1888 first production of high-purity salts at the CFL site
Chemische Fabrik Lehrte is a privately-owned company with over 130 years of tradition and vast experience in the production of
inorganic salts. Since 2014, CFL has invested substantially in improvements, modernisation and the expansion of production,
laboratory and logistic capacity.
We dilute and crystallise; we mix, mill and grind; we offer liquid solutions; we pack and repack; all according to your requirements.
For an overview of our products, please see the CFL Product List.
Our laboratory is fully equipped with the latest devices, including ICP-OES and ICP-MS. Our laser refraction technology
enables high precision particle size analysis and our ion exchange chromatography allows us to identify almost undetectable elements.
The CFL Team represents the perfect balance of experience, innovation and diligence. We have colleagues who apprenticed here over
the past four decades, younger colleagues who are currently training and colleagues who have brought their expertise into the company,
ensuring continuity and development in our processes and quality.
HISTORY
In the 19th century, Lehrte was the main junction for rail roads going North, South, East and West and was the main railway station for connections to Berlin.
Directly beside the Lehrte railway station in 1888, the chemist, Constantin Leonhardt, and the pharmacist, Johannes Heinrich Martini, founded the company "Leonhardt & Martini". It was renamed "Chemische Fabrik Lehrte" in 1926.
Right from the beginning, the founders of our company started with the production of important ingredients for the food industry and
excipients for the pharmaceutical industry.
Milestones and ownership through three centuries:
1888
Founding of the company as Leonhardt & Martini
1926
Name change to "Chemische Fabrik Lehrte"
1937
Dr. Andreas Kossel purchases the Lehrte site, later managed by his son Gustav Kossel
1975
Raab Karcher GmbH takes over the Lehrte site
1983
First FDA inspection
1985
Stinnes AG (Brenntag) becomes responsible for the Lehrte site
2000
Merck KGaA purchases the Lehrte site
2003
First GMP audit
2014
Transfer of CFL ownership to Sebastian Reichenbach and Daniel Schüssler
2017
CEP Calcium Chloride 2-hydrate
2018
CEP Magnesium Chloride 6-hydrate
When Merck KGaA took a strategic decision in 2013 to shed itself of small companies within the group and announced the closure of CFL despite
its profitability, a privately-owned company from Saxony-Anhalt in Eastern Germany and raw material supplier to CFL, decided to buy
the Lehrte site. Therefore, following forty years of administration within a global corporation, the summer of 2014 marks the restart of
CFL as an owner-managed company under the enterprising leadership of Sebastian Reichenbach and Daniel F. Schüssler, allowing for a
customer and solution oriented management.
CFL-Doku (9 MIN)