From IPPE 2026 in Atlanta, AviNews International sits down with Karl Bernd Fangmann, Managing Director of Hellmann Poultry, one of the leading global players in poultry equipment.
- In this interview, we explore the key milestones that have shaped Hellmann Poultry into a worldwide reference, what truly sets its German-engineered, high-quality equipment apart, and how this “Made in Germany” commitment translates into real value, efficiency, and reliability for poultry producers.
- We also discuss Hellmann Poultry’s future outlook in the U.S. and Latin American markets, including its long-term vision for growth, collaboration, and continued innovation in these strategic regions.
IPPE continues to bring together innovators from across the global poultry industry—and Hellmann Poultry is no exception.
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:
Hellmann Poultry has a strong reputation in the poultry equipment industry. In your opinion, what key milestones have shaped Hellmann Poultry into becoming the global player it is today?
The company has been founded in the end of the 60´s in Germany, they have specialized from the very first beginning in egg production. So this is what we are doing since then. We are really focusing on aviaries and on other keeping system only for laying hens. We have not tried to go into for other animals like turkeys or broilers.
- We are what we are doing, we do it 100%, and we are not doing what we can only 80% do.
- And that’s why we also work with international partners, partners on ventilation, on other parts which are in the house. I think this works out for us.
- I believe all our staff, our partners we have since many years. It’s not only the employees in our company, it’s also the partners we have in the individual countries, because at the end we need to be close to our customers and this is something we can only achieve if we have good partners in each and every country.
Your products are known worldwide for their German engineering and high quality. What sets Hellmann Poultry’s German-made equipment apart, and how does this commitment to quality translate into real value for poultry producers?
I believe we have not compromised that much on quality in the past years. Of course, we need to stay competitive, and we are for sure not the cheapest, but our goal was always to do it a little bit better than the others. And, although knowing that our cost will be higher, we believe the added value we give to our customer, they know it and they will appreciate it, and this is a little bit our philosophy. We want to have customers which are buying twice from us, and after 25 years they buy a new system, that’s what we want. We do not want just to sell one time, so we are really looking for long-term partnerships as well with our customers.
As a European company with a strong international presence, how do you see the future of Hellmann Poultry in the US and LATAM markets, and what is your long-term vision for growth and collaboration in these regions?
These two regions are major markets for us. In Latin America, of course, we see a growth of population. We see an increase of egg consumption, and this means at the end that the layers population has to grow in that market and we want to be a partner in that. We are in Latin America, that’s why we’re also investing there since a couple of years especially into the service of the people that we have inside those countries. Good service to offer to our customers, that’s where we’re looking for. The US is one of the biggest egg producers globally, definitely, and I think there will also be a still a development on keeping systems, and we would of course like to support the producers on that.