For the first time in its history, the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe achieves sales of over half a billion EUR in 2017. For the current year, CEO Torsten Wywiol is expecting a further increase in sales to about 570 million EUR. In 2017, the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe with its headquarters in Hamburg increased its sales by 56 million Euro to 520 million Euro. With this figure, the specialist in food and feed ingredients achieved 12 percent growth last year. The continuing positive development of the family business is due very largely to expansion of its international presence and intensive applications research. These have also led to the group being rated as one of Germany’s Top Twenty most innovative medium-sized enterprises. Worldwide, the group has over 1,300 employees, 920 of them in Germany. The Stern-Wywiol Gruppe is made up of twelve independent specialist firms in Germany that develop, manufacture and distribute functional ingredients for the production of food and animal feed. They include internationally well-known companies such as Hydrosol, Mühlenchemie, SternMaid, SternVitamin, Sternchemie, SternEnzym, HERZA Schokolade and Berg+Schmidt. Each firm has a high level of competence in its particular field, with experts from industry and research, for example in baked goods and pasta, dairy products, deli foods, meat, fish, chocolate, and also flavourings, lecithin, enzymes and vitamins. 85 percent of the goods sold by the independently operating companies are exported to customers in over 130 countries. In many branches of the food industry the specialist units have become world market leaders, for example when it comes to standardizing the staple food “flour” with the aid of enzymes, fortifying foods with micronutrients or developing customized stabilizing systems for dairy products, deli foods or meat products. With 16 affiliates abroad, each of which has a profound knowledge of the region and in some cases research facilities and production capacity of its own, the group secures access to the most important markets. Last year, a total of 20 million EUR was invested in the enlargement of production capacities and the broad range of applications research. The group intends to invest a further 42 million EUR in enlarging research and production capacities in Germany and abroad in the next two years. For the current year, CEO Torsten Wywiol is expecting a further increase in sales to about 570 million EUR. “A management concept based on equality and flexible structures: these are what constitute the DNA of our group. They are the source of the exceptional innovative power that distinguishes us from the major corporations in the international market for food and feed”, says Wywiol.