Your voice of the European Industry!

About us

Federation of the European Cookware,
Cutlery & Houseware Industries

Mission Statement

Represent. Support. Inform. Study.

FEC was created in 1952 to defend the interests of the European Cookware, Cutlery, Flatware and Hollowware manufacturers.

It promotes co-operation between members, gives help and supports on economic and technical improvements, works to the definition of technical standards and officially represents the common interests of its members before the international authorities and particularly to the European Commission in Brussels.

About us Statement
About us Mission

FEC’s major fields of work are

  • Tracking the international regulations relevant to the product groups of FEC.
  • Representing our industry in European committees, where legal aspects of the products and business processes are involved: food contact, chemical legislation, sustainability, reporting, due diligence, etc.
  • Servicing as a platform to join the industries interests in common projects: research, surveys, events, etc.

Directors‘ Committee

The Directors‘ Committee, including the President and the Vice-President, consists of representatives of our member companies and associations. The Directors‘ Committee is in charge of all activities of FEC.

Olivier Brault

Olivier Brault

President FEC I Directeur Gestion de Crise Groupe, Groupe SEB

Tobias Gerfin

Tobias Gerfin

Vice-President FEC | CEO, Kuhn Rikon, Switzerland

Tobias Gerfin has been CEO of Kuhn Rikon AG, a Swiss family-owned company in the field of cookware and cooking utensils since October 2013. The company’s products are marketed worldwide in 40 countries. Since 2019, he is President of the European Association for Cookware, Cutlery and Flatware (FEC).
After his studies and his doctorate at the ETH Zurich as a natural scientist, he worked at the EPF Lausanne on solar cells. His industrial career led him to Bruker in Fällanden in the field of NMR, Optrel, a leading company for welding helmets, in Toggenburg, and Glas Trösch in Bützberg, where he took over the management of the glass in interior work in 2007. In 2010 Tobias Gerfin was appointed CEO of Stoll Giroflex AG in Koblenz in the office furniture sector.
Gernot Strehl

Gernot Strehl

Head of Product Compliance, ZWILLING J.A. Henckels AG

Dr. Gernot Strehl joined Zwilling in November 2012. He graduated in physics at the Technical University of Berlin in 1996. In 2002 he obtained his doctoral degree from the Technical University Clausthal after working on two European projects. In 2003 he benefited from a postdoctoral scholarship at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France. In the following years he worked for Schmidt + Clemens with centrifugal cast high alloyed steels and forged tool steels.
At Zwilling he is responsible for product compliance on a global level with a special focus on food contact and chemical legislation. Within the Senior Expert team in FEC metals & alloys as well as ceramics and enamel are his key interests.
Ludovic Guitton

Ludovic Guitton

CSFO, De Buyer Group, France

Ludovic Guitton has joined La Brigade de Buyer in 2021, as Chief Strategy and Finance Officer. He is in charge of group finance, strategy, and transformation. He has entered the directors’ committe of FEC in 2022, and is coordinating its sustainable development experts team.
After completing his engineering studies at Ecole Polytechnique Paris (mechanics and economics) and Imperial College London (transport engineering), he got an MBA at College des Ingénieurs. He first worked for large companies as project manager, BU director and business control director. In 2015, he joined the investment team of Edify, a private equity holding, and was member of the board of directors of 3 companies (de Buyer, Sirem and Thermo Technologies).
Huguette Gérard

Huguette Gérard

Financial Administrator | Déléguée Générale, Unitam, France

Clemente Bugatti

Clemente Bugatti

Vice President, FIAC, Italy

Eike Sträter

Eike Sträter

CEO, Flügel CSS and PCM Proficut Messertechnik, Germany

Pierre-Armand Lemoine

Pierre-Armand Lemoine

Executive Vice-President Cookware, Groupe SEB, France

Groupe SEB announced the appointment of Pierre-Armand Lemoine as Executive Vice-President, Cookware, in July 2021. 
Pierre-Armand joined Groupe SEB already in 2007 as VP Strategic Development and worked in the Strategy Department for 4 years. He then occupied the position of VP Strategic Marketing, Cookware BU, for 4 years before becoming SVP Strategy, a position he has held for 5 years in which he has notably supervised the business plan.
Alessandra Coppo

Alessandra Coppo

Production Manager, Sambonet Paderno Industrie, Italy

Sandro Tarozzo

Sandro Tarozzo

Integrated System Manager Guardini Italy

Sandro Tarozzo has been a Senior Expert for FEC from 2020. He graduate from Professional Institute for Industry. He joined in Alcatel Cables as Production and Planner Manager from 1988 to 1997. From 1997 to 1998 as plant manager in Elettronica Conduttori.

Since 1998 he holds the position of Quality Manager, Integrated System Manager and Regulatory Compliance Manager for Chemicals and Food Contact for the Bakeware business of Guardini.

LEGAL AND FINANCES

Our legal and finance activities are handled at our headquarter in France in close cooperation with SYNETAM.

Huguette Gérard

Huguette Gérard

Financial Administrator | Déléguée Générale, Unitam, France

MARKETING AND MEMBERS

Our marketing and member activities are handled by our office in Solingen.

Stefanie Menning

Stefanie Menning

FEC Coordinator

REGULATIONS

FEC´s policy & Regulatory activities and the Sustainable-Development Working Group are supported by our office in Brussels.

Dario Dainelli

Dario Dainelli

M. Sc. Chemistry, FEC Consultant

Dario Dainelli graduated in Chemistry in the University of Pisa (Italy), discussing a thesis on thermotropic liquid crystals. After having spent few years in the academic research, he worked in the plastic converting enviroment for over 25 years, first as R&D laboratory manager, and then as regulatory leader. He covered several roles in regulatory affairs in the Europe-Middle East Region, in Asia-Pacific and finally as a global lead, managing large and diversified global teams. Following up in his regulatory career, in 2016 Dario earned a M.Sc grade in Food Legislation from the Michigan State University. In 2018 he established a consulting company in Brussels, referred as PolicyRegulatory, which provides services to companies, associations and non-govermental organizations (such as FAO, the World Bank etc.) in all fields related to legislation, policies, and technology relative to food contact materials, and chemical substances. Dario supports FEC as Regulatory Advisor since 2019.
Alessa Lübke

Alessa Lübke

Food Chemist and Regulatory Manager, FEC Consultant

Alessa Maria Lübke studied food chemistry at the university of Hamburg, Germany and and completed her first state examination in 2021. Her second examination as state-certified food chemist followed in 2022. Alessa is currently working as food chemist scientific regulatory officer at Polymer Comply Europe. Her professional field of activities includes among others several sustainability projects as well as regulatory consulting with focus on REACH and CLP. Since October 2023, she has been supporting the FEC office in Brussels as well as the Sustainability Development Team and the Food-Contact Expert team of FEC.

 

TESTIMONIALS

„I am proud that FEC reached over the last years high reputation and acceptance by the European Authorities and that the important international European Consumer Good Trade Shows welcome the Partnership of FEC as the representative of our industry.“

Dr. Wolfgang Auwärter

Former Chairman Kuhn Rikon – Former President FEC

Schließen