In 1897, the businessman Gustav Heess established a commercial enterprise in Bad Cannstatt, near Stuttgart. The new company specialized in supplying basic materials such as tannic acid, dyewood extracts, fats, oils, and waxes to textile and leather manufacturers in southern Germany, who formed a very important industry in that region at the time.

After the end of the Second World War, the company began focusing exclusively on the market segment for oils and fats. As a result, it was able to gain new and important customers from the pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors, and the chemical, steel, and metal industries. The company continued to develop and grow, leading to an increase in revenues and earnings. In the 1990s, it began actively moving into markets outside Germany by establishing subsidiaries throughout Europe.

Since the mid-1990s, the Gustav Heess Group has been led and consistently further developed by managing partners Alexander and Boris Zastrow. In order to meet increasingly stringent product quality requirements, the company expanded its central lab unit in Stuttgart and obtained external accreditation for it in accordance with the DIN 17025 standard. Warehouse storage capacity in Stuttgart was also expanded significantly.

In 2006, the Gustav Heess Group began investing in the establishment of production capacity in the U.S. This process ultimately led to the creation of what is now the world’s leading producer of walnut and almond oil: Caloy.

Today, the Gustav Heess Group is a strong family-owned enterprise with a tradition extending back more than a century. At the moment, it operates nine subsidiaries and production units in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. The Group’s more than 150 employees at these locations ensure that over 100,000 tons of our specialty products can be delivered to customers around the world. Our high quality standards, presence on international markets, and sophisticated logistics systems, as well as the personal commitment of each and every employee, ensure that the Heess Group will remain a competent and reliable partner for our customers – as we have been for over 100 years now.