The holding company is DGF STOESS AG, a company that is not noted on the stock market. With over 125 years of tradition in the production of gelatine, it is today still in the possession of the founding families.

    The roots of the company are in Germany. Gelatine has been produced in Germany since the second half of the 19th century. DGF STOESS has developed from three family branches:

    In 1875, a gelatine factory was founded in Schweinfurt. In G鰌pingen, the brothers Heinrich and Paul Koepff started producing gelatine from hide split (DGF AG). Schweinfurt later became part of Deutsche Gelatine-Fabriken AG (DGF AG). Thus, two of the branches had merged to one.

    In 1888, Heinrich Stoess established a gelatine factory in Ziegelhausen near Heidelberg.

    Both of these companies, Koepff and Stoess, were very successful. Their export business flourished. Heinrich Stoess, who had made much progress in producing photographic gelatine, had a business relationship with the US company Eastman Kodak, producers of the first camera for private use. Capacity was increased and the company relocated: In 1931, a highly modern gelatine factory was established in Eberbach. - "Chemische Werke Stoess & Co. GmbH".

    After the Second World War, the company started up again, as a very small operation. And the two companies came closer together. Heinrich Koepff, son of Paul, became General Manager of "Chemischen Werke Stoess" in 1946 in Eberbach. Heinrich Koepff not only initiated the first German-American joint venture after the war with the American Robert Paul Scherer in Eberbach, today the largest producer of soft gelatine capsules in the world; he slowly merged the two companies DGF and STOESS. In 1972, the fusion was complete: the two companies became "Deutsche Gelatine-Fabriken Stoess GmbH". In 1989 the company was converted into a stock company. The original three branches had now been merged into one company.

    Subsequent to the merger, the company grew very fast. In 1975 DGF STOESS acquired a bone factory in Memmingen, in 1978 it formed a joint venture with Davis Gelatine and with DYNAGEL Inc. in the USA and, in 1993, acquired a majority shareholding in the Brazilian company SARGEL Ltda.

    In order to be present on all important world markets and to secure supplies of raw materials, internationalization was accelerated.

    EXTRACO AB in Sweden was added in 1991 and KIND & KNOX Gelatine Inc. in 1993; globalization had begun. In 1998, the fat melters UNKEL GmbH and SCHWAKE GmbH were added and converted into the UNIMELT Group. In 2000, DGF STOESS AG acquired the photographic gelatine plant of Agfa in Heilbronn.

    In 2001, the GELITA Group constructed a new gelatine factory in Vlagtwedde in the Netherlands ?VLAPRO. In the same year, 7 of the production plants of Leiner Davis were acquired from Goodman Fielder Ltd., Sydney, Australia. This was successfully concluded in the year 2002.

    The GELITA Group has hence progressed to become the world's leading specialist in all relevant segments ?food, pharmaceuticals, photographic and specialty products.

    The sales and marketing operations GPL (GELATINE PRODUCTS LTD., Knutsford/GB), I.G.G. (INTERNATIONALE GESELLSCHAFT FGELATINE, Heidelberg/D), GELITA TIANJIN (Tianjin/China) and ROHAGE (ROHWARENHANDELSGESELLSCHAFT, Eberbach/D) are also part of the Group.

    In addition, the DGF STOESS concern includes GFT (GESELLSCHAFT TIERERN腍RUNG MBH, Wildeshausen/D) and ATRO ProVita GmbH (Eberbach/D), producer of e.g. gelatine beverages (GELASTIN).