Tradition meets modernity - AGROLAB looks back with pride on 150 years of successful research and analysis in the service of agriculture and food industry. The "Landwirtschaftliche Untersuchungs- und Forschungsanstalt" (LUFA) in Kiel, which emerged from the former agricultural chemical testing station, started its work 150 years ago and is now one of the largest private feed and food laboratories in Europe.

The institute has not only witnessed the entire agricultural scientific and agricultural technical development of the last 150 years, but has itself helped to shape it and has analytically accompanied modern agriculture, which is based on measurable data, from the field to the barn to the supermarket shelf. In the beginning, the control of fertilizers, soil and seed quality, feed composition as well as milk analysis were the core business. Until 2001, LUFA-ITL was subordinate to the Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Agriculture, which had already been merged with the Institute for Animal Health and Food Quality (ITL) in 1988.

As the need for government subsidies to maintain analytical services grew, the Chamber of Agriculture decided to take a bold step. It sold the renowned institute to an up-and-coming environmental and agricultural analytical laboratory that had been unknown in the north until then: the AGROLAB GROUP. Dr. Paul Wimmer, Managing Director of AGROLAB, was driven by the challenge of transforming the somewhat cumbersome semi-governmental operation into a modern and competitive laboratory through entrepreneurial skill, targeted investments and a highly motivated workforce.

LUFA UNDER AGROLAB MANAGEMENT

Turnover and profit multiplied sustainably over the years and the laboratory became profitable. In the meantime, two independent companies (AGROLAB LUFA GmbH and AGROLAB Agrar- und Umwelt GmbH, Kiel) have emerged from the institute (LUFA-ITL) at the new location in Kiel-Suchsdorf under the umbrella of AGROLAB Holding. The two Kiel laboratories have a total area of about 13,000 square meters, equipped with the latest device technology in analytics, making them among the largest private laboratories in Europe. For the Kiel economic region and the state of Schleswig-Holstein, this means, among other things, 350 secure and forward-looking jobs.

A REASON TO CELEBRATE - WERE WE NOT IN THE MIDST OF THE CORONA PANDEMIC

150 years of LUFA and 20 years under AGROLAB management would be reason enough to celebrate. Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic, the possibilities are very limited and larger celebrations are not appropriate. Full of confidence, AGROLAB looks forward to times when nothing will stand in the way of a proper anniversary celebration.

THE AGROLAB GROUP

The AGROLAB GROUP is a laboratory group operating throughout Europe and analysing samples from the agricultural, environmental, water, feed and food sectors. In these sectors, the company can count itself among the European price-performance market leaders. 

The AGROLAB GROUP currently employs around 2,000 people at 28 branches. The success of the company is based on the three pillars of quality orientation, cost awareness and fairness. As a medium-sized company, AGROLAB offers its employees an economically very stable environment and a secure workplace with personal and professional development. Across the entire laboratory group, the focus is on flat hierarchies and results-oriented work, which contributes to a high level of personal responsibility and transparent decision-making.