Business
Mechanical engineering, valves and fittings industry
During the period of industrialisation, the first iron foundries became established in Prenzlau. This paved the way for the development of mechanical engineering and the valves and fittings industry in the town. But the real breakthrough for these industries did not come until the 1960s. When the Prenzlau valves and fittings factory was built it created a business that employed well over a thousand people. Since 1991 various smaller firms have been hived off from the factory and have realigned themselves on the world market. The business contacts and customers lists that these companies have built up extend far beyond the borders of Germany. Products are exported not only to the neighbouring European countries but to North America, Asia and Australia also. The firms vonRoll hydrotec GmbH, AWP Kälte-Klima-Armaturen GmbH (cooling and air-conditioning plant), Perrin GmbH, MAW GmbH & Co. KG Maschinen-, Anlagen- und Werkzeugbau (plant and machinery systems and machine tool engineering), Reserv GmbH, Uckermärkische Metallverarbeitung Prenzlau GmbH (metal processing) and MLT GmbH Stahl- und Industriebau Prenzlau (steel fabrication and industrial construction) cooperate together in an expertise network and have founded the Prenzlau Mechanical Engineering, Valves and Fittings Industry Development Association. As well as cost savings resulting from various collaborations, advantages also result from the high quality of an all-round training offered to apprentices.
Agriculture and processing renewable resources
Situated in the heart of our idyllic Uckermark countryside with its typical gentle hills and surrounded by fertile land, Prenzlau´s development has been strongly shaped by crop and livestock farming and by processing the agricultural produce of the region. Numerous old manor farms and farmsteads and the derelict former sugar factory, margarine factory, brewery and slaughterhouse are testimony to this centuries-old tradition in and around Prenzlau.
Today the food conglomerates Campina and Nestlé employ more than 300 people full time in Prenzlau. The Campina group occupies a key position in the German market in general, and further afield, in the manufacture of milk products. The well-known "Landliebe" brand of butter, every imaginable type of curd cheese and dried milk powder are produced in our town. Nestlé operates an ice cream factory in Prenzlau, devoted entirely to the production of ice creams on sticks. In the high season up to a million units leave the factory each day. Production continues round the clock in a three-shift system, even at weekends. The many different kinds of ice cream are also developed in Prenzlau but can be enjoyed almost everywhere in Europe, from Scandinavia to Portugal. On average, around 200 million units of the tasty ice cream on a stick are delivered to customers each year.
The raw materials for the ice cream and the milk products are supplied fresh every day by farmers and agricultural firms in the surrounding region. The firm Agrarprodukte Dedelow GmbH, based in the Prenzlau district of Dedelow, is one of the main suppliers to Campina and Nestlé. They operate one of the largest dairy cattle facilities in Germany. Of the 5.030 cattle that they keep, more than are milk cows. As well as milk and beef production, the farming operation also manages 3.044 hectares of arable farmland and 767 hectares of pasture land. Since 8 May 2002, the annual volume of 120.000 cubic metres of liquid manure, with the addition of solid manure and silage has been converted on site in the farm´s own biogas system into the energy required for the cattle stalls. Surplus electricity is fed into the mains grid. It is with just such innovative flair that the Prenzlau hemp fibre factory manufactures all kinds of different products from the renewable raw material. Their range extends from insulating materials to small pet bedding. The Uckermark hemp fibre factory, founded in 1996, operates one of the world´s most state-of-the-art bast fibre processing plants. In the direct vicinity of Prenzlau, hemp for fibre is grown on an agricultural area of up to 700 hectares.
