The PHW Group is a German family business in the meat industry that operates internationally. Its core business is meat processing of

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...

. It is the largest company of the

poultry industry Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion chicke ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and the fourth-largest in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The PHW Group is headquartered in

Visbek Visbek (Old Saxon ''Fiscbechi'') is a municipality in the district of Vechta, in the Oldenburg Münsterland region of the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. Location and municipal subdivisions Visbek lies on the North German Plain, approximately ...

-Rechterfeld in the Oldenburg Münsterland region, Germany.

Structure

The PHW Group is made up of two parent companies: the ''Erste Paul-Heinz Wesjohann GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft'' with €2,232.5 million in sales, and the ''Zweite Paul-Heinz Wesjohann GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft'' with €585.8 million in sales in the 2020/2021 financial year, both based in Rechterfeld.Consolidated financial statement for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2020 and ending on June 30, 2021 of Erste Paul-Heinz Wesjohann GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Rechterfeld. Published in

Bundesanzeiger The ''Bundesanzeiger'' is an official publication of the Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, ...

on July 14, 2022.Consolidated financial statement for the fiscal year beginning on July 1, 2020 and ending on June 30, 2021 of Zweite Paul-Heinz Wesjohann GmbH & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Rechterfeld. Published in

on July 28, 2022. Part of the PHW group are several subgroups, among them the ''Lohmann & Co. AG'' based in

Vaduz Vaduz ( or , High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' Hrsg. ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

, which the PHW Group uses for public appearances. MEGA Tierernährung in Haldensleben 1

The core business area of the PHW Group is

poultry production Poultry farming is the form of animal husbandry which raises domesticated birds such as chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese to produce meat or eggs for food. Poultry – mostly chickens – are farmed in great numbers. More than 60 billion ch ...

under the

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

''Wiesenhof''. The PHW Group features a strong

vertical integration In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...

and combines large parts of the poultry production chain. These include hatcheries, fattening, the production of feed and

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

, logistics, the slaughtering and cutting of

, and the processing and marketing of poultry meat.

Chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s are the main products processed, along with

turkeys The turkey is a large bird in the genus ''Meleagris'', native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocellat ...

and

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

s. The PHW Group also owns just under 50 percent of the shares of the

WIMEX Group The WIMEX Group is an internationally active German company in the meat and agricultural industry, based in Köthen, Saxony-Anhalt. With an annual capacity of 435.455 million hatching eggs, it is the largest producer of day-old chicks for ...

, one of the world's largest suppliers of day old chicks of the ''Cobb'' breed. Additionally, the company has a business sector ''alternative proteins'', which in the fiscal year 2020/2021 made up €16.8 million (0,6% of the total revenue).

History

1932 until 1998: predecessor

In 1932, Paul Wesjohann founded an agricultural trade business with a hatchery in Rechterfeld. The same year but independently, Heinz Lohmann founded a

fishmeal Fish meal is a commercial product made from whole wild-caught fish, bycatch and fish by-products to feed farm animals, e.g., pigs, poultry, and farmed fish.R. D. Miles and F. A. Chapman.FA122: The Benefits of Fish Meal in Aquaculture DietsFisherie ...

factory in

Cuxhaven Cuxhaven (; ) is an independent town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has ...

. Both expanded their businesses greatly in the following decades. In 1965, they jointly established a chicken hatchery in Rechterfeld. The sons of Paul Wesjohann, Paul-Heinz and Erich Wesjohann, both entered executive position there. The brothers took over more and more responsibility in the following years. In 1987, the Wesjohann family took over the majority of the

share capital A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. "Share capita ...

of Lohmann's company ''Lohmann & Co. AG'', yielding the ''Lohmann-Wesjohann-Gruppe''. In 1997, the Wesjohann family took over the remaining shares, subsequently owning the consortium completely.

1998: foundation of the PHW Group and the EW Group

In 1998, Paul-Heinz and Erich Wesjohann split up the consortium. Paul-Heinz Wesjohann founded the PHW Group and Erich Wesjohann founded the

EW Group The EW Group is a German multinational family-owned livestock breeding group. It is the world market leader in breeding and genetics of poultry and tilapia. It comprises 53 German and 220 foreign companies under the parent company ''EW Group GmbH ...

