Anecdotes
We have collected a couple of the good stories from Chr. Hansen’s 130 year long history. Browse this page and get a taste of the past.
When old Christian Hansen drank rennet
After the establishment of the company in 1874, the usage of cheese rennet quickly became widespread in Denmark, but abroad our founder had to fight prejudice and conservatism. Christian Hansen therefore traveled frequently to present the new invention and give speeches to dairy people.
At such an incident in America, a man in the audience suddenly got up claiming that the "patent rennet," as it was called at the time, contained poisonous acids. Christian Hansen immediately grabbed the glass of liquid rennet in front of him and emptied it in a few swallows. The sceptical man hardly believed his own eyes, but definitely gained faith in the product!
There was, however, one slight side effect to Christian Hansen’s determined action. For several days afterwards he suffered from a tremendous thirst caused by the high content of salt in the rennet!
Small holes were a big problem
The rennet from Chr. Hansen was a big success from the start and from 1877 exports rose heavily. Results were excellent everywhere, but for one country. In Switzerland, Emmenthaler ran into trouble. Swiss cheesemakers had problems getting the holes right with the Chr. Hansen rennet.
This was a mystery indeed, and it prompted the "Schweizerischer alpwirtschaftlicher Verein" to offer a prize of 500 Swiss Francs to the person who could solve it.
No one was successful, however. It was not discovered until later that special bacteria are needed for the proper maturing of Swiss Cheese and that these bacteria were not present in the Chr. Hansen rennet. The original rennet from Chr. Hansen was simply too pure!
The fire call
The driver in Chr. Hansen's business is our customers' demands. Living up to their expectations requires hard work and often a good deal of imagination:
Frits Schousboe was Chr. Hansen's CEO from 1953 to 1970. He was not exactly known for his gentle personality, but his business talents were outstanding and his drive legendary.
In 1963 fire erupted in the rennet factory in Masnedřgade in Copenhagen. While the fire still raged, Frits Schousboe arrived to assess the damage. To everybody's surprise, however, a few minutes later he was nowhere to be found.
Schousboe had seen the need for quick action. Both stock and production capacity had been badly damaged, and while the firefighters did their best Frits Schousboe rushed to headquarters. Here he phoned one of Chr. Hansen's largest competitors in Germany and bought a large quantity of rennet.
Before news of the fire was able to spread, it was assured that Chr. Hansen could continue to deliver.