Unique in the world: hundreds of healthy products from a single raw material

Leiber celebrates its anniversary with over 200 partners, friends and employees – 70 years of sustainable upcycling of brewer’s yeast

“What do bodybuilders, vegans, wine lovers, farmed salmon, dairy cows and riding horses all over the world have in common? They all love Leiber products,” says Managing Director Bernd Schmidt-Ankum on the occasion of the company’s birthday. Leiber GmbH from Bramsche-Engter in Germany has been refining yeast from beer production for 70 years now. A single raw material is turned into hundreds of products for biotechnology, livestock and pet food, food supplements and food. The grandson of founder Franz Leiber emphasized that this unique success story would not be possible without the many excellent minds and hands. “We have retained a start-up mentality over seven decades, which makes me very proud. The ultra-modern building, our new campus, where we are guests today, represents precisely this creativity and innovative strength. We will develop many more ideas here.”

The new light-flooded headquarters not only houses offices, but also research and development as well as a test kitchen. More than 200 business partners and friends were able to admire the uniquely sustainable Leiber Campus for the first time at the official anniversary reception and taste some of the products live on site. “What our colleagues produce here every day from just one raw material you can almost call “magic”,” says Leiber Managing Director Gilbert Klausmeyer, sharing his enthusiasm. The variety ranges from preparations from large German drugstore chains to strengthen the immune system to Britain’s favorite spread. Simone Erb, Eike Meyer-Wetjen and Dr. Holger Kühlwein reported that there is no end in sight with a brief insight into current developments in the areas of nutraceuticals (food supplements), food and aquaculture.

Of course, a look back was also a must. Artist Elena Handel used sand painting for this. She traced seven decades of sustainable upcycling at global market level on a pane of glass – followed live by the eyes of the guests, who watched intently as one milestone artistically passed into the next – from the founding of the company in 1954 to the construction of the new campus last year.

Flashback: In 1954, Franz Leiber founded the “Bierhefeverarbeitungsgesellschaft Franz Leiber & Co” in Damme. His family had been running an agricultural trading business since 1798, so he was born into the agricultural and food industry. Leiber’s innovative and sustainable idea: to make the vitamin B complex from brewer’s yeast, which at the time was still little researched, usable for animal husbandry. The breakthrough came ten years later. Through his own research and development, Leiber had developed a process with which the brewer’s yeast could be dried while at the same time preserving the valuable and healthy ingredients. In 1994, the new plant in Bramsche was put into operation, a Polish subsidiary was founded in 2003 and a Russian subsidiary in 2009. In 2024, Leiber takes over the Spanish company Aplicaciones Biológica a la Nutrición S.L. (ABN).

Today, the main site in Bramsche-Engter is home to a state-of-the-art extraction plant with three drying spray towers, a spacious campus, well-equipped laboratories and a modern high-bay warehouse. In addition to all economic development, the company has always focused on sustainability: in 2024, its own biomass power plant was put into operation to reduce CO2 emissions. This covers around 80 percent of the site’s energy consumption. Leiber aims to achieve completely climate-neutral production by 2030. The down-to-earth and inventive spirit of the founder continues to have an impact today. “We are proud of our past, but look forward to the future. There are plenty of plans!” says Bernd Schmidt-Ankum.