Offstein plant
Factory tours
We offer factory tours only during the sugar beet processing campaign, from October to December/January. For more information, please contact the factory you would like to visit directly.
Address
Südzucker AG - Werk Offstein
Wormser Straße 11
67283 Obrigheim/Pfalz
Germany
Phone: +49 6359 803-0
E-mail: [email protected]
About the factory
Offstein is one of the company's oldest factories. Several thousand tonnes of beets are delivered and converted to syrup and sugar per day. Offstein is thereby one of Südzucker's key factories. The plant operates twenty-four hours per day during the beet campaign between September and January. Some of the syrup produced daily is stored and converted to white sugar in a separate beet syrup campaign in May and June of the following year. The secondary processing operations at the Offstein factory convert some of the sugar to sugar syrup, fructose, caramel syrups and isomalt year-round.
Furthermore, Südzucker AG's central research department and the central engineering department are also located at the Offstein site. BENEO GmbH and BENEO-Palatinit GmbH, both Südzucker AG companies, produce functional carbohydrates such as isomalt, Palatinose™ and galenIQ™ from pure beet sugar for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries.
History of the factory
21 March 1883
Tobias Deiß II is able to win the Hanover banker Gottfried and Felix Herzfeld over to build a beet sugar factory. It is founded as a corporation with a capital of 477,200 Marks and registered in the commercial register Pfeddersheim. The plant is built by "Braunschweigische Maschinenbau-Anstalt" [Braunschweig machine construction plant].
5 June 1883
Registration with the commercial register of the district court Worms.
16 October 1884
Start of the first campaign. At this time, the German sugar industry is in the midst of a crisis. There is an oversupply of sugar, especially through the import of sugar from Russia which is supported by Russian export bounties. The sugar price falls from 60 Marks to 36 Marks per quintal. The plant’s capital has to be pooled.
1886
Opening of the railroad line Offstein – Worms. The factory thus gains access to the Rheinschiene [Rhine railroady line] and to the industrial center Worms.
1886/87
A bad harvest of beets with a very low sugar content (12.55 percent) and a low sugar price lead to losses.
1899
Registration with the commercial register Ludwigshafen/Rhein and cancellation in Pfeddersheim.
1900
Connection of Offstein to electrical power.
1913
Founding member of the "Süddeutsche Rübenerwerbsgesellschaft" [South German beet labor association].
20 April 1920
Merger with the sugar factory Groß-Gerau.
1920-1923
Conversion of the plant to white sugar production.
November 1920
Accession to the special interest group of South German sugar factories.
September 1921
Founding of the Zuckerrübenkontor GmbH with the sugar factories Frankenthal, Groß-Umstadt, Waghäusel and Worms.
1926
Founding member of the Süddeutsche Zucker-Aktiengesellschaft Mannheim.
1930
Establishment of a central sales office in Mannheim for the plants in Offstein, Frankenthal and Waghäusel.
In August, the works fire brigade starts operations.
1947
Year of drought: not even 40 percent of the usual beet amount is available for processing.
1966
Initial operation of the invert sugar plant.
1972
Start of production of invert sugar syrups, caramel and mixed syrups.
1986
Capacity reduction in the Waghäusel plant.
1989
First stone laying of the isomalt plant.
2004
Inauguration of the central company archive as part of an executive board meeting.