A family company
through the ages
The Worlée Group in Hamburg
FOOD-Lab met Michiel C. Blijdenstein,
the long-time Managing
Director and Friederike Wild, communications
manager at Worlée
NaturProdukte GmbH in Hamburg.
The Worlée Group is headed by Reinhold
von Eben-Worlée, the managing
partner of E. H. Worlée & Co. GmbH & Co.
KG. Under this holding company,
three subsidiaries produce raw
materials for the chemical,
cosmetics and food industries.
Worlée NaturProdukte
specializes in dried natural
and plant-based raw materials
such as fruits,
vegetables, spices,
mushrooms, teas
and medicinal
herbs, around
45% of which
are organic and
100% vegan
or vegetarian.
Michiel C.
Blijdenstein
There are also balms, tree resins, but also
mixtures and raw materials for the animal
feed and pharmaceutical industries.
The company was founded by Emil
Heinrich Worlée in 1851 under the name
Worlée. The origin goes back even further
to Johann Nicolaus Worlée, who took the
citizenship oath of the Free and Hanseatic
City of Hamburg as a spice trader in 1783.
He certainly had no idea that he was laying
the foundation stone for a globally successful
company that has survived all wars,
global economic crises and, most recently,
the corona pandemic. In the meantime, the
internationally oriented company is on the
move in three germ cells. The chemicals
division, which manufactures and trades
raw materials for the paint and varnish
industry among others, is complemented
by the cosmetics and food division, which
in turn differentiates between dry raw
materials for the food industry, teas such
as black and fruit teas and medicinal and
herbal teas as well as Pharma and Animal
Feed. The differentiation makes sense
because the market works very differently.
The engineer R. von Eben-Worlée, (64) also
president of the family business association
since 2017, leads the group with a lot of
responsibility and straightforwardness in
the fifth generation, whereby his wife is
also active on the advisory board. The sixth
generation is already in the starting blocks
with their three daughters. More than 600
employees currently work at three locations
in Northern Germany.
“The Worlée Group generates a turnover
of 300 million euros, around 130 million
euros are accounted for by Worlée
NaturProdukte,” reports Michiel C. Blijdenstein,
who learned how to harvest
onions in his youth in the USA. The Worlée
company is located in a Hanseatic red,
but extremely modern brick office in the
Billbrook district and is one of Germany's
most attractive employers in 2021, as a
survey convened by the magazine “Capital”
showed. Around 500 companies in
25 German metropolitan regions were
honored. 14,500 people were questioned
about 3,200 companies across Germany.
“It is all the nicer that we are on the list
of Hamburg's most attractive employers
in 2021,” said a delighted Friederike Wild,
Photo: Worlée/JENNER–EGBERTS Foto+Film
20 Interview