Michael Fritz

General Manager since 2013

Wolfgang Fritz

General Manager since 1980

Wolfgang Fritz joined the company as the sixth generation in 1980 and over the years he technicalised the production by purchasing many new machines. "Today almost exclusively stainless steel is processed. At the same time we still manufacture many parts manually, for example even in individual production. This gives us the opportunity to meet many customer requirements individually. With us you will still receive a quality product made in Germany." The Internet as a sales channel was also introduced by Wolfgang Fritz in 2009. Since then, interested parties and customers can shop CFM products around the clock via the online shop www.carl-fritz.de.

Max Fritz

General Manager 1949 - 1980

(1921 - 1980)

With him as the fifth generation of the company Carl Fritz was rationalized at all ends. He expanded the production program decisively, managed with his skilled employees to safely bring even the most extreme frame size into the now few types of honey extractors by means of simple but useful aids. There is no longer an "impossible" in this regard. He also invented the electric top drive for honey extractors, which he called the "Schleuderhexe". Thanks to the good, solid work, foreign countries also reported. New devices were tested and manufactured. As in previous times, domestic and foreign exhibitions were again visited. Since the Apimondia 1969 in Munich, we are regularly represented at the world congress for beekeeping and have already been awarded numerous times. The company buildings have been extended several times. In 1975, the construction of the current buildings in the Immenweg began, as there really was no room in the old location. The move followed in 1978. Max Fritz was not only technically gifted, he had as much musical talent as poetic talent. The catalogues were regularly loosened up with their own rhymes.

Ludwig Fritz

General Manager ab 1920

(1893 - 1964)

From 1920 on, Ludwig Fritz continued the metalworking as the fourth generation. In the first years he had a very difficult time. To fill the capacity, the company’s sanitary installation division was incorporated. His own, still primitive machine locksmith was added. He now manufactured the drives for the honey extractors himself and, together with an engineer friend, designed the freewheel drive with brake "Friglo". Only slowly, things went up again. 1926 came the first radial honey extractor and other variants, and electric motors were grown. In 1927 he developed the steam wax melter with a purification device, with it it was possible to extract germ-free wax from contaminated, old honeycombs. At the end of the 1920s, everything flourished again, so that in 1930 could be moved to a large, converted cattle barn with production. 1938 was the most successful year. However, in 1945 the company was again at point zero. With the occupation zones, the connections with the many customers from Thuringia and Saxony were severed, almost all the pre-suppliers were also from over there, the expensive casting models for drives and equipment were lost.

Carl Fritz

(1853 - 1931)

He continued the business as a young master. The upward development was tempestuous. The catalogue from 1905 already covered 90 pages. Domestic and foreign exhibitions were visited. Since then, there is the company logo with the bee and the three letters CFM, which stand for Carl-Fritz-Mellrichstadt. Almost 20 skilled journeymen produced honey extractors and other equipment in accord. In a new joinery built around 1900, beehives were created. Carl Fritz was also a founding member (1912) of the still existing professional association for beekeeping equipment. The production program was very, almost too versatile. The 1914-1918 war brought the first, severe setback. Woodworking had to be abandoned.

Carl Ludwig Fritz

(1822 - 1873)

In the year of his death in 1873, he designed the first honey extractor made of metal. For this purpose, he used tinplate. It still works with its easily common gear drive, is painted brown marbled on the outside and has a meaning in a true Art Nouveau manner. You can barely read it: "Be diligent like the bee!" This honey extractor can still be visited in Mellrichstadt today.

Friedrich Christoph Fritz

Company founder and General Manager since 1827

In 1827, Friedrich Christoph Fritz decided to found a company for building materials in Mellrichstadt. At that time, the honey extractors were not yet known, because it was invented only in the late 1860s by the Hungarian major Hruschka. Beetles made the honey extractors out of wood, wires were stretched over the basket. A cord roller served as a drive.