Company History

Successful relationships and long-term partnerships have shaped the entire history of Glatz. The business areas have grown historically. The company survived two world wars and participated in structural changes in the agricultural trade as well as in the food trade. In these eventful times, the Glatz family built up a traditional company and made it a fixture in Austria. Today it is a leading private agricultural wholesaler in the grain and fertilizer sector and an important trading partner for the food trade and the food industry.

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First generation

Friedrich Glatz 1892-1934

Friedrich Glatz begins with 13 years already as an intern at the Elsö Budapesti Gözmalom Rt ., The First Budapest steam mills AG. He learns from the ground up the wholesale business with grain, flour and ground products.

It doesn’t take long before he is given tasks with ever greater responsibilities. Friedrich Glatz founded his first company in 1884. He is 27 years old. He ran his trading agency in Budapest for eight years.

When his parents died in 1892, Friedrich transferred his company to his brother Georg, who was eleven years older than him, and who in turn had a lot of experience in the agricultural business, and made his way to Vienna.

Friedrich Glatz

Handelsregister Antrag

Vertretung Ungarn

Börse

Import Schiffe

Mitarbeiter

1892 On July 13, 1892, Friedrich Glatz registered his new company in Vienna. “Friedrich Glatz, trading in ground products” is the very prosaic name. The clientele soon included not only small and wholesalers, but also bakers, farmers and farms. Permanent representatives at the stock exchanges in Budapest, Prague, Wroclaw, Brno and Pressburg as well as an import area from Hungary, Italy and Romania are impressive proof of the successful development of the business activities of the founder.

In addition to the offices, the Vienna Stock Exchange is Glatz’s second home. In the huge trading hall, trading takes place once a day on weekdays and twice on Saturday. There are still two of their own trading tables at Glatz. They are reminiscent of a bygone era of stock exchange trading, when every company active on the stock exchange has its own table with a name tag. Glatz is represented here day in, day out with seven dealers.

Historical Boerse 1914 With the outbreak of World War I, trade and traffic in grain, flour, ground products and animal feed are transferred to the state “War Grain Transport Authority”. Friedrich Glatz takes over the development and management of the flour department on a voluntary basis. Not only do all of Glatz’s purchase contracts pass to the new authority, but also all of the company’s staff.

1921 After the war, Friedrich Glatz inevitably returns from retirement and starts over with his company. Wholesale of grain, flour and animal feed remains nationalized even after the end of the war. Only in 1921 does the republic slowly release it again. Glatz is one of the first in the industry to get back into business. The Glatz company is gradually returning to trading in agricultural products and grist. In 1921 the leading Hungarian Concordia mill reassigned him to represent him in Vienna.

The seasoned businessman recognizes the potential of the overseas markets. In order to be able to tap into them, Friedrich Glatz went to school again at the age of 64 and learned English. Equipped with this language, Glatz soon began importing grain from Canada and the USA.

After graduating from commercial school in 1923, his son Konrad joined his father’s company at the age of 17 and was given the power of attorney in 1930.

Second generation

Konrad Glatz 1934-1971

Months before the death of his father Friedrich, Konrad Glatz was in charge of the trading house. In 1938 the Vienna Stock Exchange for Agricultural Products entrusted him with the function of arbitrator. Glatz doesn’t have to go to war. The regime needs him to organize the grain industry. The trading house Glatz is transformed into a semi-public agency.

Companies are being set up in Serbia and Romania. In Belgrade, the trading company Glatz establishes Donau- Cereal AG, and together with the German Korn-Kompagnie Flensburg Glatz operates Cerealcomert SAR in Braila, Romania . The branch offices organize the export of the grain from there to the German Reich. But with the end of the war, all holdings and subsidiaries in the Balkans are lost.

Konrad Glatz

Import Schiffe

Fuhrpark

Rhenus

1945 Immediately after the end of the war, the company used the “Maria Theresien Authorization Certificate” to trade in all kinds of goods. Inventive in times of need, the company deals with an astonishing range of goods. It ranges from brooms and shoe paste to bundt cake and marzipan masses to liquid soap and needles.

Austria suffers severely from the consequences of the war. A flour distribution agency is set up to distribute flour. Glatz was entrusted with the organization; the Viennese Bakers’ Cooperative for Acquisitions and Businesses took care of the implementation. To do this, a complicated card index must be set up and managed. At the same time, the company is also responsible for other foods.

