Exclusive: Andreas Bertram, MD of Germany’s ZDS industry college, joins the World Confectionery Conference

Andreas Bertram, managing director of Germany’s ZDS central school of confectionery, is preparing to make a welcome return to this year’s World Confectionery Conference as a speaker at our event in Brussels, Belgium.

The senior industry figure has enjoyed an eventful spell with the nation’s key sweets and snacks education facility, and has been a passionate advocate for passing on skills within the sector, which will form an element of his presentation for our industry showcase this autumn.

He joins a dynamic line-up for our sustainability and innovation-themed event on 12 September marking our 90th anniversary in publishing, which includes keynote presentations from Cargill, Ferrero, Caobisco European trade association, Tony’s Chocoloney, Mintel global insights group, and FMCG Gurus research and analysis organisation to name a few. You can register for the event via our direct link here.

As Andreas Bertram has previously explained to Confectionery Production, he recalled having spent four memorable years in his youth as a technical instructor at ZDS’s site at Sollingen, North Rhine-Westphalia, before going on to other industry roles including a senior post within the biscuit market segment for a major company.

But he eventually realised that returning to his employment roots within the teaching arena in 2005 to take on his present role was something that was too great an opportunity to pass up, and has been a key figure for the organisation ever.

As Bertram reflects, the teaching which the college conduct is something that is both a personal passion, and something that Germany on a wider level remains particularly renowned for.

Its teaching prowess remains matched by the quality of its machinery for the sector, with some of the most respected names in the confectionery industry hailing from his home nation, including the likes of Bosch (now Syntegon), Schubert, Wolf Machinery, and Sollich and Theegarten-Pactec pushing at the technical boundaries of equipment, which is now fully entering the era of web-based productivity management and robotics as among the sector’s core focuses.

“I strongly believe that it’s very important to transport knowledge to the next generation. Everyone is talking about automisation and the new digital world, but if you look very carefully at the factory production floor, you realise that you still need a lot of competence, understanding of raw materials and process parameters to get the right quality within operations,” adds Bertram, who noted that while awareness of ever-evolving machinery and systems is significant, so too is having an all-round education of traditional skills and grounding in the core skills associated with the industry.

Andreas is also a long-term member of Confectionery Production’s editorial board, and as MD at ZDS, is also leading operations behind its plans for the latest Choco Tec event, which returns to Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany at the end of this year, between 10-12 December, offering three days of key sector networking and wider industry insights.

Neill Barston, editor of Confectionery Production magazine welcomed the latest addition to our line-up. He said: “Andreas Bertram’s broad knowledge of the confectionery sector, and boundless enthusiasm for the industry is something that will be very welcome once again at our event.

“Having presented for us in 2022, his insights on how the sector is moving forward and the challenges it is facing will certainly be well worth catching at our event this year. As countless manufacturers have noted, in an age where the industry is facing skills shortages, offering the opportunities for the next generation of confectionery and snacks sector workers is something that remains of vital importance.”