You don’t need to be Italian to bake delicious pizza.

The Freiberger company was founded in 1976 by a Bavarian in Berlin. Ernst Freiberger expanded a small pizza delivery bakery into Europe's largest manufacturer of frozen pizzas, snacks and pasta products for retailer own-brands.

Since 1998, the Freiberger Group has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Südzucker AG and has achieved worldwide success. Today, the group includes companies at 13 locations throughout Europe and the USA. 3,800 employees belong to the Freiberger team.

Who and where we are

Very close to our customers worldwide

Specialities from Freiberger bring pleasure to customers in 30 European countries as well as in the USA, Canada and South Africa. In frozen and chilled own-brand pizza we are global market leader.

More concretely this means that we produce more than 3.5 million pizzas a day. If they were lined up, this would correspond to the beeline distance between Milan and Sicily.

What we do

Variety that everyone can enjoy

Variety that everyone can enjoy

Around the world, you’ll find many different ways to make a pizza base. Freiberger excels at all of them - from traditional dough balling and roll-out methods, to sheet & cut and pan, all the way to our own patented processes.

Our highly innovative production technologies have set standards. Within a short time, we can develop and produce any pizza, pasta and baked good at competitive prices; for the success of our customers.

What makes us special

Pioneers in the market

We have been working together with our trading partners since our founding. This allows Freiberger to continue its pioneering work, not only technologically, but also in terms of own-brand category management. Today we understand consumer wishes and eating trends from America to Cyprus. Our full service that we offer retailers is appropriately targeted. Proceeding from market analysis and product development to market launches and success control takes little more than 180 days.

Freiberger Group products are among the winners worldwide. Our British company alone received twelve awards in just one year, including the Q Awards, PAPA (Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Association), Pizza Chef of the Year, and the Grocer Awards. In Canada, a retailer recently voted us "Supplier of the Year".

Naturally delicious ingredients

We have consistently pursued a clean-label philosophy. This means that we avoid artificial additives and use only the best ingredients.

Worldwide, we rely solely on growers who are certified according to the rigorous guidelines of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). We form strategic partnerships with many suppliers to ensure the quality of our food remains high and healthy at all times.

What we mean by quality

Safety, from raw materials to the supermarket shelf

Every day, the Freiberger Group produces up to 4.5 million products according to IFS standards (including pasta, baguettes and hot dogs).

In addition, all production processes follow a comprehensive monitoring plan that is second to none in the industry, with more than 60,000 internal testing procedures and almost 300,000 individual tests per year, in excess of 4,000 external controls and audits (including 10 customer audits), and over 30 supplier audits.
Product range

What’s important to us

Our focus on food

Our mission is to create a unique taste experience for our products. This requires creativity and skill, but also complete dedication, motivation and flexibility. Our aim is to guarantee a healthy and motivating work environment for our employees.

It is equally important to us to handle each of our ingredients with care. This includes actively protecting nature’s valuable resources. One of the ways to ensure a more sustainable environment, is by reducing plastic packaging as much as possible.

Our goal: Zero plastic

As the world's largest manufacturer of own-brand pizzas, we recognise that we carry a high burden of responsibility for the environment. That's why we have introduced environmental and energy-related management systems at an early stage (according to DIN EN ISO 14001 and 50001). We are equally motivated to reduce the amount of outer packaging. In recent years, we have already succeeded in using 25 percent less plastic.

Although this material is still indispensable to ensure the quality of our products, technology is advancing in this area. We consider it a great challenge to take on a pioneering role on this issue. For example, Freiberger commissioned three different project groups to sustainably reduce our environmental impact through the following steps:

  1. Reduction of plastic by at least 25 percent through, among other things, the use of thinner but equally efficient packaging films and the use of natural "bioplastics" or "recycled plastics", which require less petroleum-based raw materials and thus improve our carbon footprint.
  2. Development of new packaging technologies to more than halve plastic consumption in the future.
  3. Research into novel packaging materials, which will help us to completely renounce plastic one day.

Our RETHINK PLASTIC initiative.

As the world’s largest manufacturer of private-label pizzas, it is our responsibility to use our planet´s resources in a way that guarantees their availability for future generations. Because of this, we have been working on the area of plastics for a long time. Consumers, retailers and our employees rightly demand packaging that can be produced and disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.
The challenge to find a suitable solution is great: not every alternative plastic can also ensure that we meet the quality and hygiene standards of our products.

THIS IS WHY WE ARE RETHINKING PLASTIC.

In our initiative, we have defined three fields of action in order to come closer to our vision: a world without plastic.

WE REDUCE.
We are working on reducing the amount of synthetic materials used in our packaging without compromising on the quality of our products. Our principle is: as little as possible, as much as necessary.

WE INVEST.
Which technology can process thinner or even eco-friendly plastic films? Each acquisition of machines and equipment in our packaging sector centres around this question.

WE RESEARCH.
In cooperation with universities, research institutes and innovative start-ups, we are currently searching for new packaging ideas. Areas include recycling, bioplastics and plastic-free packaging.

For an environment that is worth living in. For the future of our world. For our families and children.

FOR ALL OF US.

 

What sets us apart

Certified for worldwide success

Our success is based on market-driven creativity, innovative and efficient technology and absolute process reliability. Here are some of our internationally recognised certifications:

  • BRC standard accreditation: "Grade A+" (worldwide standard for food safety)
  • IFS food certification (International Featured Standard)
  • FDA registration (US Food and Drug Administration)
  • USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)
  • ISO 50001 Energy management system
  • FSMA certification (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act)
  • RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil)
  • MSC (Marine Stewardship Council for sustainable fishing certification)
  • AOECS (European standard for gluten-free foods)
  • SAS/Swiss (Swiss certification for lactose and gluten-free products)
  • Organic certification according to EC Organic Regulation (DE-ÖKO-003)
  • Halal Food Certificate (Islamic Council of Mannheim Institite)

Certificates to view and download

Südzucker Compliance Line

Information about compliance-related matters

Compliance is a top-priority matter for the Südzucker Group. Complying with rules and regulations is the only way to protect the company, its employees and its business partners from infringements and inappropriate behaviour.

Employees or business partners may become aware of processes or transactions that do not comply with these rules. As before, information on this can be given directly to the respective contact persons in the company. However, if there are concerns and employees or business partners cannot see the possibility of placing their observations in person, a confidential, optionally anonymous procedure can be used to draw attention to serious incidents:

Südzucker Compliance Line
https://www.bkms-system.com/suedzucker

  • The 'Südzucker Compliance Line' is an electronic communication platform certified under data protection law, via which you can send information to the Compliance Officer of Südzucker AG.
  • The 'Südzucker Compliance Line' has to be used responsibly in order to fulfil their function. It must not be misused to be defamatory about others, or to make false accusations.
  • The 'Südzucker Compliance Line' is not meant for customer inquiries about products or services or as an emergency call system.

If your report concerns one of the matters listed under §2 of the Whistleblower Protection Act (including criminal acts, violation of regulations for the protection of life and limb, environmental protection), you can also report this to the Federal Ministry of Justice using this link: Federal Reporting Office.

Before using the reporting channels provided by the external Federal Reporting Office, reporting to an internal office at Südzucker should be preferred in cases where effective internal action can be taken against the violation. Internal reporting is often the best way to get information to the people who can most quickly investigate and remedy the violation. If an internally reported violation has not been remedied, you are free to subsequently contact the external office.

In the European Union, it is also possible to submit a report to the local competent authority. 

LIST OF AUTHORITIES