Bettcher Industries, one of the world's leading manufacturers of cutting and trimming tools for the meat processing industry, recently celebrated its 75th anniversary at the company’s headquarters in Birmingham, Ohio, USA.

Image1 Bettcher Gregor Thomalla Russ Stroner high

Gregor Thomalla, managing director of Bettcher GmbH, and Russ Stroner, head of Worldwide Sales at Bettcher.

Bettcher Industries was founded in 1944 by Louis A. Bettcher as a repair shop for meat processing equipment. However, as early as 1947, the company moved beyond repairs to present its first tool developed in-house – the Bettcher carcase splitter. The award-winning Whizard® hand trimmer was introduced in 1954 and was soon used throughout the USA. Since then this trimmer has been updated and today is still one of the top sellers in Bettcher’s product portfolio.From 1959 onwards, Bettcher expanded internationally. In 1978 the European sales and service subsidiary was founded in Dierikon, Switzerland, and additional branches were opened in Brazil and China.The Bettcher Innovation Center, which opened in 2017, provides state-of-the-art R&D facilities and conditions for the development of new and innovative precision meat processing tools.Today, Bettcher has a worldwide customer base that spans more than 70 countries. With the acquisition of Gainco, and in 2019, Cantrell ­– two companies that provide systems for real-time monitoring and cutting in the poultry industry Bettcher has expanded its product portfolio.The most recent step, which is designed to provide Bettcher customers with even better service, and guarantee future growth, is the gradual expansion of direct sales. "After Germany, Great Britain, Ireland and Italy, the Spanish market will also be serviced directly by our European operations from September. For our customers, this means even higher levels of individual and expert support, as well as first-class service with rapid response times," explained Gregor Thomalla, managing director of Bettcher GmbH.

This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.

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