Founded in 1912 and formally established as a European joint-stock company on July 13, 2007, Fresenius AG is a global healthcare group providing high-quality medical devices, medicines and services. With more than 300,000 employees in more than 100 countries and annual sales of more than EUR 37 billion, Fresenius is one of the world's leading healthcare companies.
Fresenius is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany, and the Fresenius India joint venture is headquartered in New Delhi.
Indian companies are launching investment opportunities in seven key sectors, including hospitals and infrastructure, health insurance, pharmaceuticals and biotech, medical devices, medical tourism, home healthcare and telemedicine, and other technology-related health services.
A car rattles around a turn. It weaves through the streets of central Frankfurt - passing cyclists, pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages. The year is 1912. The car belonged to Hirsch Pharmacy, one of the oldest pharmacists in the city. The head of the pharmacy is Dr. Eduard Fresenius.
Various preparations for skin diseases and colds, as well as sterile solutions for injections were stored in the trunk of the car. The driver was on his way to a nursing home on the outskirts of Frankfurt. He regularly ships Hirsch Pharmacy products to the spa. Pedestrians watch cars go by. In this era, street traffic was characterized by horse-drawn carriages and bicycles – cars drew attention. However, as soon as Eduard Fresenius took over the pharmacy from the father, he immediately invested in new technologies. Getting medicines to patients quickly is his top priority.
Eduard Fresenius ran the pharmacy in Frankfurt until 1934, when he moved the company headquarters to Bad Homburg. Company founders are full of ideas on how to earn recognition for their company. He was often ahead of his time in these ideas. As early as the 1930s, he began distributing the Hirsch Pharmacy magazine to clients. A few years later, he opened a slimming gym in Bad Homburg. During summer, guests can enjoy fresh fruit and vegetable juices. Fresenius employees also prepare special drinks for weight loss patients according to the doctor's prescription. Particularly popular are milk shakes, an early form of milkshake.
Realizing great ideas is expensive. Financially, Eduard Fresenius was unlucky. The next few years will be challenging for businessmen. During World War II, he lost contact with many important business partners. He did not join the Nazi Party. Supplying the German army with drugs such as Freka frostbite cream helped keep the company in production for a while.
Eduard Fresenius stands in front of the ruins at the end of the war: Allied bombs completely destroyed the Hirsch Pharmacy. Raw material shortages prevented production in Bad Homburg. In the middle of restructuring the company, Dr. Fresenius died suddenly in 1946. He named his adopted daughter Else Kröner (née Fernau) as benefactor of his estate.
At just 26 years old, she inherited leadership of Hirsch Pharmacy and Company. As a newly licensed pharmacist, Else Kröner knew pharmacy inside out, but quickly reached her limits when it came to business administration. She acquired the skills she needed by taking evening courses at a private business school in Frankfurt. She works nearly 12 hours a day at the company and doggedly rebuilds the company during difficult times. Her efforts have earned her great respect and admiration from her staff. She eventually handed over the running of Hirsch Pharmacy to a fellow pharmacist. Her main job now is running the company in Bad Homburg. Through a lot of hard work, she and her eventual husband, Hans Kröner, spent the next few years developing Fresenius into a global healthcare group.