Independent family-owned Zeller+Gmelin is celebrating 150 years in business. Since its beginnings in 1866, the specialist in speciality lubricants, printing inks and chemistry from Eislingen, Germany has emerged as an ink partner for printing companies both large and small. With a two-day ceremony and an Open Day on September 24, Zeller+Gmelin will honor its special anniversary.

On February 23, 1866, the company Zeller+Gmelin was registered as a general partnership and shale oil factory. Behind that were the ideas of the railway engineer Anton Zeller and the pharmacist Paul Gmelin to use the slate quarries of the so-called “plains” in Groß-Eislingen for the distillation and extraction of lamp oil and heating oil. When, however, coal advanced to be the preferred combustion material, the business gradually shifted to the production of lubricants, which were in great demand due to railway expansion. Today the Divinol brand stands for high-quality lubricants in the automotive sector as well as in agriculture and forest.

During the motorization era, the demand for mineral oil products increased. Having recognized the signs of the times, Julius Zeller, the oldest son of Albert Zeller, founded a petrol refinery on the present premises along the main railway line in 1898. Until today, it has remained the heart of the gradually expanding factory prem-ises. The oil crisis finally led to a reorientation, to which Zeller+Gmelin has remained true until today: “Away from bulk business, towards own production of specialities,” explains Managing Director Siegfried Müller.

Zeller+Gmelin offers individual and comprehensive solutions from a single source – from research and development to production. In 2014, the company with its 16 subsidiaries generated a turnover of 269 million euros. Zeller+Gmelin employs around 900 people worldwide, half of which are located at the headquarters in Eislingen, 20% of which work in the field of research and development.

“We are proud to be able to look back on a successful 150-year history as one of the few independent companies,” says Siegfried Müller, director of marketing and sales at Zeller+Gmelin. “As an innovative solutions provider, we want to continue to offer secure jobs for the people in the region of Eislingen also in the future – an occasion that we will truly celebrate in September.”

Focus on radiation-curing products
In the printing inks sector, the orientation towards niche markets and a special focus on the development of UV-products proved to be a pivotal step. The company has been immersed in developing UV-curable printing inks and varnishes since 1970. Besides conventional UV-products, Zeller+Gmelin offers numerous other printing ink systems in its range of products, which are designed for electron beam curing (EBH) and the UV LED and LE-UV/HUV-technology that’s currently take center stage.

After the fundamental decision in 1996 to align the entire business with the growth market of radiation-curing printing ink systems, Zeller+Gmelin has consequently focused its product range of UV-systems on the following four market segments:

• packaging (molded containers such as cups and tubes as well as flexible packaging and folded boxes for the pharmaceutical, food and non-food industry),
• labels (self-adhesive labels, in-mold labels and shrink sleeves for the pharmaceutical, food and non-food industry),
• commercials (mailings, forms, printed advertising material, posters, brochures) and
• metal decoration (aerosol cans, tubes and bottles made of aluminium, two-piece and three-piece cans, crown caps, screw caps, etc.)

With regard to printing inks for plastic molded containers (cups, tubes, lids, buckets, etc.), the company currently sees itself as market leader. According to the company, for example, about 80% of the yogurt cups in Germany are printed with inks from Zeller+Gmelin. This highly specialized application places very high demands on the printing inks. The gained experience and the expertise, which was gathered over the years, also flow into the development of printing inks for flexible packaging and folded boxes.

Also within the label printing industry, for which Zeller+Gmelin offers a complete product range for self-adhesive and in-mold labels as well as shrink sleeves, the company is well-established. Another important market is the printing of metal packaging, including for example beverage and aerosol cans, tubes, bottles and cans, as well as twist-off lids and crown caps.

Service
With its comprehensive UV-program continuously enhanced and expanded, a key factor for success for Zeller+Gmelin is the concentration of technical application know-how in the Technical Service Center (TSC), which has been established especially for this purpose. The TSC is backed by a team of application engineers and printing specialists that are familiar with the challenges in the pressroom and at the printing press. Moreover, the close linking of the TSC and the development laboratory also ensures that all information on the requirements of customers is directly incorporated into the development process, the company says.

For Zeller+Gmelin, often, process consulting ranges from prepress to further processing. In the future, Müller says, there will be a growing need for the individual training of customer staff or colorimetry systems and complete ink mixing stations. This includes quality control as well as support for users by providing methods of ink analysis. “More and more, the growing attention of consumers and the increasing number of legal regulations especially in the food industry puts the focus especially on the latter task area,” Müller says. “The bottom line is that Zeller+Gmelin offers its customers flexible service packages, which can include various services such as color management systems, colorimetry or ink metering as well as mixing lists, training and education programmes or special products.”

Anniversary celebration over three days
The company will celebrate its one and a half centuries’ success story with an anniversary celebration from September 22-24. Besides the numerous employees, customers, business partners and guests from business and politics are invited as well. As a highlight, Managing Director Siegfried Müller has announced the Open Day with a family-friendly program of side events and entertainment. Friends, families and the interested public are encouraged to participate.

During the event, Zeller+Gmelin will demonstrate its ink innovations with various tours of the premises including the technical center, as well as by special topic areas.