Rieber | our history

The founding – made in Germany since 1925

The company is founded as Rieber + Renz in Reutlingen (Betzingen) in 1925 and the history of the former “joinery, furniture and glazier's workshop” begins. A year later, Mr Renz leaves and Heinrich Rieber continues to run the young company. But only a few years later, the small company is mass-producing teak sink cabinets with enamelled fitted basins from the joinery and furniture workshop. The well-known name "Schüttstoi – Rieber” (Rieber sink) coined by the citizens of Betzingen dates back to this time.

In 1936, the initial pioneering work with stainless steel from Krupp was carried out, laying the foundation stone for the future of metalworking. Already back in 1950 at the time of the company's 25th anniversary, 15% of the sinks are supplied in stainless steel, which already set Rieber apart from the traditional commercial kitchen sector back then. Stainless steel has since been the core material for Rieber's material technology.

1964 – The standard GastroNorm

The complete RieberNORMSET®, the predecessor of the stainless steel food container, the current international Gastronorm standard, was launched in 1964. Rieber was hereby instrumental in establishing a standard for professional catering in the first revolution in the commercial kitchen sector.

1968 – Our Rieber thermoport®

Followed by the first insulated food transport container in 1968, the Rieber thermoport® logistics standard made of stainless steel and 10 years later also made of lightweight and practical plastic. This mobile transport box can be used to transport different sizes of Gastronorm containers filled with food at the right temperature where there is a space/time gap between food production and consumption. To this day, this innovation is one of the core products of the Swabian company and since then it has been in daily use worldwide to enable the safe transport of food at optimum temperatures.

1973

The only 100% watertight press-in lid

In addition, it was crucial for safe food transport that the Gastronorm container could be closed absolutely tightly, which is why the watertight press-in lid was added to the Gastronorm lid range in 1973. To this day, the high-quality watertight press-in lid is known on the market for its tried and tested reliability and is a unique selling point for Rieber.

2002-2007 – Innovations by Eisfink - varithek® acs, servocuccina®, waterstation®

Since 1998, a business relationship has existed between the two companies Rieber and Eisfink through Max Maier Senior, as a result of which the Rieber product portfolio has been extended with further Eisfink innovations ever since. With the varithek® acs (air-cleaning-system), the front cooking station with integrated patented extraction technology and varithek® modules, amongst others, as a flexible system module for cooking of any kind. Subsequently, the use of varithek® modules in a system was extended with the introduction of the servocuccina® in 2007.

Since preparation in the kitchen is an essential process step, the system concept of the Gastronorm container was brought into the sink in 2005 with the waterstation cubic. As a result, preparations can be made on several levels at the sink itself and are standardised in a further process through to the cooking and serving with the Gastronorm operating system.

2006 – Material revolution with SWISS-PLY multi-layer material

Followed by another milestone innovation in 2006 – the thermoplates®, with which Rieber launches the first cooking pot with a Gastronorm format onto the market. The revolutionary SWISS-PLY multi-layer material is characterised by significantly faster conductivity than conventional stainless steel. This makes thermoplates® suitable for direct heat contact with the hob and particularly energy-efficient in use thanks to their outstanding conductivity. For the first time, the thermoplates® enable continuous process flows in the complete "food flow", from storage, preparation and cooking to serving in a Gastronorm container without having to transfer the food. This saves on time and reduces the cleaning required and also the energy consumption and in addition simplifies the handling and increases the food quality.

2009 – The new way of cooking - K|POT® & hybrid kitchen

The very next innovation came in 2009 with the lifestyle product K|POT® - the portable kitchen that meets all the requirements of modern catering. The intelligently automated table-top unit enables perfect, precise regeneration, directly on site and even without a chef or trained personnel thanks to the stored automated programs. This enabled food that was pre-produced in a central kitchen to then be finished off à la minute at a different time and location in the lounges at the Football World Cup in South Africa in 2010.

