Dr Antje founded Dr Eckel GmbH in 1994 from humble beginnings in her own home. She has built up the business

ever since then, remaining as the sole shareholder. In 2003 the offices were built, then in 2005 a warehouse was erected for stocking products. In 2009 production began and in 2014 the offices were expanded with an additional floor and outhouse on the current site in Niederzissen.

All Dr Eckel’s own-brand products are produced on this single site and exported to customers all around the world. By the offices there is a pond with much plant life and bird life too – even ducks visit. A legacy of the development is a former wooden pre-fabricated office. It now fulfils a great role for on-site seminars and meetings with custom-ers, distributors and Dr Eckel staff.

Quality is keyIn every section of the site we went to,

the quality and standards were impressively high. All machines, parts in the production facility and materials were of the best qual-ity. Dr Antje herself said that she tours the production facilities once a week as part of the oversight procedures. The production tower has three floors (not including the

ground floor) and is quite a landmark in the vicinity.

There are delivery doors and a control centre. The systems can be controlled by iPads but this is not normally done. Audits are carried out for the requirements of cus-tomers. On average, 20 tons of animal feed products are produced here daily. Everywhere we looked there was large-scale, high-quality machinery. Quality is a constant theme here, and such an investment will undoubtedly arrive at the end user.

Global growth Dr Eckel is an international company

through and through. Its markets are diverse and constantly expanding. Although its first customers were on the German-speaking market, it is now expanding internation-ally. Marketing and PR director Sarah Mertens explained that Dr Eckel have an area manager for Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking coun-tries in Central and South America and they are keen to expand activity in the region - especially in Aquaculture!

Dr Eckel todayTouring the site, it was clear that several

strong missions drive the culture at Dr Eckel. First, ‘Ecknowlogy®’ is prevalent everywhere. This registered trade name is Dr Eckel’s own

moniker for their blend of knowledge and technology in animal nutrition. It features in production, in the materials and information. Customers instantly see specialist scientific know-how combined with first-class customer service.

The current warehouse holds one month’s stock. Delivery is based on a ‘just-in-time’ system. The warehouse has many solar panels on its rooftop, which supply sustainable solar energy to the warehouse itself.

AquacultureDr Eckel’s customers are mostly industry

buyers; we were told that only in Asia does the company sell directly to end-users. Dr Eckel is also well aware of Asia’s potential for aquaculture. Recently, the Anta® aquaculture product range has been developed with a particular awareness of the large weighting of aquaculture in the Asia region. To this end, Dr Eckel have permanent staff in Asia such as Andreas Lewke and Yuwei Liao.

After Dr Antje Eckel herself, we were introduced to Sarah Mertens, Dr Tilman Wilke and Monika Korzekwa. This group acted as our guides and provided great detail in their answers to questions. Monika Korzekwa told me her personal story: after a Masters degree thesis on Dr Eckel’s products with a study on quail, both she and the company agreed it was

aquaculture industry

The International Aquafeed team visits

Dr Eckel International Aquafeed magazine visited Dr Eckel GmbH on-site on Friday 12th June. Founder and Managing Director of the feed additive company, Dr Antje Eckel welcomed the team and gave a guided tour of the Dr Eckel site.

38 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | July-August 2015

inevitable that she should continue with them. As a highly qualified animal nutritionist with experience of Dr Eckel from her university days, it seems Monika is a real asset to the future development of the company.

Aquaculture facilitiesThe aquaculture area in one half of the

warehouse houses an aquarium for first-stage trials. This is where Dr Tilman Wilke primarily undertakes his work on new formulations and product trials. Tilman told me that the ease of working on species at the place of production enables a quick and efficient transfer of inno-vative new compounds from the laboratory to production.

Next to the aquarium is a small laboratory with medium-size mixers and pre-treatment facilities for compound mixtures, thereby eliminating the need to always go over to the large production tower to use the large-scale mixer. Most importantly, Dr Eckel’s various academic partners around the world carry out analysis independently.

According to Dr Tilman Wilke, Dr Eckel’s aquaculture efforts intensified and increased in 2013. This meant providing more solutions for aquatic animal feeds in this growing industry. When we visited the aquarium, the tanks were being cleaned and disinfected, between housing tilapia and shrimp species. The shrimp

were at that time in the quarantine phase and they were due to be transferred around a week or two later (mid-June) for trials.

Dr Eckel’s research and development

Growth trials, weight-gain development and feed efficiency studies are the most common types of trials conducted. In total, there are sixteen tanks in the aquarium. The aquarium was developed with support from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy.

As Dr Bernhard Eckel said in a press release:

“With this aquarium facility and our expe-rience from international animal nutrition we can contribute to the sustainable and healthy nutrition of fish and shrimp. At the same time this production will boost consumer confi-dence in aquaculture”.

At the site, single heaters maintain tem-perature with aeration systems as well to re-circulate and clean the water. The fully controlled station is shown in the accompany-ing photographs.

Regular engagement Other species such as tilapia have also fea-

tured in recent trials. As readers of International Aquafeed will know, Tilman has had aquaculture articles published in this magazine – a recent and

successful article from the January-February issue focused on phytogenics and natural additives, with many proven benefits for shrimp farming. Tilman is also actively representing Dr Eckel by speaking at industry conferences and giving presentations. Recently, he gave a presentation in New Orleans at the World Aquaculture Society’s (WAS) ‘Aquaculture America’ confer-ence in February of this year.

In Asia, Dr Eckel have reciprocal agree-ments for research and development as well as their own staff and office for the aquaculture market. This regional office was established in 2011 because of the growth of their export sales to Asia. In Thailand, trials – especially with shrimp – are being undertaken to assert evidence-based results.

Kasetsart University in Thailand has com-pleted a series of trials with Anta®Phyt and Anta®Ox on pacific white shrimp in challenge trials after after the shrimp are exposed to Vibrio parahaemolytius patho-gens. With observations of improved growth performance and improved survival rates and immune responses in the test groups, the evidence shows results that bring benefits to Dr Eckel’s customers.

It was a privilege to have the tour and insights into the culture, scientific knowledge and technical expertise that powers Dr Eckel forward in aquaculture.

July-August 2015 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | 39