Eduard Fürst established his firm in Bzenec as early as in 1864, and it was recorded in the Register of Trades kept by the Imperial Royal Regional Commercial Court in Uherské Hradiště under the trade name "Eduard Fürst - trading in products, grain spirits in Bzenec" on 19 August 1864. As the trade name implies, Eduard Fürst's firm had been dealing in products and grain spirits since its foundation in 1864.
 |
 |
On 15 April 1921, Rudolfina Fürstová, who owned "Bzenecká rafinerie lihu Eduard Fürst" (Eduard Fürst Bzenec Spirit Refinery) at that time, applied for a change of the subject of enterprise, i.e. she requested the addition of vinegar production. The extension of the line of business with the production of vinegar was subsequently recorded in the Trade Register kept by the Regional Court in Uherské Hradiště on 22 April 1921, and published in the official gazette on 7 May 1921.
|
|
|
Vinegar has been produced in Bzenec from 1921 up to the present. On 3 July 1948 the Eduard Fürst Bzenec Vinegar Factory was nationalized. The nationalization was effective retrospectively, i.e. from 1 January 1948. The vinegar factory in Bzenec later became a part of the national enterprise Moravské lihovary a octárny Brno (Moravian Distilleries and Vinegar works) and it was run by the state. Subsequently, vinegar production in Bzenec was taken over by Bzenecké konzervárny, státní podnik (Bzenec Cannery, State-Owned Enterprise) and later by another state-owned enterprise, GEMOS.
Within the restitution process, the vinegar factory in Bzenec was returned to its original owners. And since Rudolfina Fürstová died in 1955, the property was handed over to her heiress, Kateřina Zdenka Fürstová, who sold the vinegar factory to Libor Kuchař in 1993. Nine years later, it became a part of the joint-stock company OKL, a.s., which continues producing vinegar. The Bzenec Vinegar Factory has thus become a member of the BURG group of plants in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France. BURG is one of the the leading manufacturers of vinegar, fruit syrups, and juices in Europe and the solid background of the parent company allowed the successful completion of a large-scale renovation programme aimed at production and administration operations. . Today, the Bzenec Vinegar Factory thus belongs among the largest European vinegar producers with a production capacity of up to 35 million litres of vinegar per year.
|