. While the EW Group became one of the world's largest poultry-breeding companies, the PHW Group evolved into one of the largest poultry slaughter company in Europe.

1998 until now

The PHW Group subsequently expanded and took over competitors as well as companies in other countries. The acquisitions included the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

poultry processor ''Drobimexin'' 2001, the Dutch slaughterhouse ''Esbro'' in 2014 and the German duck processor ''Wichmann'' in 2016. In 2018, the PHW Group took over the distribution for

Beyond Meat Beyond Meat, Inc. is a Los Angeles–based producer of plant-based meat substitutes founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown. The company's initial products were launched in the United States in 2012. History Founding Ethan Brown founded the company in ...

in Germany. Until the end of 2007, the PHW Group sponsored the professional cycling team

Wiesenhof–Felt Team Wiesenhof was a professional continental cycling team based in Germany that participated in UCI Continental Circuits races and when selected as a wildcard to UCI ProTour events. The team was managed by Raphael Schweda with assistance from dire ...

. Since 2012, the PHW Group is the main sponsor of the professional football club

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

. The founder Paul-Heinz Wesjohann handed over the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

position to his son Peter Wesjohann in 2009.

Controversies

Exploitation of workers

The PHW Group was repeatedly criticized for bad working conditions. Im 2007, the

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

broadcast the TV format ''Frontal21'' documenting very bad working conditions and wages of Polish migrant workers. In 2011, similar conditions were documented by a ARD TV-reportage.

Animal abuse

Mistreatment of animals Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or suff ...

in the farms and the

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

s was repeatedly criticized sharply. In 2010, the ARD broadcast a ''Report Mainz'' reportage uncovering serious animal welfare violations at a chicken breeding farm. In another ARD reportage in 2011 and in a

Stern TV The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Orig ...

reportage in 2013, further cases of animal abuse were documented.

Environmental issues

The PHW Group is accused of overexploitation of groundwater resources in the vicinity of its production sites. In Lohne,

groundwater level The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

s near a plant of the PHW Group were documented to have dropped by several meters since 1951.

Illegal price agreements and tax evasion

In 2014, the German

Federal Cartel Office The Federal Cartel Office (, ; BKartA) is Germany's national competition regulatory agency. First established in 1958, BKartA comes under the authority of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The agency is headquartered ...

imposed

fines Fines may refer to: *Fines, Andalusia, Spanish municipality *Fine (penalty) * Fine, a dated term for a premium on a lease of land, a large sum the tenant pays to commute (lessen) the rent throughout the term *Fines, ore or other products with a sma ...

totaling approximately €338.5 million on 21

sausage A sausage is a type of meat product usually made from ground meat—often pork, beef, or poultry—along with salt, spices and other flavourings. Other ingredients, such as grains or breadcrumbs may be included as fillers or extenders. ...

producers and 33 responsible individuals. The so-called ''Wurstkartell'' (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

for ''sausage cartel'') also involved PHW Group subsidiary ''Wiesenhof Geflügelwurst GmbH & Co. KG'' based in Rietberg. In 2019, the PHW Group relocated the registered office of ''Lohmann & Co. AG'' to Vaduz in Liechtenstein. The financial services provider ''Ganten Trustees Ltd.'' serves as the representative office, which previously appeared in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

. The party

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

accused the PHW Group of

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

Protests

Massenaktion PHW Ade Juli 2021, Ziviler Ungehorsam 4

Environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

and animal rights activists blocked sites of the PHW Group multiple times in protest. In 2013, activists cemented themselves on the access road to the slaughterhouse in Bogen,

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

. In 2017, animal rights activists and members of citizens' initiatives blocked the slaughterhouse in Königs Wusterhausen,

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

. In 2021, the alliance ''Gemeinsam gegen die Tierindustrie'' blocked the company

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

in Rechterfeld with more than hundred activists.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Meat companies of Germany Poultry companies Animal food manufacturers Companies based in Lower Saxony Food and drink companies established in 1998 Family businesses of Germany German companies established in 1998 Vechta (district)