Where we are from

The first activities with tinting raw materials took place as long ago as 1834 in Nerchau in Saxony. From this humble beginning a flourishing company developed quickly which soon took up its own production of colour formulations of all types and even expanded abroad in the late 19th century.

In the course of the following decades the product portfolio was always expanded further and, along with pigments and enamel paints, artists' and printing inks were soon included. As one of the leading paint manufacturers in Germany the company developed further until the mid-1920s. In the years following 1945 the site continued operation as a public enterprise. It became the nationally owned VEB Farbenfabrik Nerchau, which under the trade name LACUFA carried on as far as possible with the established product range.

A new era then began in the early 1990s as the Nerchau site continued operation under the umbrella of the Deutschen Amphibolinwerke – now DAW SE. Today, our factory in Nerchau is one of the production locations having the longest tradition for paints in Germany.

We look back on a long history and have increasing expertise and experience available from which you profit daily as our business partner. 

1834

Friedrich Carl Hessel, the father of August, Friedrich and Carl Hessel, founded a trading business with sand and clay on the Hessel Estate in Nerchau. This business was the forerunner of the Nerchau paint factory.

1852

The brothers Friedrich and Carl Hessel founded the paint factory, while the oldest brother, August Hessel, continued with the existing paint and sand sales.

1875

Friedrich Hessel transferred the company to his eldest son Carl Richard Hessel, the later Councillor of Commerce.

1877

Establishment of a branch of the Hessel paint factory in Berlin. Sales locations in Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Elberfeld and Munich followed.

About 1880

a mine near Döbeln (on the northern edge of the Erz Mountains) was purchased and so-called "green earth" was mined. Branches were founded abroad, for example at Amsterdam, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Messina, New York, Odessa, Stockholm and Zurich.

1886 

Foundation of the paint factory Hessel, Foll & Co. as a family subsidiary company for the manufacture of enamel paints by Messrs. Hermann Hessel, Ferdinand Foll and Wilhelm Eidemüller.

1891

The open trading company Friedrich & Carl Hessel changes into the Farbenwerke Friedrich & Carl Hessel  AG. The company grows with more than 150 employees, has the largest paint production facility in Saxony and is one of the leading paint manufacturers in Germany. 

The company's product portfolio concentrates on the preparation of pigments for various systems and on silicate paints under the brand Silikatin.

1947

After expropriation in the spring of 1947 the Vereinigte Farben- und Lackfabriken Nerchau was created. This name is used for the paint factories Friedrich & Carl Hessel  AG, die enamel factory Hessel, Foll & Co. and the evacuated partial operation of the paint factory of Herrmann Wülfing of Wuppertal with the name abbreviated to VeFaLaN.

1950

This year marks the beginning of the production of the Nerchau artist's oil paints. In co-operation with the University of Fine Art at Berlin-Weißensee the artist's paints were further developed from 1954 – 1958 in a joint research project.

1967

Establishment of a pigment pilot-plant for the enamels and paints industrial sector in Nerchau.

1969

From 1969 the Nerchau paint factory becomes a factory of the operational group Kalichemie Berlin within the VEB Lacke and Farben. The operating department in Nordstraße continues to specialise in artist's paints, tinting paints and dyeing pastes for plastics.

1969/70

The artist's paints company, Neisch & Co, Dresden is taken over.

1991

Founding of Lacufa AG; the product range comprises dispersion coating materials, artist's paints and tinting pastes.

1992

The Nordstraße location of LACUFA AG is taken over by the Deutschen Amphibolin-Werke von Robert Murjahn GmbH & Co KG – today DAW SE. As a result, the family company returns Nerchauer Farben to the tradition of owner-management once again.

2004

Transfer of the industrial dyeing pastes business from LACUFA to the newly founded Caparol Industrial Solutions GmbH.

2013 

Caparol Industrial Solutions GmbH is restructured. The company now concentrates exclusively on the production and marketing of industrial colour concentrates.

2014 

Marketing activities start in the new segment of "Function and Colour Masterbatches".

Further information about the historical development of our corporate group can be found here.