Roeper internals

One of Hamburg's most popular and beautyful places is the Alster, a lake right within the city. This is where we had a wonderful summer party again this year at the end of June. The weather was fine, so was the food - and there was a lot of laughter and dancing. An enjoyable evening for everyone!

It was August 1st 1978 that our managing director Joern Herrmann started his training as an import and export merchant with Roeper – so this year he celebrates his 45-year anniversary with our company!

Such a long employment with one company I definitely exceptional – even more exceptional is Joern Herrmann’s career at Roeper from trainee, then head of sales department with proxy and final managing director!

Roeper has a company history of over 130 years – and Joern has been a part of this history for a long time. During all this time, many things have changed – our company’s headquarters moved from the city center of Hamburg to Allermöhe in 1988, there were many technical innovations such as the first mobile phone or virtual meetings and the European Community made trade within the EU so much easier, but at the same time also entailed an abundance of regulations….However, some things have not changed throughout all the years: for instance the fact that our relations with customers and suppliers alike is based on mutual trust, our commitment to quality and sustainability and our ability to adapt to any changes that come our way.

This photo of Joern Herrmann dates back from 1989 and was taken during an interview for a trade journal. Even though some years have passed since then, Joern is still his distinctive self!

Even over 100 years ago our founder Conrad Emil Roeper gave regular market reports to his customers. This one dates back from 1915 and the market situation then is actually quite simular to the one we are facing at the moment...some things never change...

Here is a translation of his market report:

"I would like to draw your attention to the fact that stocks of this product have become so low during recent weeks that deliveries will soon become impossible. Fresh supply from the countries of origin Persia, Syria and Anatolia are not to be expected anytime soon as these countries also find themselves in a state of war. Deliveries via neutral countries becomes more difficult each week. If you have not yet covered your demand for the next 12 months, I sincerely recommend that it would be in your best interest to purchase now in order to prevent any dilemma. I still dispose of some reasonably priced lots, which I will be pleased to provide samples of."

Seit Unternehmensgründung bildet Roeper Kaufleute im Groß- und Außenhandel aus. In diesem Jahr werden wir zum ersten Mal auch ein duales Studium zur / zum Betriebswirt/in im Außenhandel anbieten. Dazu haben wir ein Foto unserer ehemaligen Auszubildenden, die nun zu Roeper Mitarbeitern geworden sind, gemacht. Die Zeitspanne der Ausbildungsdaten umfasst ganze sechs Jahrzehnte! 

Auch der Großvater unseres heutigen Geschäftsführers Carsten Gerrens, August Gerrens, begann seine Lehrzeit 1897 bei Roeper und verbrachte sein gesamtes Arbeitsleben von über 60 Jahren im Unternehmen.

Ever since Roeper has been founded, we have trained wholesale and export traders. This year, we will also offer a dual graduate course “Graduate in foreign trade business management”, which was a good opportunity to take a picture of our former trainees that are now working for Roeper. The time span of the dates our former trainees started compromises as much as six decades! 

Even our current general manager Carsten Gerrens’ grandfather, August Gerrens, started as a trainee with Roeper in 1897 and spent his whole career of over 60 years with our company.

Our colleague Karin Uhnakova celebrated her 10th anniversary working for Roeper. As she is working in our logistics department, her colleague Alexandra prepared a special gift: a flushly fitted pallet consisting of the banknotes that were collected for her amongst all colleagues on a toy forklift. 

We wish Karin a happy anniversary and many more to come!

We had a great company outing hitting it off at Kickgolf - it was so much fun and we will definitely do it again!

(Carsten Gerrens)

Just like in previous years, Roeper participated in the 2023 Charity Run hosted by Hamburg's daily newspaper "Morgenpost". We had two teams who finished in a spectacular 515th and 544th position (of 1089 participating teams). Our runners were cheered on by their colleagues and the event was followed by a barbecue prepared by our boss and drinks in the Roeper team tent!

(Dennis Wojtyna, Dennis Augustin)                                   (Rasmus Gerrens, Stefanie van Pée)

Plant based proteins and fibres are a relatively new addition to our range of products. They are great to use in vegan products and our application technologist Darius Hawryluk has already helped some of our customers to develop new recipes. Here are some pictures from our test kitchen, where he has been preparing vegan scrambled egg with a recipe based on Pea Protein, Gellan Gum, Carrageenan and Psyllium. The vegan patty is based on a recipe using Pea Texturate, Pea Protein, Psyllium, Carob Flour and Red Beet Juice Powder to add red color. When Darius is in his test kitchen there are always many willing tasters and both scrambled eggs and patties were found to be delicious!

Please do not hesitate to contact Darius Hawryluk (DHawryluk@roeper.de, Phone +49 40 734103-65) if you would like advice on how to use plant proteins and fibres!