BeanScene Magazine

At 100, most people would receive a letter from the Queen, another wrinkle or walking stick, but there’s certainly nothing weary about Franke. As the business celebrates 100 years of company history, Franke shows no physical signs of aging as they continue to expand their ideas and products to a growing worldwide market.

The Franke Artemis Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of kitchen and commercial systems and has leading market positions in the areas where Franke Foodservice systems, Franke Coffee Systems, Franke Washroom Systems and Franke Beverage Systems operate.

“The customer decides whether a company is successful or not,” says CEO and owner Michael Pieper. “We are proud to have relationships with individual customers that stretch back for nearly half a century. This is also thanks to the passion with which our employees do everything to ensure that the customer is satisfied, and remains satisfied.”

It’s taken four entrepreneurs, two families and three generations for the global Swiss group to turn into a success story. And to think it all started with a little passion and a kitchen sink.

Hermann Franke founded and established the Spenglerei (Plumber’s Workshop) in Rorschach, Switzerland on 1 April, 1911. At that stage, only 30 employees worked out of the small workshop. Hermann recognised the potential of stainless steel at an early stage and laid the foundation for the industrial development of Franke by manufacturing welded sinks in 1937.

Hermann passed away on 25 January 1939 and his son Walter Franke took over his father’s company and made a huge step in leading the family business from a factory to an international company. Walter expanded the sink production business beyond the Swiss border by entering the commercial kitchen sector and introduced the idea of standardised private kitchens. Gradually the business grew and the sink unit range began the start of the manufacture of complete kitchens with the first exports to neighbouring European countries in 1945.

It was in 1975 that Willi Pieper acquired the Franke company from his friend Walter and developed it further with a systematic approach and a clear strategy. Willi Pieper’s goal was to become the number one worldwide in selected niche markets. With the purchase of the Progressive Corporation in Philadelphia, US in 1978, Willi took the first big step towards becoming a global company and expanded Franke to other international markets such as Egypt and Chile. 

Willi Pieper later came up with the idea of marketing high-tech coffee machines for the hotel, restaurant and catering trades and in 1984, he bought the Augsburg coffee machine factory which started the manufacture of professional coffee machines. As a result, the first ever Franke coffee machine, the “Franke TA” was launched onto the market as the first fully automatic coffee machine with two grinding mechanisms.

From 1990, the Michael Pieper era took the Franke industry to new heights. As CEO and owner of Franke he led a company with a turnover of CHF 480 million in 1989, into the globally leading provider of intelligent systems for domestic kitchens, professional food service, coffee preparation, intelligent systems for the beverage industry and comprehensive washroom solutions, with a turnover of around CHF 2.5 billion. He realised the potential of Eastern European countries, Asia, South America and Africa, as well as markets in the US and Australia and consistently and successfully built the company into today’s global Franke Artemis Group.

With over 100 years of successful business, the Franke legacy is a foundation with a responsibility for the future that lies ahead. The Franke Artemis Group employs around 11,000 staff worldwide and is established in over 40 countries with about 70 subsidiaries.

According to Michael, hardly any other Swiss company has grown as much as the Franke Artemis Group in the last few decades. An average of three companies a year have been acquired in the last one and a half decades. Michael says: “A tradition of active entrepreneurship, seeing opportunities in challenges and realising them, as well as placing customers at the focus of all activities, are the success factors behind the one-hundred year history of Franke.”

Franke Coffee Systems is a separate entity, part of the Franke Artemis Group that has continued to grow and prosper for over a century, making it one of the world’s leading suppliers of professional fully automatic coffee machines.

German businessman Ludwig Roselius, founded the company Bremen GmbH in 1909. The son of a coffee importer, Ludwig he had grown up surrounded by the aroma of coffee and had undertaken extensive research to devise a process for extracting caffeine from coffee beans. By 1906 he founded Kaffee HAG and this became the first company worldwide to market decaffeinated coffee.

Ludwig was adamant that only the best quality coffee should reach the cup.  From the very outside, his developments focused on brewing coffee without using paper filters or steam and by 1909 he began designing coffee machines for the catering industry. The “Bremer brewing system”, as it came to be known, proved to be one of the best methods for preparing coffee.

The company achieved great success during the 1920s from manufacturing large gas-heated coffee units, however, the Second World War and the death of the company’s founder in 1943 was a setback to the company’s fortunes. By 1945 the coffee machine business was in a depressive state and it was only with Germany’s economic recovery that prospects began to improve and the demand for coffee machines soared.

The 1970s brought great changes. The “bremer-consul coffee machine” was established as the first machine capable of preparing excellent brewed coffee in advance and the great changes continued as the “bremertronic” was launched in 1976 as the first ever fully automatic coffee machine. The company grew rapidly and was continually investing in technology and steadily expanding its market position.

Coffee was a beverage with considerable growth potential and consumption had risen rapidly during the 1980s. Italian coffee varieties such as espresso and cappuccino were popular and coffee had in fact replaced beer as Germany’s most popular beverage.

The acquisition of the Augsburg coffee machine factory and the launch of the first ever Franke coffee machine, the Franke TA, was a milestone for Franke Coffee Systems. And the revelations continued with further development of the bremertonic, using a modern microprocessor control system and the introduction of the first fully automatic coffee machine with integrated milk foamer in 1994.

When production was relocated to the Franke headquarters in Aarburg, Swizerland, 1990, the company really began to prosper. Marga Gyger took over as head of the management team and Franke ventured into the US market in 1996 and this paved the way for its international growth.

IThe 20th century coffee cult saw many milestones and significant changes in the coffee industry. With the new millennium just around the corner, coffee evolved from an ordinary everyday beverage to a lifestyle drink.

With the acquisition of bremer Kaffeemaschinen GmbH in Germany, 2002, Franke combined it’s valuable expertise and decades of experience in professional coffee making.

In more recent years, Franke Coffee Systems has captured new market shares through further innovations to its coffee machines and by constantly responding to current trends and the needs of its customers. More than 100,000 Franke automated coffee machines are now in operation all over the world.

The past decade has seen the coffee market evolve, the coffee bean industry gain great significance in the economy, and people’s drinking habits have become more diverse than ever.

A good cup of coffee from an automatic machine was a difficult concept for most to grasp a few years ago, these days Franke’s bean-to-cup solutions offer fresh coffee that’s tampered for every cup. And it was only in 2009 that Franke Coffee Systems found the answer to the desire for more flavor, “The Franke Flavour Station”, that has the ability to prepare coffee mix beverages with flavouring at the touch of a button.

To celebrate their 100th birthday, Franke is celebrating in style with a grand ceremony for customers and business partners taking place at the Culture and Congress Centre Lucerne (KKL), Switzerland. And no birthday bash would be complete without a large party in Aarburg for all Swiss employees.

It seems the innovative ideas of Franke Coffee Systems continue to get better with age.