A family company
since 1905
Adopting the motto “Quality, progress and service”, Gustav Kessler senior took the brave step of going independent in 1905 when he set up Kessler & Comp. Nährmittelwerke. Today, the company is better known as KESSKO.
Expertise, market knowledge and an iron will to incorporate quality and progress into his service to his customers are the “good spirits” that accompanied the birth of the enterprise. Thanks to immense dedication on his part, KESSKO flourished from the humblest of beginnings and still continues to grow today, generations later.
Mr Kessler was a businessman, foreman and representative all in one, and he was never prepared to just carelessly jeopardise what he’d worked hard to achieve. It is therefore easy to understand why treating his customers well and maintaining good relationships with them was particularly important to him. He soon made a name for himself and, even more than that, he gained people’s trust – which is as vital today as it was back then when attempting to build a solid partnership.
The founder of the company Gustav Kessler sen.
Kessler & Comp. Nährmittelwerke is founded by Gustav Kessler senior in Hilden.
The product portfolio consists of baking powder, marzipan, nut nougat pastes, fat-based glazes and cream stabilisers.
The company moves to the Beuel district of Bonn, where the headquarters still are today.
KESSKO sets up the company’s own logistics for delivering the goods directly to the customers.
The company’s premises and production facilities are expanded.
The second generation of the founding family (Gustav Kessler junior) become involved in managing the company.
Couvertures, chocolate and cocoa pastes, cocoa butter and cocoa powder are produced for the first time.
The company’s storage space is doubled and more investments are made in the automated production facilities.
The third generation of the founding family, Gustav Kessler junior’s two sons, Wolfgang and Helmut Kessler, join their father and start to help managing the company.
A new warehouse built and the raw-mixture and preparation production area is expanded.
The couverture and baking agent production area is expanded and new staff facilities are built.
The new administration building with a total area of 2,100m2 is constructed, and 700m2 of it is allocated to research, development and quality assurance. 10,000m2 of the 15,000m2 property are now occupied by building with two to four floors.
To mark the company’s centenary, Wolfgang und Helmut Kessler put up the Gustav-Kessler-Straße street sign. The addition “Founder of Kessko in 1905, promoter of Beuel’s economy, sport and traditions” acknowledges the company’s social commitment.
The company celebrates its 110th anniversary.
The fourth generation actively joins the company. Ms Ulrike Kessler is elected chairman of the advisory board. She is one of the deceased Wolfgang Kessler’s (1934 - †2014) three daughters.
Helmut Kessler celebrates his 80th birthday.
A belt-driven Lehmann five-roll refiner in the nougat department at the beginning of the 1930s
The company’s first post-war exhibition in Cologne in 1949
A Mercedes Benz 328 with a Neumann suitcase (six-cylinder, 110 hp and load capacity of 5,000kg) (1961)
The company’s street sign put up in 2005
In the future too, the company will remain true to its founder, Gustav Kessler, and his original idea: to develop market-oriented solutions to problems.
To maintain our high quality standards and satisfy our customers, just under 200 motivated employees work hard every day to continue the success of the long-established KESSKO