History

1889	Birth of the Epple bear	Otto Bär founds an ink factory in Radebeul-Dresden. Letter press inks are manufactured. The first offset printing machine only starts up at Leipzig in 1907.
1914	Start of the Epple story	Carl Epple becomes managing partner. His motto for success: The quality of the printing inks is also guaranteed by the quality of the preliminary products.
1920	Quality leads to success	Foundation of the Carl Epple Farbenfabrik in Dresden. Both companies work successfully until the expropriation after the war.
1949	New start after the Second World War	Under the name of Carl Epple, with the “bear” as a crest, the ink factory was rebuilt in the area of Augsburg with the investment decision to ensure production of the highest quality and consistent printing inks post war.
1952	Alternation of generation.	After the death of the company’s founder, his son Rudolf Epple and daughter Karla Berz-Epple inherit the management.
1972	Steady increase of the export	The first subsidiary is opened in Switzerland. The export in the European market is further increasing.
1990	Quality finds acceptance	The internationalisation of the markets is proceeding fast. Besides the German speaking main market almost in all western European countries representatives are founded.
1993	Epple becomes pioneer	With the development and the market introduction of the new printing ink generation of the Ecoplus and Ecoprint series Epple stands out in the field of ecological printing inks on basis of pure vegetable binding agents.
1999	Epple conquers the world market	The high quality of the Epple offset inks becomes accepted world-wide: Meanwhile Epple inks are used on all continents.
2000	Innovations offensive	drupa 2000 becomes the platform for the presentation of the aniva® colours system. aniva® enables the photo realistic print of pictures, as the ink control is basing on the perception of the human eye
2002	Reorganisation	The owners focus on further growth of the company. Epple becomes a family corporation. Rudolf Epple and Karla Berz-Epple move to the supervisory board.
2004	ISO certificates	With the introduction of the Ecological and Quality management systems Epple achieves certification. Now production and distribution comply with international standards, a decisive confidence-building action, forming an important pre-condition for the further development.
2007	New building	Success and growth required an expansion of the production capacity and facilities. A new hall with the latest machinery starts up.
2008	Bofood MH system for primary food packaging	On time for drupa 2008 the development of the BoFood MH system for primary food packaging is completed and the system is presented to the market for the first time.
2009	Carbon footprint	In cooperation with Climate partner the carbon footprint of Epple Druckfarben AG is established.