating for more than 20 years now, and are impressed with the high quality of their machines. It delights us that FRITSCH shows such great interest in quality training and highly skilled workers. These are essential for the continued existence of the bakery trade,” Pfaff says.

Udo Bernhardt writes nearly 50 years of FRITSCH history

Udo Bernhardt, a long-standing employee of FRITSCH GmbH & Co. KG was given a warm send-off in November for his retirement. He can look back on nearly 50 years of FRITSCH history. During this time, the technical draughtsman was instrumentally involved in many innovations. Arguably the most important development of his career was the fully automatic pretzel twister. Working during his free time in his garage at home, he invented a machine that revolutionised the baking industry.

“There are three keys to Udo Bernhardt’s success,” FRITSCH Managing Director Frank Gabriel said during the send-off. “One is his inexhaustible drive to find a solution. You hear people say, ‘Udo will have an idea at any time: while eating, while sleeping and, of course, even on weekends.’ Another key is that his understanding of dough and how it behaves is exceptional. If this were horse riding, you would call him a horse whisperer. Furthermore, his relations with our customers were always excellent.”

Udo Bernhardt worked at FRITSCH for nearly half a century. His father owned a bakery. Therefore, he grew up in the industry, and handling dough has always been a part of his life. On the 1st of September 1972, he started his training as a technical draughtsman and, after this training, he was given a position in the engineering office. There were eight drawing boards, and an equal number of colleagues, working there at the time. Today, the Engineering department has more than 50 employees.

While working, yet only shortly after his training, Bernhardt gained his qualification as a Mechanical Engineer, which allowed him to provide FRITSCH with extra support during a time when staff was short. His professional training armed him with extensive knowledge that put him in a position to manage the Research & Development and Design of Line Machines departments with great success for many years.

At first, Bernhardt worked above all on the development of dough rolling machines. Then, he started developing solutions for the medium-sized and industrial sector, for example the first croissant machine “Croissantomat 2000”. Many innovations for FRITSCH were to follow, such as sheeting lines and diverse coiling systems. His most innovative development, however, is surely the “MULTITWIST” pretzel twister.

“I had fun at work every day. The daily drive to be better than the competition kept me constantly moving,” Bernhardt says, looking back at his time at FRITSCH. There is a quote from a customer etched forever into Bernhardt’s memory: “Every machine is good, as long as it never comes into contact with the dough.” And yet, the passionate inventor still managed to impress that customer with his innovative technology.

Don't miss the story about his most popular invention MULTITWIST!

The first impression counts

We proudly call our FRITSCH World of Bakery our world of experience for bakers. Together with our technologists customers experience very closely our machines and also our expertise in dough and the bakers handcraft. One of our focused goals during the visit to our WoB is offering our customers an unforgettable and sustainable experience of the brand FRITSCH. We want to pay great attention to welcome and service our customers.

In order to wrap up this important contact point of our WoB in a new appearance, we started to redesign the entrance and catering area of the WoB in August. While we took the first step towards a change this summer by renaming the "FRITSCH Technology Center (FTC)" into "FRITSCH World of Bakery (WoB)", we set another milestone this fall.

After finalizing and fine-tuning of our plans in August, we already began in September with pulling down and remodelling some walls and ceilings. The existing furniture was partly sold to our staff and partly donated to some charitable organisations. By the end of September, the floor work was finished and we dedicated ourselves to the interior design. A new floor, new furniture and new lights were installed. Fresh colour accents create a new feel-good atmosphere. As an essential element our reception for our customers was integrated into the lobby.

A lot of energy, sweat, colour and especially great teamwork of all FRITSCH departments as well as the craftsmen involved led to a modern lobby and catering area in which our customers can feel completely comfortable. The teamwork with the regional companies during COVID-19 pandemic has gained a special significance in our society.

It was a pleasure to work with different craft enterprises in our area as well as with the company Grimm from Ulsenheim, a partner with a lot of references in the field of shop fitting, to put the new colour, room and lighting concept in place.

We are eagerly awaiting the end of the Corona-pandemic to be happy to welcome again bakery fans from all over the world to the new “wow factor”.

We cordially invite you to WoB - a place where you can test and further develop your desired products with FRITSCH machines.

For the good cause: 2,500 Euro for the station Rainbow

By the sale of pallets to FRITSCH employees, over 1,500 EURO were collected on a donation basis. The two FRITSCH managing directors Andreas Eyd and Frank Gabriel have increased this amount to 2,500 EURO. The money was handed over in the "World of Bakery" in Kitzingen, to Monika Demmich, chairwoman of the "Station Regenbogen e.V." Würzburg. The association, founded in 1984, supports the children's cancer ward and has made it its business to accompany families who have to go through the disease with their children.

Among other things, the donation will be used to maintain and equip the 14 rental apartments in Würzburg. The relatives of the sick children can live there during the treatment period. The association also covers the costs of the clinic clowns and music therapists. Especially throughout the Christmas season, donations are also gladly used for Christmas handicraft materials.