Timeline
The Oil Mill in Mannheim was founded in 1887 as a merger of nine small Southern German oil mills and is still known as VDO (Verein Deutscher Ölfabriken). Due to the merger, the necessary modernisations could be realised, e.g. the assembly of a high performance screw press for the seeds with high oil content, as well as an extraction plant for the seeds with less oil.
In the following years, the plant was continuously enlarged and modernised.
In 1920, UNILEVER bought the Oil Mill and converted it into a modern company of the 1920s and 1930s.
During World War II, 75% of the plant had been destroyed. Shortly after, the facility was re-built with an even higher capacity.
In the Seventies, two continuously working extraction plants were installed. Furthermore, the seed and meal silos were built, a new preparation plant was constructed and the refinery was modernised.
| 1990 | Cereol acquires the plant (seed processing and refinery) from UNILEVER |
| 2002 | Cereol acquires the Estol Plant (bottling and fat packaging) from UNILEVER |
| BUNGE acquires the CEREOL-Group. |
Since January 2004 the Oil Mill in Mannheim is called
"Bunge Deutschland GmbH".
With an annual capacity of 1.1 million tons of oil seed being processed, the Oil Mill in Mannheim is one of the biggest of its kind in Europe.
