This is managed by just very few: As an independent family-owned company, Zeller+Gmelin can look back on 150 years of history. Since the beginnings in 1866, the expert for speciality lubricants, printing inks and chemistry from Eislingen has emerged as the preferred partner of large and small companies. With a two-day ceremony and an Open Day on September 24th, Zeller+Gmelin will celebrate this company anniversary.

Zeller+Gmelin offer individual and comprehensive solutions from one single source, from research and development to production. In the business year 2014, the company with its 16 subsidiaries generated a turnover of 269 million Euros. Zeller+Gmelin employs around 900 people worldwide, half of which are located at the headquarters in Eislingen, again 20 % of which work in the field of research and development.

"We are proud to be able to look back on a successful 150-year history as one of the few independent companies", says Siegfried Müller, Director of Marketing and Sales at Zeller+Gmelin. "As an innovative solution provider, we want to continue to offer secure jobs for the people in the region of Eislingen also in the future - an occasion that we will truly celebrate in September."

On February 23rd, 1866, the company Zeller+Gmelin was registered as a general partnership and shale oil factory. Behind that were the ideas of the railway engineer Anton Zeller and the pharmacist Paul Gmelin to use the slate quarries of the so-called "plains" in Groß-Eislingen for the distillation and extraction of lamp oil and heating oil. When, however, coal advanced to be the preferred combustion material, the business gradually shifted to the production of lubricants, which were in great demand in the course of the upcoming railway expansion. Today the Divinol brand stands for high-quality lubricants in the automotive sector as well as in agriculture and forest.

With the era of motorisation, the demand for mineral oil products increased. Having recognized the signs of the times, Julius Zeller, the oldest son of Albert Zeller, founded a petrol refinery on the present premises along the main railway line in 1898. Until today, it has remained the heart of the gradually expanding factory premises. The oil crisis finally led to a reorientation, to which Zeller+Gmelin has remained true until today: “Away from bulk business, towards own production of specialities”, explains Managing Director Siegfried Müller.

In the business sector printing inks, the orientation towards niche markets and a special focus on the development of UV-products was the decisive step for a successful future. The company has been engaged in UV-curing of printing inks and varnishes since 1970. Besides conventional UV-products, Zeller+Gmelin offers today numerous other printing ink systems in its range of products, which are designed for electron beam curing (EBH) and the LED-UV and LE-UV/HUV-technology and currently take centre stage in the development work.

After the fundamental decision in 1996 to align the entire business with the growth market of radiation-curing printing ink systems, Zeller+Gmelin has consequently focused its product range of UV-systems on the following four market segments: packaging (moulded containers such as cups and tubes as well as flexible packaging and folded boxes for the pharmaceutical, food and non-food industry), labels (self-adhesive labels, in-mould labels and shrink sleeves for the pharmaceutical, food and non-food industry), commercials (mailings, forms, printed advertising material, posters, brochures) and metal decoration (aerosol cans, tubes and bottles made of aluminium, two-piece and three-piece cans, crown caps, screw caps, etc.).

With regard to printing inks for plastic moulded containers (cups, tubes, lids, buckets, etc.), the company currently sees itself as market leader. According to information from the printing ink manufacturer, for example, about 80% of the yoghurt cups in Germany are printed with inks from Zeller+Gmelin. This highly specialized application places very high demands on the printing inks. The gained experience and the expertise, which was gathered over the years, also flow into the development of printing inks for flexible packaging and folded boxes. Also in the field of label printing, for which the printing ink specialist from Eislingen offers a complete product range for self-adhesive and in-mould labels as well as shrink sleeves, Zeller+Gmelin is one of the established manufacturers. Another important market is the printing of metal packaging, including for example beverage and aerosol cans, tubes, bottles and cans, as well as twist-off lids and crown caps.

The fact that the comprehensive UV-programme is continuously enhanced and expanded, is only one aspect. A key factor for success is the concentration of technical application know-how in the Technical Service Centre (TSC), which has been established especially for this purpose. It is backed by a team of application engineers and printing specialists all of them having practical experience. Thus, they are familiar with the challenges in the pressroom and at the printing press. Moreover, the close linking of the TSC and the development laboratory also ensures that all information on the requirements of the end users is directly incorporated into the development process and therefore, in the best of cases, solutions for tomorrow's needs are produced already today.

The application technology support for customers more and more exceeds the printing process. Often, process consulting ranges from prepress to further processing. In the future, there will moreover be a growing need for the individual training of customer staff or colorimetry systems and complete ink mixing stations including quality control as well as for the support of users by providing methods of analysis on the current state of the art. More and more, the growing attention of consumers and the increasing number of legal regulations especially in the food industry puts the focus especially on the latter task area. The bottom line is that Zeller+Gmelin offers its customers flexible service packages, which can include various services such as colour management systems, colorimetry or ink metering as well as mixing lists, training and education programmes or special products.

The company will celebrate the one and a half centuries’ success story of Zeller+Gmelin with an anniversary celebration from September 22nd to 24th. Besides the numerous employees, customers, business partners and guests from business and politics are invited as well. As a highlight, Managing Director Siegfried Müller announces the Open Day with a family-friendly programme of side events with a lot of entertainment. Friends, families and the interested public are expected to participate. Zeller+Gmelin will vividly demonstrate its high innovative power for example by various tours of the premises including the technical centre as well as by special topic areas.