History

“There’s no future without a past!”

Peter Frischmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board

If you want to delve into the history of ALBERT FREY, the best place to do so is in the company’s own “Bräustüberl”. It’s the perfect place for the countless anecdotes and stories that have successfully brought ALBERT FREY through more than 115 years of corporate history.

It all began in 1906 as a trading agency for breweries and dairies. ALBERT FREY brokered systems and equipment that were urgently needed by the up-and-coming companies. At that time, however, the company’s own developments were still pipe dreams.

This changed in part in 1949. At that time, ALBERT FREY was involved in the development of the “Hirt’schen Rapid”, a glue-free labelling machine for swing-top bottles. The machine became a big hit. However, selling machines remained the company’s core business. Starting in 1971, this was done out of Stuttgart (later Leonberg) by the then head of the company, Sepp Prößl. As a master brewer, he knew what breweries needed – his sales agency was drowning in orders.

In 1951, the successful cooperation with the Hilge pump factory began. The partnership is still ongoing.

In the 1970s, new technologies, such as aluminium kegs and keg systems, revolutionised the brewing industry. The systems became more and more complex and the demands placed on the food industry – especially in terms of hygiene and cleaning – became increasingly stringent.

In 1994, Peter Frischmann took over ALBERT FREY. His vision was to use his wealth of experience from twelve years as a master brewer in an innovative way. To achieve this, the company moved to Wald in the Allgäu region and kept expanding its premises. Workshops, a training centre and halls for plant construction were built. The technology, plant construction and automation departments were developed along with our ALFlex process control system and our own control cabinet construction. The pump department was also steadily expanded and still represents a central area of expertise at ALBERT FREY.

In 2020, part of the company moved to the directly adjacent, newly built office and production building in the Hammerschmiede industrial estate. There’s still plenty of room for more growth at the new location.

In 2015, Alexandra Gotzler (née Frischmann) joined the company as the 5th generation together with her husband Johannes during the takeover of the subsidiary Boos Reinigungsanlagenbau GmbH. Johannes took over the management of Boos together with Jens Hoffmann and Dr Peter Eichhorn. Alexandra took care of personnel and administration at Boos and completed an internship at Hilge, a long-standing partner and hygiene pump manufacturer in Bodenheim. More than three years of intensive integration and modernisation work on the ground in Rheinhessen yielded a positive outcome and the integration of Boos was successfully completed.

The two of them then returned to the Allgäu region to work for ALBERT FREY. In 2020, Johannes decided to attend the Doemens Brewmaster School as a further training measure
, and he successfully graduated in the summer of 2021 with the HWK master craftsman’s certificate. This step was an example of the “second apprenticeship” at ALBERT FREY. It was also the ideal entry for Johannes into technology, the core area of ALBERT FREY. In 2022, Johannes took over as Chief Executive Officer after his father-in-law Peter Frischmann stepped aside. With this step, the management was finally handed over to the 5th generation.

Tradition and experience became the cornerstone for the new company philosophy in Wald. In an increasingly complex world, ALBERT FREY solves individual challenges. All its employees have a common goal: to assemble systems with all their individual components into a perfect unit, and to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible using innovative process technology, research and new services. They’re happy to tell ALBERT FREY’s customers how they do it. Preferably over a beer in the Bräustüberl …