Type Aktiengesellschaft Industry Manufacturing Revenue 5.642 billion EUR (2015) | Traded as FWB: RAA Profit €121,8 million (2015) Founded 1973 | |
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Key people Dr. Peter Stadelmann (CEO)
Peter Wiedemann (CTO)
Dr. Axel Kaufmann (CFO)
Markus Paschmann (CSO) Siegfried Meister (Founder) Products Catering Combi steamers and multi-purpose ovens Stock price RAA (ETR) € 436.60 -3.20 (-0.73%)24 Mar, 5:35 PM GMT+1 - Disclaimer Headquarters Landsberg am Lech, Germany Subsidiaries RATIONAL UK Ltd., Rational International AG, Frima S.A Profiles | ||
Rational AG is a German manufacturer of combi steamers and ovens, cooking appliances suitable for large and commercial kitchens. The company is based in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, and was founded by Siegfried Meister in 1973. The company owns the subsidiary Frima which is based in Wittenheim, France.
Since its establishment, Rational has grown from 18 to 1,500 employees worldwide, and around half of the employees work at the headquarters. The company distributes its combi steamer in more than 100 countries. Rational's share in the global market is 54 percent.
History
The company was founded in 1973 by the founder and current Chairman of the Supervisory Board Siegfried Meister with 18 employees. The company initially produced hot air units. These quickly superseded conventional ovens that were used in the commercial sector before then. Three years later, the developers added steam to hot air, developing the Rational combi steamer. 19 years later, Rational created a product-specific ideal climate in the cooking cabinet with ClimaPlus-Control technology.
In 2000, "Rational GmbH" was converted to a stock corporation. The change to the form of business organisation created the necessary course for the company to align itself internationally. Rational reached another milestone in the company's history in 2004 with the launch of the SelfCookingCenter. For the first time, this cooking appliance was able to independently recognise the climate, cooking time, temperature and air velocity in the cooking cabinet and adjust these parameters individually to product-specific requirements. This technology was developed further and the SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency was launched in 2011. It was even more resource-efficient than its predecessor model, while the technical details were also more sophisticated.
In 2014, Rational developed the whitefficiency range even further with the launch of the SelfCookingCenter 5 Senses. The product is both a combi steamer and an intelligent cooking system, which independently recognises the load quantity and size of the food, continuously monitors the cooking process and automatically adapts to the relevant food. Rational also offers its customers a classic combi steamer, the CombiMaster Plus, with which the chef can set the temperature, moisture, cooking duration and air flow manually.