During the opening of F.B. Lehmann’s Technology Center, the company’s directors Solvej Schenk (far left) and Volker Kaul explained cocoa bean processing to Aalen Mayor Martin Gerlach as Royal Duyvis Wiener’s managing director, Miriam van Dijk, looked on. Royal Duyvis Wiener expanded its management team with the addition of Thomas Matosek (left), international sales manager, and Jurgen Neumeister, manager of E&I and process automation.

On Feb. 2, the day following the end of the International Sweets & Biscuits Fair and ProSweets, F.B. Lehmann welcomed 60 customers and representatives from more than 30 countries to a grand opening of its new Technology Center in Aalen, Germany.

Aalen Mayor Martin Gerlach officially opened the doors to the new center, which houses four complete production processes that can be used for trials. Those attending the opening professed admiration for a center that facilitiated such testing, noting that it was an “impressive, modern and professional facility.”

The facility will enable customer trials involving specific ingredients, recipe development or fine-tuning of recipes for roasting and grinding. F.B. Lehmann’s specialized techologists will be able to conduct tests on real chocolate, compound chocolate, bread spreads, coatings, creams and fillings.

After visiting the Technology Center, guests were given a personalized tour of the F.B. Lehmann factory. Tour highlights included inspection of the company’s newly developed continuous roaster, which minimizes the energy consumption up to 50%, as well as a detailed description of the latest innovations on the two- and five-roll refiners.

Separately, Royal Duyvis Wiener, which merged with F.B. Lehmann in 2010, announced it has expanded its international management team.
Thomas Matosek has joined the company as its international sales manager while Jürgen Neumeister will manage the company’s E&I and process automation departments.

Matosek’s past experience encompasses 12 years at Bosch Packaging and most recently eight years at Hosakawa Bepex.

Jürgen Neumeister’s experience in process controls and process analyzing systems also reflects a deep knowledge base, having worked for seven years as an engineer in process control for thermal steel treatment and the past 19 years as manager of the electrical department at Buhler-Barth.