In 1947 Ernst Weiner, only 28 years old at the time, was granted individual power of attorney in recognition of his performance and loyalty. Joined as an apprentice in 1933, immediately after the war he took the fate of the company into his hands and successfully led the company through the first post-war years. In 1949, the top management expanded into a trio: Chief accountant Raimund Klotz was also appointed authorized signatory. He has been part of Glatz since 1915 and is one of the veterans.

After the aid supplies from the USA ran out, the grain business changed: Glatz began to import grain itself. Because domestic production is far from being large enough to meet demand, and Austrian grain is qualitatively inferior to the industrially produced varieties from overseas. Business with international flood wholesalers , especially in the USA and Canada, is carried out at Glatz through the foreign department. Austria imports up to 900,000 tons of grain annually in the post-war years.

In addition to foreign business, there is also growing domestic business: also because the competing cooperatives are broadening their range, Glatz is expanding the business fields. The company now also sells soy meal, oil cake, fish and meat meal for animal feed, fertilizers and increasing quantities of seeds.

On September 1, 1950, Glatz had the “Agrar-Speicher-Betriebs-Gesellschaft mbH ” entered in the commercial register. The purpose of the new company is to operate the Rhenus and Hansa storage silos in the Danube port of Vienna-Albern, which are under Soviet management. Glatz stores the large quantities of grain that come from overseas in the storage facilities.

Paul Bruck from Leopoldsdorf became an important strategic partner for Konrad Glatz in 1952: he founded Paul Bruck KG with the son of a regional product retailer family. This is building 15 locations in Marchfeld and northern Burgenland. Over the years, Glatz increased the shares in the joint company until Paul Bruck KG became fully owned by Glatz.

Glatz covers the entire Austrian market from Vienna and Lower Austria. With newly hired representatives, the company comes into business from a new office location in Wels with mills and other customers as far as Tyrol. Glatz representatives in Styria and Carinthia also work systematically and successfully in the south of Austria.

In 1960 and 1970 Glatz built two conveniently located large silos with 40,000 tons of storage capacity in Korneuburg directly on the Danube.

In the 1960s, a separate department for dried fruits, rice and canned food was created in the company, which in the 1980s was already able to book a quarter of total sales.

Third generation

Fritz Glatz 1971-2002

Earlier than planned, Konrad Glatz’s son Fritz took over the management of the house at the age of 28 after Konrad’s accidental death. However, he is prepared for it. The young man has been working at Glatz’s side at his father’s side since 1968.

In the Vienna Danube port of Albern, Glatz begins with a used packaging machine to pack the wholesaled merchandise in detail and to resell it as a wholesaler. From 1977 Glatz began to package groceries in a specially built hall in Korneuburg: hazelnuts from Turkey, raisins from Greece, poppy seeds from Hungary and what was then Czechoslovakia, as well as almonds, rice and coconut. Three large packaging machines will soon be running in Korneuburg.

Fritz Glatz

Abpackung

In the Fritz Glatz era, the food division developed into a branded company . With Nuri and Delamaris , Glatz has already gained experience in developing and maintaining brands. The trading house is also familiar with the expectations and demands of the large retail chains in terms of logistics.

The food sector is developing extremely positively. Thanks to the flourishing business, it contributes significantly to the overall success of Glatz. In contrast to the agricultural division, Glatz is not only a raw materials trader, but also an importer and logistician of articles that are made up for consumers.

At the end of the 1980s, business in the agricultural sector changed once again: in 1988, Austrian grain exports peaked at 1.2 million tons, only to then decline continuously due to the increasing cultivation of alternative products. At Glatz, the feed and protein business is growing significantly. Ten percent of Austrian soybean meal imports go through the Glatz headquarters in Johannesgasse in Vienna.

In 1994 Austria became a member of the European Union. Overnight, the free market economy replaces the grain business, which has been practiced for decades, with fixed margins and defined territories.

1996 Glatz acquires the Linz-based wholesaler Hermann Oder KG from the fertilizer producer Agrolinz . As a regional product and grain wholesaler, Oder is one of Glatz’s competitors, who also deals in peat, substrates and potting soil . The acquisition expands Glatz’s product portfolio.

The connections from Glatz to Hungary have never been completely broken. In 1998 Glatz took a stake in F. Glatz Kft. In Hungary and in 2000 followed up with the establishment of the F. Glatz regional product trade as a subsidiary.

