History

Laguilharre, Kestner, Niro, Scami, Wiegand are all names that you know!

For over 80 years, the GEA Group has continued to grow by acquiring new companies that throughout the years and as a result of various mergers/acquisitions have changed names and became the GEA Process Engineering France on 1st July 2005.

GEA Process Engineering France is the French representative for the GEA Group’s Process Engineering Division.

In France, the company now includes company names such as Kestner, Niro, Scami, GEA Wiegand, GEA Jet Pumps, Niro Soavi and Niro Pharma Systems.

Some of its companies originated in France and benefit from a history that attests to their durability:


Kestner :

Kestner was founded in Lille in 1902. It only took a few years for Kestner to gain global recognition for the many patents registered by its founder, Paul Kestner. Most notably, he developed a variety of innovative solutions in evaporation and chemical crystallisation.

Since the turn of the 20th century, the technologies developed by Paul Kestner have been used throughout the world in several industries: acid regeneration, the textile industry, papermaking pulp, sodium, potash, aluminium oxide, etc.

    
Niro :

Niro (Evaporation division) began as part of Laguilharre, which was founded in the late 1930’s and was known throughout the world as a pioneer in evaporation technology for the dairy and food industry. In 1977, Laguilharre integrated the Niro group to provide its clientele in the dairy and food industry with a complete evaporation and drying process chain.

Niro (Drying division) has been marketing all the products Niro A/S offers since 1952 and is recognised as the leader in France for atomizer drying. The Niro engineers also do product development and adapt them to the customer’s needs.

 

Scami :

Scami is a French acronym that means “Stainless Steel Mechanical Device Manufacturing Company,” (Société de Construction d’ Appareils Mécaniques Inoxydables) and has had a presence on the French market since 1949. In 1971, the company began developing its liquid process engineering business. In 2005, Scami became a full-fledged division of GEA Process Engineering France.

Grouping all of these companies together strengthens inter-industry technological exchanges and enables GEA Process Engineering France to offer a full range of technological processes, materials and solutions that meet its customers’ specific needs.