Dr. Anton Daubner Responsible for the Westfalia Landtechnik Group

Since April 2nd 2001, Dr. Anton Daubner (38) has been the new Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors of Westfalia Landtechnik GmbH, Oelde, Germany. He succeeded Dr. Ulf-Dieter Zimmermann (51) who was appointed member of the Executive Board of Dynamit Nobel AG, Troisdorf, Germany. Dr. Ulf-Dieter Zimmermann had been the Chief Executive Officer of Westfalia Landtechnik GmbH since 1996.

Dr. Anton Daubner is now responsible for the operations of the corporation which is one of the world’s two largest dairy farm systems suppliers. He came from GEA Wiegand GmbH, Ettlingen, Germany, a leading manufacturer of evaporators for the concentration of liquid foodstuffs, organic and inorganic solutions and effluents.

Dr. Anton Daubner, who is a graduated process engineer, started his professional career as a process engineer with Bayer AG. He then wrote his dissertation at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, before he joined Stahl KG, a mechanical engineering company in Mannheim, where he was first a process engineer and then appointed Engineering Manager and later Managing Director. In 1999, he moved to GEA Wiegand GmbH in Ettlingen as the company’s Managing Director. Said Dr. Daubner on his new challenge: “We plan to strengthen the well-positioned Westfalia Landtechnik Group further. With this objective in mind, we will expand our services for dairy farmers and advance dairy farm technology.”

Under the leadership of Dr. Daubner’s predecessor Dr. Ulf-Dieter Zimmermann, the Westfalia Landtechnik Group went through a phase of international expansion of its business. A strategy of growth and technology enhancement in cooling and large system technology doubled sales within five years, increasing turnover to approx. 332 million€ EURO. The company is now widening its value chain by its ProMilk Service strategy, addressing cleaning and animal hygiene products as well as spares and accessories. Westfalia Landtechnik will, through this strategy, offer enhanced services, which will improve milk quality and at the same time lower costs for the dairymen.

The Westfalia Landtechnik Group currently employs some 1,700 persons in 50 countries around the globe. In late March 2001, Westfalia Landtechnik was included in the TOP 100 most innovative companies in Germany. The corporation is a subsidiary of GEA AG, Bochum, Germany, a sub-group of mg technologies ag in Frankfurt on Main, Germany.