Like his father Konrad, Fritz Glatz suddenly dies. When he was not even 59 he died in a car accident.

Fourth generation

Jakob Glatz 2002 – today

At the age of 24, Jakob Glatz takes on the big task of running the company overnight.

In 2003, Glatz completed the long-planned merger with befriended competitor Mauthner, which ultimately failed due to the diversity of corporate cultures. After the hoped-for synergy effects did not materialize, the companies split again two years later.

In 2004 the new horticultural division was created at the Linz location . The employees of the dissolved Beppler company will be taken over directly and considerable sales will be generated soon. From then on, landscape gardeners and traditional gardeners not only stock up on peat and soil, but also with pesticides and fertilizers.

Also in 2004, is the Fertlogistik S.rl . an Italian subsidiary based in Vipiteno near the border in South Tyrol was founded. Italian and Austrian farmers purchase fertilizers here.

Jakob Glatz

120 Jahre

In 2005 Glatz opened an office in the center of Graz and traded in Hungarian and Styrian grain, some of which went to Slovenia and Italy.

In 2006, Fertlogistik entered the fruit trade and mainly exported apples – South Tyrol is an important growing area – to fruit processors in neighboring Austria, Germany and the Benelux region.

After the death of Ernst Weiner, Jakob Glatz took over the majority of the shares of the Weiner family in the Agrar-Speicher-Betriebs-Gesellschaft in 2009 . The Glatz company becomes a shareholder to a lesser extent. The subsidiary specializing in warehousing, which offers and manages storage capacities for 100,000 tonnes of grain, is establishing itself as an independent storage and transport logistics service provider.

In 2009 Jakob Glatz decided to shorten the official company name from “Friedrich Glatz Handels-GmbH & Co KG” to the simpler “Glatz GmbH und Co KG”.

In 2010 Glatz presented itself in a new appearance with a new logo.

In the years 2008 to 2010 alone, the company will invest one million euros in the renewal of its infrastructure. After many years of good cooperation in the field of pesticide transport , Glatz took an 8.3 percent stake in LLT Lannacher Lager- und Transport GmbH.

The Glatz silos and the agricultural storage silos for the storage and handling of grain and oilseeds have been GMP + certified since 2011 .

In 2011, the Hungarian subsidiary of the Glatz Group succeeded in listing Glatz’s own brands Farmer’s Country and Excelsior in the large supermarket chains Auchan and Cora. From then on, Glatz Hungary Kft . an important food broker in the Hungarian food trade .

2012 is the year of its 120th anniversary. For the first time, Glatz is organizing the Marchfelder Agrar Tag in Schloss Orth. The Stripfing silo location is being revitalized, and the Untersiebenbrunn location with the largest silo in Marchfeld will become the central control center for the branches. From now on, part of the food range will be sold in the branches at regionally favorable prices.

In 2013, the brand agency Olivier GmbH is taken over, which from that point on will be handling the sale of confectionery brands as a new subsidiary .

Also in 2013 founds Glatz with Fertlogistik sp.z . a Polish subsidiary for fertilizer wholesaling.

In mid-April 2013, Glatz acquired the canned and rice business from F. Url & Co GmbH , a subsidiary of RWA. The products from the field of canned fish, fruit and vegetables as well as rice fit perfectly into the existing Glatz range and represent a further expansion of the brand and product portfolio.

The former F.Url brands “Every Day” and ” Your Choice” will be integrated into the existing range of “Excelsior” in the course of 2014. The range of canned fish, fruit and vegetables is given a uniform, modern look.

In June 2016, Glatz took over Márker Distribution Kft. In Hungary. Like Glatz Hungary Kft., The company sells international food to Hungarian retailers and Horeca . The Glatz company has been importing the Nuri cult sardines from Portugal since the 1950s. Due to a longer fishing ban in Portugal, the products will disappear from the shelves between 2015-2017. In order to ensure the continued existence of the brand, Mr. Glatz bought the historic producer Pinhais in 2016. Nuri is thus returning to the Austrian market.

2018 is the year of restructuring of the group of companies in order to optimize capacities, competencies and activities. In the course of this, the two Hungarian companies merge into one company, all silos in Marchfeld and Burgenland are sold and the company Glatz GmbH and Co KG is renamed Glatz GmbH.