The beginning
It all started with Hubert Großmann (1917 – 2000), a skilled machine manufacturer who founded the company. After World War II he left his home in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) together with his wife and two small children in order to set up his own business in western Germany. His seed money was one briefcase filled with tools and his head full of good ideas.
Incorporation
One of his business ideas was to sell ice-cream. In the post-war era, however, it was hard to get hold of the required ice-cream cones. Hence he built a hand baking device he had constructed himself and started producing his own ice-cream cones. Surprisingly, other bakers asked him more and more often to build similar devices for them and soon he was able to go into “serial production”. It was the year 1950 in a small place called Fredeburg, in a region in North-Rhine-Westphalia called Sauerland – and the beginning of GROSSMANN Wafer Baking Installations.
The first machines
While the first Baking Machine still fitted into the trunk of a passenger car, the machines kept getting larger and the range became wider in the following years. Space for production and growth was scarce.
Development and expansion
After relocating several times, a new production site was built in Winterberg- Zueschen. Following his formation as constructing engineer, the eldest son, Dieter Großmann, started working in his father’s company at the beginning of the 1960s and together they enlarged the company even further. A few years later, the second son, Lutz Großmann, joined the company as well.
Relocation and GmbH foundation
Meanwhile the company was exporting worldwide with increasing demand and the location in Zueschen became too small. At a distance of approx. 30 km, a larger production site was built at today’s premises in Frankenberg/Eder. The relocation took place in 1981; at the same time GROSSMANN GmbH was founded. Hubert Großmann retired from the business operations and assigned the responsibility to his two sons. Dieter Großmann managed the company until the year 2003, supported by his younger brother Lutz.
Expansion of product variety
For a long time now not only rolled ice-cream cones are being produced with GROSSMANN Wafer Baking Machines but a multitude of wafer products. Small and medium-sized producers are being supplied just as consumers from the big industry. With long-term experience, involving the latest technologies that are implemented by qualified employees, the machines are being designed according to the customer’s wishes.
Leading manufacturer
Today GROSSMANN is one of the leading producers of Wafer Baking Machines in the world, still family-owned and currently run by the managing director Lutz Großmann.
