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Golden Ice Crystal Awards Go to Thomas Dafgard And Manfred Sassen for their Shining Marks of Distinction
Many are considered, but few are chosen as winners of Quick Frozen Foods International (QFFI) magazine’s Golden Ice Crystal Pioneering Achievement Award. Each recipient is a mover and shaker who has instrumentally shaped the international frozen food industry. Entering the ranks this year are Thomas Dafgard, chairman of the board of Kallby, Sweden-based Gunnar Dafgard AB; and Manfred Sassen, managing director of the Cologne, Germany-headquartered Deutsches Tiefkühlinstitut (dti). Both were saluted during the Anuga in Cologne, Germany, on Oct. 11. Awards were presented in the Offenbachsaal at the Koelnmesse Congress Center East during a special ceremony starting at 6:50 PM. Over the years, each award winner, in his own way, has made contributions that have greatly moved the frozen food business forward. We are pleased to honor them for unwavering leadership and the decisive roles they have played in advancing the industry at crucial times of its development in important markets. Thomas Dafgard has worked his entire professional life to build and expand the company founded in 1937 by his father, Gunnar Dafgard. Situated in a community that’s about a two-hour drive by car from Gothenburg, the firm has evolved over the decades to produce a wide variety of retail and foodservice frozen convenience items that are distributed throughout Europe. It currently rings up annual turnover of approximately 2 billion SEK and employs about 1,000 people. “One of our most successful products is Swedish meatballs, but our range runs the gamut from Billys and Gorbys branded pizza, cheeseburgers and cevapcici to private label lasagna and cabbage rolls with mashed potatoes and gravy,” said Mr. Dafgard. After working for many years as the company’s export manager, Thomas Dafgard succeeded his father as ceo in 1996. He went on to become a driving force in developing the frozen snack and ready meals market in Sweden and other Nordic countries by introducing a raft of tasty convenience products. Since its inception in 1997, this is the first time that one of the recipients of the prestigious prize has come from other than a leading frozen food production firm, marketing profession or equipment manufacturing company. Having said that, winner Manfred Sassen is closer to the heart of the German frozen food industry than perhaps anybody else active on the scene today. As an untiring advocate of frozen foods and leader of the Deutsches Tiefkühlinstitut since 1977, Mr. Sassen has successfully guided the German frozen food industry longer than any other frozen food trade association director in Europe. The dti leader began his long and productive career in 1971, upon signing on as director of the Association of German Retailers for a five-year period prior to joining the dti. That same year, and for more than three decades thereafter, he has served as a member of the Anuga Advisory Board, providing advice to organizers of the world’s largest food exhibition. There is more in Sassen’s impressive resume, including the fact that he was an initiator and founder of the InterCool trade fair for frozen food, ice cream and technology, which is held every two years in Düsseldorf. Additionally, he is the co-founder of a number of sector events held in Germany, including the Cold Chain Forum, the Frozen Food Forum, and the Frozen Food at Anuga event. Award winners Sassen and Dafgard are joining an elite corps of recipients of the Golden Ice Crystal Award for Lifetime Achievement, which reads like a “Who’s Who in the Frozen Food Industry.” Since 1997 prizes have been presented every two years. Among past winners are Harrison McCain, Karl Dusterberg, Ernst Wagner, Edward Haspeslagh, Dirk Ahlers, Andre Dejonghe, Guy and Luc Van den-Broeke, Achim Schön, Per-Oskar Persson, Bob Prakken, Gerrit de Bruijne, Volkmar Frenzel and Philip Dean Kruk-De la Cruz. |
