Swiss Trader Ameropa business profile

1. COMPANY HISTORY
+ THE 18th CENTURY
Ameropa continues a long tradition of agricultural trading and
investment established by Paul Zivy (1690-1762), his son Joseph
the older (1724-1798) and his grandson Joseph the younger
(1769-1859), who successfully traded grain, cattle and other
goods out of Müllheim near Basel. They built up a business which
crossed regional boundaries and extended all the way to the
port of Rotterdam. Furthermore, they attempted to diversify
themselves with their bid for the copper industry in the county of
Baden-Durlach, located between Basel and Karlsruhe.
Joseph Zivy Junior.
+ THE 19th CENTURY
The trading activities continued throughout the 19th century, but
were increasingly superseded by real estate investments.
In 1840, Joseph Zivy was among the investors from Basel and
Southern Germany who bought the large bankrupt ‘Zastler
Estate’, a farming and forestry business near Basel.
His grandson, Henri Zivy, moved to Basel in 1872.
Henri M. Zivy.
+ THE EARLY 20th CENTURY
Henri’s son Arthur started his career working in the family
company H. Zivy & Sons. After the First World War he founded
his own company, Miniera AG, which became the largest
importer of coal into Switzerland and had branches in Bern,
Zurich, Vienna, and Kattowicze. The president of the board of
Miniera was Hermann Obrecht (1882-1940) who became a
member of the Swiss federal government in 1935. Miniera was
the first company to import coal from the USA. Arthur sold the
company in 1940.
Arthur M. Zivy.
Hermann Obrecht.
+ 1948
Arthur’s son Felix worked in grain trading and processing in
the U.S. after World War II, but returned to Switzerland in
1947. With the support of C.B. Fox Co., traditional grain
exporters in New Orleans, Arthur and Felix founded Ameropa
AG (America – Europe) in 1948. The company was
dedicated to importing U.S. grains into Europe and to
exporting European fertilizers to the U.S. Later in the same
year, and on the basis of the pre-war contacts of Miniera, a
subsidiary named Prochaska & Cie was established in
Austria.
Felix Zivy.
Willoughby Beresford
Fox of C.B.Fox Co.
+ THE 1950s
Prochaska & Cie., with Baron von Haymerle as Chairman,
made inroads into the domestic grain market, going from
importer to wholesaler to retailer and investing in a chain of
grain elevators throughout the country. Fertilizers, seeds,
and crop protection chemicals soon completed its program.
Meanwhile, Ameropa AG had obtained the European agency
for wheat and corn sales from ACA, Asociacion de
Cooperativas Argentinas.
+ THE 1960s
As one of the first companies, Ameropa started buying
Brazilian soybeans as of 1959. While Western Europe
achieved self-sufficiency in grains by 1970, Eastern Europe
increased its grain imports and began to export fertilizers.
Prochaska continued its expansion and diversification and
started activities such as agricultural machinery, grain and
milk laboratory equipment, and famous mineral water market
leader ROEMERQUELLE.
Baron Friedrich von Haymerle.
Niki Lauda toasting his
Monaco win with Roemerquelle.
+ THE 1970s
The international trading activities were somewhat curtailed
in the 1970s in favor of rebuilding a second Prochaska in
France. COFRACE, SIAM, TAF, Moulins St. Gabriel and other
subsidiaries were forerunners of what became AgriNégoce
S.A., our French retailing group for grains, fertilizers, seeds,
and plant protection chemicals which runs 26 grain elevators
and storages, and offers a complete range of services to
10’000 farmers. Due to the increasingly domestic activities of
AgriNégoce with no link anymore to our international trading
activities, we decided to sell AgriNégoce in 2016.
+ THE 1980s
This decade saw the re-emergence of our fertilizer trading
activities, with large shipments of urea to China and the
Philippines, and the development of the Brazilian potash
market. At the end of the decade, fertilizer volumes had
overtaken grain volumes. Deep structural changes concluded
this decade: the foreseeable accession of Austria to the
European Union, the fall of the iron curtain, and the foreboding
of globalization.
+ THE 1990s
While Ameropa had previously been present only in
Switzerland, Austria, and France, a global network was now
being established, starting in Eastern Europe. In short
succession, offices were opened in Germany, Hungary,
Slovakia, Russia, Belarus, China, and Brazil.
In 1991, a joint venture for fertilizer trading was founded with
Soyuzagrochimpexport.
Andreas Zivy, son of Felix Zivy, joined Ameropa in 1980 and
was appointed CEO of Ameropa in 1995.
In 1997, Ameropa acted as a business angel in the founding of
the chemical trading company Kolmar, which was sold to
Kolmar’s management later on.
An Agri Négoce elevator in France.
Andreas Zivy.
+ THE 21ST CENTURY
Globalization continued and Ameropa presently holds offices,
subsidiaries, or assets in 31 countries around the world.
The opening of a grain office in Lausanne in 2001 and the
acquisition of Wittraco in Hamburg in 2003 boosted both our
grain and fertilizer activities. In line with its history in Austria
and France, Ameropa pursued a policy of asset based
trading which led it to build or acquire, alone or with partners,
grain elevators, port terminals, mills, fertilizer factories, and
fertilizer distribution centers in Hungary, Croatia, Serbia,
Romania, Kosovo, Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, China,
Australia, and Columbia. Our largest acquisition to date was
concluded on March 21st, 2012, bringing Romanian nitrogen
fertilizer factory Azomures and Constanta port terminal
Chimpex into the group, thereby doubling the number of
employees in the group.
The Constanta port terminal of Chimpex.
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