In 2009, another intelligently automated product was introduced – the hybrid kitchen – as a multifunctional kitchen with a heating and cooling function at the same time, completely without mains power and suitable for all applications as a mobile addition to the combi steamer for catering of all kinds.

2012 – Protecting resources with the vaculid® lid

With the introduction of the vaculid® lid in 2012, the Gastronorm lid range was extended to include an innovative and sustainable variant for the preservation, cooking (more efficient low-temperature cooking) and transport of food. Thanks to the vaculid® lid, the Gastronorm container system can be reliably vacuum sealed, thus considerably extending the shelf life of food. This not only reduces food waste, but also its plastic packaging.

2012

Rieber gets connected through the CHECK CLOUD

In addition to product innovations, Rieber has also been working on the digitisation of the "food flow" since 2012 – with the aim of documenting and organising the entire process that food passes through in the Gastronorm container in a commercial kitchen in a transparent and systematic manner. With the CHECK system, Rieber is developing a digital solution, which as a first step reflects the legal documentation obligations according to HACCP (logging of temperature and hygiene-relevant data).

Since the summer of 2017, the innovation launched 4 years earlier has been developed as the CHECK CLOUD platform, together with the technical expertise of T-Systems (a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom). The independent company CHECK Services was founded for this purpose. Rieber is a partner of the CHECK CLOUD open platform in order to be able to digitally network all Rieber kitchen infrastructure products in the long term.

2016 – Our Rieber flagship kitchen – speisewerk urbanharbor

The Rieber flagship kitchen – speisewerk – opens in the innovative urbanharbor area in Ludwigsburg in 2016 as one of the first digital commercial kitchens in Europe. In addition to providing a bistro and lunch on a daily basis for local companies and the general public, speisewerk also supplies freshly cooked seasonal dishes to surrounding care facilities, such as nursery schools and schools. A mobile and urban catering concept in a GN stainless steel multi-cycle system, with the system, kitchen and transport infrastructure (thermoport®) supplied by Rieber and organised through the CHECK CLOUD digital platform. An innovative showroom where cooperative IoT business models can be experienced in live mode right into the kitchen of customers and interested parties.

2019 | 2020

2019 – Multi-cycle organisation with GN-ONE® | eatTAINABLE

The further developed GN-ONE® container with patented stacking lugs enables the very easy unstacking and separation of the container system, both manually and automatically. This innovation sets a significant milestone for the efficiency and handling of Gastronorm containers. Multi-cycle food supply can be handled with the new GN-ONE® standard and eatTAINABLE and can be reliably organised and tracked through the CHECK CLOUD platform, consequently without a deposit.

With eatTAINABLE, the container QR codes are scanned and thus the empties are recorded at different delivery points, which allows caterers/commercial kitchens to map their day-to-day catering without any disposable packaging. A forward-looking, environmentally and resource-friendly approach.

2020 – The products are digitally networked – Rieber CONNECT

In addition to safety, hygiene and food organisation through the CHECK CLOUD, Rieber networks its core products as the digital CONNECT range with an app and dashboard. Starting with storage – here the classic community refrigerator becomes the multipolar® CONNECT digital sharing refrigerator, which can be opened via an app with no keys whatsoever. For cooking and serving, flexible individual programs can be created and called up with the K|POT® CONNECT, perfectly tailored to the food. Consequently, the regeneration of a wide range of food, including Cook & Freeze dishes, is reliable and easy to control, digitally and automatically. Other transport and cooking products, such as the hybrid kitchen or Regiostation are CONNECTED and can therefore be flexibly controlled digitally.

Cooking is just a question of food and the adequate temperature.

Entrepreneur Max Maier

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Locations

The Rieber Group includes the German production sites in Reutlingen and Trebbin, with around 600 employees, as well as sales subsidiaries in Austria (Rieber + Grohmann GesmbH), Switzerland (Rieber AG) and Great Britain (BGL Rieber Ltd.).

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