History

It all started a long time ago…

1838
Carl Heinrich Knorr builds a factory in Heilbronn for the purpose of drying and grinding chicory
for the coffee trade.
With the spread of industrialization, C. H. Knorr realizes the need for a quickly prepared and
nutritious meal among factory workers.
He starts experimenting with drying vegetables and flavourful seasonings. In cooperation with
nutritional experts, he develops a preservation process to maintain the natural values of the
ingredients and their flavours and also reduce their cooking times. This knowledge is the basis
for the development of the dried soups.

1873
The KNORR Company begins packaging and selling soup mixes in food shops. Founder Carl
Heinrich Knorr dies in Germany two years later.
1885
The KNORR Company expands internationally with packaging plants in Austria and
Switzerland. At this time, the KNORR Company offers an imposing array of products including
cereals, vegetables, potato flakes, and an early convenience product - soups in a compressed
tablet form weighing about 3 ounces.
1889
The KNORR Company introduces the "Erbswurst", another convenience product. It is seasoned
pea soup concentrate packed in a sausage casing, which can be eaten dry or, more likely, added
to boiling water to make soup. This product became very popular due to its light weight and easy
preparation. By 1900, this product is available in 40 varieties.

1899
C.H. KNORR A.G. becomes a public German company. The net value placed on the firm is 2.5
million marks and the company employed 800 people. During the following years, until World
War I, new products are introduced such as the first European sauce mix (1908) and the bouillon
cube (1912).

1930
Unilever was created through the merger of the British soapmaker Lever Brothers with the Dutch
margarine producer, Margarine Unie. At the time, an international merger was an unusual move.
But the owners of the two companies could see that bringing together complimentary businesses
with strong global networks would create new opportunities.

Both companies were competing for the same raw materials, both were involved in large-scale
marketing of household products and both used similar distribution channels. Between them,
they had operations in over 40 countries.
1947
Although the years during World War II were difficult as resources were scarce, the problems
started thereafter when demand for KNORR products is immense and quality starts eroding. This
leads to near bankruptcy of the company.
At this stage, the company subscribes to a new credo which brings the required turnaround:
"Only true efforts in quality and reasonable prices and the development of new innovative
products bring long-term success."
1948
One of the first measures of the turnaround is the substitution of the liquid brown seasoning with
Glutamate. This eliminates the former factory taste and makes the soup a true competitor to
homemade soups.
In addition, cooking times for the products are reduced from 30 to 5-10 minutes and the old
cardboard package was replaced with a new hermetically sealed aluminium pouch that protects
the product against humidity and other strange taste influences.

1953
AROMAT seasoning mix is introduced to the market, and in the next few years many other new
product recipes for soups, sauces and bouillons followed.

By 1957, the flagship KNORR products - bouillons, soups, sauces and entrée mixes - were
available in eight countries around the world.
1958
KNORR GmbH becomes a wholly-owned company of CPC International Inc., a predecessor of
Bestfoods who belongs to Unilever today.
….and here we are now
2000
Merger between Unilever and Bestfoods. One of the world’s leading foodservice operations
emerges with a global presence, strong brands in savoury, dressings, spreads and tea, and access
to broad technologies and an experienced sales force.

2001
Start of the global introduction of the UBF Foodsolutions identity for our global foodservice
business.

2003
Announcement of our sponsorship of the WACS Global Congress 2004.

Mission – vision statement

➢ Knorr helps home-cooks provide natural and nutritious meals for their families in a
convenient way. This story describes the transformation of one of Knorr’s iconic
products: the bouillon cube.
 Natural, nutritious and delicious foods
➢ Bouillon cubes are used around the world to add the base flavour to
dishes such as sauces, soups and stews.

Closer to home
➢ By interacting closely with consumers, we realised that the jelly format
of Knorr Stock Pot is very close to home-made bouillon in how it looks
and smells and how you use it. Unilever chefs and product developers
worked closely together to cook and stabilise, in a natural way, rich
bouillons with big and fresh pieces of vegetables and herbs. We have
applied for patents around this innovative technology.
Global launch
➢ Consumers around the world are enjoying Knorr Stock Pot. The first
country to launch in 2007 was China, where there was no bouillon cube
market, and soup-consumption is very high. Chinese home-cooks love
the convenient way to create the dense soups their mothers and
grandmothers made. Now, home-cooks in the UK, Ireland, France,
Spain, Belgium, Greece and many countries to follow are expanding
their repertoire and creating wonderful, wholesome dishes for their
families.

Organizational structure
Knorr-Bremse AG, the mother company of the Group, serves as an
umbrella corporation encompassing both business divisions, Rail
Vehicle Systems and Commercial Vehicle Systems, as well as our
regional companies. Business operations are controlled by the
regions of Europe, North America, South America and Asia/Australia.
This organizational structure is designed to offer customers of both
divisions standardized and globally tried-and-tested technical
platforms, in consideration of local market and customer needs.
 product

Knorr bouillons Knorr

Knorr chicken veg

Knorr oxtail soup

Knorr snack soup