30-07-2012, 10:16 AM
INDUSTRIAL TOUR REPORT
CMR INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES.docx (Size: 292.51 KB / Downloads: 37)
HISTORYOF THE COMPANY
Reitzel is a family-owned company that was successively managed by Hugo Reitzel, the founder, Franz and Charles Reitzel, his sons, and then Joseph Poupon until 1986. Since then, the company has been run by Bernard Poupon. The Reitzel and Poupon families are majority shareholders. Pierre B. Darmon joined Bernard Poupon to manage the company in 1987.
Hugo Reitzel
• Hugo Reitzel, Swiss condiment specialist, provides gherkins, sauces and other tasty specialities.
• Pizzaiola mushrooms, garlic gherkins, Tante Anita Swiss cucumbers and cipollini onions are just some of their specialties.
• With its vocation for creating flavours, Hugo Reitzel aims to continuously offer new, original high-quality speciality condiments.
• Modern and dynamic, the brand draws on the celebrated know-how of our factories, which have been specialising in condiments for decades. Hugo Reitzel can be found in retail stores (hypermarkets and supermarkets), the restaurant and catering trade and the foodservice industry. The brand is also sold on specialised websites and in our own online shop.
Some of the products are:
Reitzel believes in high quality raw materials:
Hugo Reitzel selects raw materials of flawless quality for its products. Its cucumbers are harvested in various zones of Europe that have a long tradition of growing these vegetables. In Switzerland, despite the globalisation of agriculture, some farmers are still passionately committed to growing cucumbers for pickles.
Gherkin production
Reitzel has always been extensively involved in gherkin farming in France and has been growing gherkins inIndia since the 2000s. Reitzel’s Indian production subsidiary, Reitzel India Pvt. Ldt., was created in 2005 to manage and ensure the safety of an integrated, high-quality gherkin-production chain, from seeds to consumers.
The history of gherkins
It is highly likely that the gherkins that you enjoy straight out of their jar of vinegar were grown in India, the world’s second largest producer of these ‘baby cucumbers’.
When it was first farmed in the Himalayan plains 3,000 years ago, the cucumber had no idea it would soon be one of the leading products exported by what has become ‘the world’s largest democracy’. And not just in any form, please note: this is what you might call an enhanced cucumber: the gherkin - young (baby) cucumbers preserved in vinegar. India is currently the world’s second largest producer of gherkins, after China (as usual…). The country produces 200,000 metric tons of baby cucumbers each year, which accounts for 20% of total gherkin exports. This means that it is quite likely that your jar of gherkins originated in India, in one of the three gherkin-producing states: Karnataka (70%), Andrah Pradesh or Tamil Nadu.