1716
In the southern German town of Weisenbach, Johann Georg KATZ opens a sawmill to make telegraph poles and railway sleepers. 

1903
KATZ begins making economic use of the wood waste produced by the sawmill, introducing the product line ‘moulded pulp coasters’. Coasters were invented in 1893 by Robert Sputh of Dresden, but Casimir Otto Katz manufactured the first coasters in their modern format in 1903.

1930
Development of the first automatic coaster printing machine with a capacity of 30,000 coasters per day.

1960
Commissioning of a Fourdrinier machine for producing cardboard.

1969
Invention of the coaster printing and stamping machine, an innovation for combined printing and stamping with a capacity of 1,000,000 coasters per day.

1975
KATZ switches from high-pressure to offset printing, continuing its policy of regular investment in large-scale stamping equipment and fully automated packaging lines.

1978
KATZ International Coasters is acquired by the Pfleiderer Group.

2001
The takeover of the plants at Quarmby in Great Britain and Waterlomat in Belgium leads to the creation of an international enterprise.

2006
Takeover of Kurprinz in Großschirma (Saxony).

April 2009
Falling beer consumption coupled with the aftermath of the global financial crisis lead The KATZ Group into insolvency. 

September 2009
Papierfabrik August Koehler AG takes over The KATZ Group and the wood pulp board company becomes an independent operation integrated into the Koehler Group.

2010
KATZ takes on 31 new employees at its Weisenbach site. Daniel Bitton becomes the new chief executive (operations). His fellow executive director will be Kai Furler, the chairman of Koehler Paper Group´s executive board. The parent company has approved several million euros of finance for investments, and in August 2010 an energy recuperation system as well as a new digital printing machine came on line. The company produces some 3.5 billion coasters and 30,000 tonnes of wood pulp board a year. The company management is pursuing a rigorous policy of expansion of its product group (packaging, industry, POS, creative). 

2011
Beer coasters with QR codes, Fan Coasters with decorative colours or beer coasters with scratch-off panels and scented overlays, extend the range of the traditional beer coasters within the fields of online and direct marketing. 
February 2011: product launch KATZ DISPLAY Board at the fair Euroshop in Düsseldorf.
KATZ DISPLAY BOARDS offer the ideal medium for the POS. They are made from environmentally friendly KATZ wood pulp board that can optionally be laminated with glossy, satin or matt paper. 

2012
The application possibilities for our wood pulp board are many...
You may well be surprised about our ideas. 
Do you have an idea? Why not contact us!