V - The magazine of the VOLLMER Group - 2018

sent by Deutsche Post. The hybrid mail volume in 2015 was 1.5 billion altogether, representing 10% of the total shipping volume in Germany. 750 million euros was already earned with hybrid post at the time. The trend continues to rise. 3. HYBRID FOOD The hybrid food movement started in the USA in 2013 with the cronut. The mix of a croissant and donut was so popu- lar in no time at all that the New Yorkers waited for hours in the queue. Not just anywhere, but directly in front of the bakery of Dominique Ansel, who invented the pastry. Some people even camped out overnight to be able to nibble lat- er on one of the hybrid snacks. Because the number of cro- nuts was limited, the prices rose on the black market, some even up to 80 dollars per cronut. And in doing so the hype surrounding the cronut really took off. Bakeries worldwide PRICES ON THE BLACK MARKET UP TO 80 DOLLARS PER CRONUT. B ergisches Land is the region between Rhine, Ruhr and Wupper, which was already shaped by the iron industry in the Middle Ages. Here there was iron ore, charcoal and the hydropower of the rivers, which were the basis for the iron production with bloomery furnaces and later blast furnaces. FOUNDED OVER 120 YEARS AGO Over the centuries the hard-working hands of Bergisches Land created legendary knives and scissors from steel in Solingen or turned Remscheid into the German tool-making city – to this day a sickle characterises its coat of arms. In the same city at the end of the 19th century brothers Max and Reinhard Mannesmann invented the cross-roll piercing meth- od in order to manufacture steel pipes without the weld seam required in the meantime. Gustav Lennartz also joined in the Bergisch tradition of chimneys, forges and hammers when he founded his tool forge in 1896 in Remscheid and manufac- tured circular saw blades hammered exclusively by hand. WHERE STEEL, SICKLE, AND SAW BLADE ARE AT HOME LENNARTZ MANUFACTURES CIRCULAR SAW BLADES AND FOLLOWS THE LONG TRADITION OF BERGISCHES LAND AND THE CITY OF REMSCHEID. "At the time the Mannesmann brothers used the ham- mered circular saw blades of my great-grandfather in order to cut their seamless pipes", states Karl Arnd Lennartz, who is the 4th generation CEO of the LENNARTZ Group today. "Nowadays we make metal-cutting circular saws and sawing machines, which are primarily used in the heavy and steel industry, pipe production, as well as car manufacture." EVERYTHING REVOLVES AROUND THE CIRCULAR SAW The medium-sized company LENNARTZ employs approx- imately 250 staff and is represented worldwide at five loca- tions – apart from Remscheid, there are sites in Saarbrücken, Czech Republic, China and USA. The company has perfected the circular saw blade in four generations. Over 50 years ago LENNARTZ was the first company in the world to develop the carbide-tipped circular saw blade for steel machining. In 2016 the company filed a patent on the high-performance saw copied the delicacy, which Time magazine put on the list of best inventions in 2013. Since then everyone is talking about hybrid food year after year. The cragel followed the cronut, a crossover of a croissant and bagel, and the bruffin, a culinary hybrid of brioche and muffin. Creations such as sushi ritos, wraps inspired by maki sushi made from seaweed, rice and different fillings, and ramen burgers, where the bread roll is replaced with two heaps of fried Asian noodles, are currently springing up like mushrooms in this country, thus ensuring that more and more foodies get a taste for it. 16 17 PERSPECTIVES