On the 10th of November 2008 GEA Niro celebrates its 75 year anniversary. The story of a very successful business started with a talented engineer, his good ideas and the support of two loyal friends and investors.
It was on the 10th November 1933, when Europe was a far different place than it is today that Johan Ernst Nyrop founded A/S Niro Atomizer. Some might have thought that the 1930s would not be a good time to start a new business, but the engineer, his lawyer Kaj Seth Oppenhejm and his banker Erik Birger Christensen had other ideas.
The business was new, but the idea wasn’t. In the 1920ties, Mr. Nyrop had patented some spray drying processes and a rotary atomizer and had started businesses in Denmark and England; but this time it was different. This time he had the experience and confidence of his business partners to inspire him.
The first orders came from the food industry to dry products such as eggs, milk, animal feed and soup. Over the years, however GEA Niro diversified into new markets such as baby food, food ingredients, paint, plastics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals flue gas treatment and hard metal products. The company also had its sights set firmly beyond Denmark making its first tentative steps into the USA as early as 1946, and France in 1952 heralding the rapid international growth that continues today.
Responsibility for the success rested largely with a handful of brilliant individuals whose unique ingenuity and business talents steered the company confidently through good times and bad. People such as Kaj Nielsen who invented a wear resistant atomizer wheel (later known as the KN-Wheel in his honour) that would open new applications for spray drying in the mining and ceramics industries; Jan Pisecký who revolutionised the production of whole milk powder; Hjalmar Bang, the dynamic Managing Director from 1948 to 1971 whose personality and leadership skills encouraged others to greatness; and of course Johan Ernst Nyrop himself, the inspiration behind everything.
Innovation has carved the route for the company’s success but it has always been innovation with the customer in mind, never just for its own sake. The Niro Atomizer itself laid the foundation and the KN-Wheel opened new markets – but the process of innovation has been continuous throughout the company’s history: small scale plants, fluid bed dryers, the MSD™ (Multi-Stage Dryer), the IFD™ (Integrated Filter Dryer), flue gas treatment, agglomeration technology, freeze dryers and Computational Fluid Dynamics all satisfied specific processing needs.
But, perhaps, GEA Niro’s real success story is not its business achievement or its technological innovation but the way, in which GEA Niro has touched people’s lives. Providing infant formula, flavours for our favourite foods, instant coffee plants, plastics that fill our lives with beautiful things and flue gas treatment to give us all a cleaner and healthier environment. These are the visible signs of GEA Niro’s success. GEA Niro is proud of its past and excited about its future.
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