The Riha Group - with head offices in Rintein - grew from a fruit juice presser into a supplier of international brand name products and is now one of Europe's biggest soft-drink producers. The foundations for today's fruit juice operation were laidby glassblower Richard Hartinger in Exten. He built a simple hand press and began producing juice, originally for his own needs. In 1934, commercial soft drink production began. After attending commercial school, his son, Richard Hartinger, decided to become part of the small juice pressing business. In 1956, the first building went up on the firm's present site in Rinteln (see Figure 1). Today, the family business has over 1,000 employees in Europe. In 1999 more than 962 million litres of soft drink were produced in Germany at the Wesergold (Rinteln), Naturella (Ohringen), and Fruchtquell (Dodow) plants, as well as in Switzerland at Mineralquelle (Zurach) and in Spain at Agrozumos (Lekunberri).
展开▼
