The Pfanni GmbH & Co. OHG is a German food manufacturer based in Stavenhagen. It specializes in the manufacturing of kitchen ready

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

products. It is a subsidiary of

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

since 2000.

History

The company was founded on September 2, 1949 by Werner Eckart in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. Whose father, John Eckart, had been producing preserves since 1868. In the year 1964, Pfanni had a turnover of more that DM50 million, which by 1965 increased to DM80 million. Pfanni employed by that time 1,300 workers and processed 150,000 tonnes of potatoes each year. Pfanni was sold in 1993 to CPC Germany, later renamed Bestfoods Corporation. Knorr also belongs to Bestfoods Corporation. In 2000, this group of companies was taken over by

, which offers Pfanni branded potato products such as

raspeball Potetball (also known as ball, klubb, kumle, komle, kompe, raspeball) is a traditional Norwegian potato dumpling. A similar German dish is called '' Kartoffelklöße''. The main ingredient is peeled potatoes, which are grated or ground up and ...

, dumpling dough,

mashed potato Mashed potato or mashed potatoes (American and Canadian English), colloquially known as mash (British English), is a dish made by mashing boiled or steamed potatoes, usually with added milk, butter, salt and pepper. It is generally served as a ...

TV dinner A frozen meal (also called TV dinner (Canada and US), prepackaged meal, ready-made meal, ready meal (UK), frozen dinner, and microwave meal) is a packaged frozen meal that comes portioned for an individual. A frozen meal in the United States an ...

and

gnocchi Gnocchi ( , , ; singular ''gnocco'') are a varied family of dumpling in Italian cuisine. They are made of small lumps of dough most traditionally composed of a simple combination of wheat flour, egg, salt, and potato. Variations of the dish sup ...

. The dumpling varieties also includes bread dumplings. After the company had moved to

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

, in 1996 the huge former factory site of the Pfanni company that was located in Munich’s

Berg am Laim Berg am Laim (Central Bavarian: ''Berg am Loam'') is a southeastern borough of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Notable landmarks * Das Kartoffelmuseum * Erzbruderschaft St. Michael * Innsbrucker Ring * Innsbrucker-Ring-Tunnel * Kultfabrik * Leuchtenb ...

district became a nightlife and party district called ''Kunstpark Ost'', hosting more than 30 discotheques and spawning several internationally renowned nightclubs such as

Ultraschall Ultraschall (German: Ultrasound, ) was a nightclub in Munich, Germany from 1994 to 2003. The techno club belonged, besides the '' Tresor'' and '' E-Werk'' in Berlin, the ''Dorian Gray'' and ''Omen'' in Frankfurt, and the Munich-based clubs ', ''N ...

, KW – Das Heizkraftwerk and ''Natraj Temple''. From 2003 to 2016, the party area was managed by new operators under the name ''Kultfabrik''. In the same year the Potato Museum opened up on the former factory grounds. The museum is financed by the Otto Eckart Foundation.

Honorary Consul A consul is an official representative of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, as well as to facilitate trade and friendship between the people ...

Otto Eckart, the son of the founder, was CEO and owner until the sale of CPC. He is now the executive director of the foundation that bears his name. The current corporate headquarters from Pfanni is Stravenhagen. An additional factory is located in

Cloppenburg Cloppenburg (; nds, Cloppenborg; stq, Kloppenbuurich) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, capital of Cloppenburg District and part of Oldenburg Münsterland. It lies 38 km south-south-west of Oldenburg in the Weser-Ems region between Brem ...

(Lower Saxony). The plant in Cloppenburg was acquired from the Wersing food company and its production moved to

Addrup Addrup is a village in the district of Cloppenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography Addrup borders the villages of Gut Lage, Uptloh, Bevern, Calhorn and Stadtsholte within the Essen (Oldenburg) municipality. To the east, Addrup borders Lüsc ...

. In the Cloppenburg district of Emstekerfeld, a 76-meter tower stands in memory of Pfanni. The tower was built in 1963 and is a part of the then newly built factory of Spreda Nahrungsmittelwerke AG. Spreda AG stopped production in 1965. Later Pfanni took over the premises; the "Spreda Spray Tower" built for the drying process, was renamed the "Pfanni Tower" and was made a symbol of the city.

Literature

References

{{reflist

External links

Pfanni

Potato Museum
Unilever Potatoes Food product brands Food and drink companies of Germany Companies based in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Mecklenburgische Seenplatte (district) 1949 establishments in West Germany