Death has claimed the cofounder and CEO of a German firm that claims to be Europe's biggest producer of frozen cakes and pastries. Aloys Coppenrath was 79.
Having a business background he joined forces in 1975 with his cousin, Josef Wiese, a pastry cook, to found Coppenrath & Wiese with headquarters in Osnabrück. It had 35 employees at the outset, and now has some 2,200 producing 70 products for sale in Germany and export to the USA, New Zealand and a number of other European countries. Sales in 2011 were some 370 million euros.
The Wiese family pulled out of the firm in 2004, leaving the Coppenrath family in sole control. Josef Wiese died in 2009 at 77. The cause of Coppenraths death was not disclosed.
