In 1961 manufacturer A.P. Hansen founded Cormall by, producing a simple steel plate grinding mill, which led to further developments.
Today the company is led by the second generation, Peter E. Hansen and Jens J. Hansen. Cormall has its head office in Sønderborg, southern Denmark, from where all activities are organized. The main area of expertice is within diet mixers for cattle feeding, straw processing machinery and biomass technology.
Dairy farming
Since the beginning of the 1970 Cormall has specialized in constructing mixers for cattle feed.
In the 1990´s Cormall developed the control system and equipment so that the mixer can be used for full automatically feeding, which has been a big advance for the customers.
Straw processing
The technology was developed in 1970 to produce feeding for cattle. Since then the technology has grown, especially in the industrial sector, where it is used for a variety of productions:
- Building materials, chip-boads of straw and for insulation boards
- Fuel such as straw pellets, briquettetes or lose material
- Biological processes for instance, mushroom production, biogas,
composting etc. - Animal bedding with the production of dustless straw packets for
all animals - Mixing chopped straw, hay, molasses & minerals
- Biological packets for shipments etc.
Through the years Cormall has delivered equipment to all of these areas and
has a lot of experience and substantial knowhow.
History
In 1961, A. P. Hansen founded Cormall in an old chickenhouse in Dybbøl, where he started manufacturing the first Cormall steel plate mill. In the first months, it was A. P. who had to do all the work. The steel plate mill went out of production in 1981, but steel plates are still supplied to it 60 years after the first was sold.
The name CORMALL itself was created as a derivation of corn and milling, which at that time was the only product manufactured.
Times have changed since the time when there were approx. 110,000 active farms in Denmark, a much greater potential than the approx. 8,000 farms left in today’s Denmark. Back then it was more of a seller’s market than it was a buyer’s.
In 1970, the buildings in Dybbøl became too small and there were no expansion opportunities, which promted Cormall moved the production to new premises in the nearby village of Ragebøl, where 1500 m2 of production area was build up. One of the new products taken on the program was a straw mill for grinding straw from small bales, a technique that was completely unknown in Denmark at that time. This gave rise to a further development of feed mixers for whole feed for ruminants, and a new way of thinking about feeding was started. A principle that is now mandatory in all cattle farming and which has resulted in a significantly greater production capacity in milk and meat production.
The structural development of agriculture and products has led to today’s Cormall, which specializes in large industrial plants for fully automatic feeding of cows, horses and sheep, processing of straw and other biomass material for bedding, feed, building materials, district heating, biogas , ethanol, recycling technology and many other purposes.
In 1987, Cormall began a generational change as AP’s son Peter Hansen after a few years abroad, joined Cormall. At the same time, a new strategy was developed, aiming at globalizing the company. This strategy led to partnership’s in a large number of companies so that Cormall Agro Holding A / S is involved today in many different industries and productions: silo production in South Africa, production of millstones in Ethiopia, agriculture and manufacturing of semi-finished products in Ukraine.
In 1998, Jens Hansen joined Cormall, as managing director of the company in Ragebøl. The products and the business, before the financial crisis in 2008, were primarily aimed at Danish and foreign milk producers. When the financial crisis occurred, there was a need to move quickly to new markets in alternative energy and recycling that ensured continued growth. Today, feeding plants are being produced for dairy farmers, and increasingly industrial applications of the product range, for biomass handling and recycling technologies.
It has been, and always has been, a continuous development and adaptation of the production, the products and the market, which has kept Cormall going throughout all the years.