It all began with the production of bricks, which were delivered to the surrounding farms by horse-drawn cart. In 1920, Johannes Bitter acquired the brickworks for his youngest son, the father of the co-founder and owner of today’s company Argelith Bodenkeramik GmbH, Mr. Heinrich Bitter. Together with his partner Helmut Beste, Johannes Bitter made the bricks from Wehrendorf famous beyond the country’s borders thanks to their exceptional durability. Tragically, Johannes Bitter was drafted to the front shortly before the end of the war and did not return.

In the post-war years up to 1960, when the Beste family was mainly in charge of the brickworks, Heinrich Bitter completed his schooling in Germany and England and his commercial training in Bremen at the building materials dealer J.A.C. Stute.

In 1965, his wife Christel joined the company. She sold her own, self-built retail business and, together with Heinrich Bitter, put all her eggs in one basket: the switch from bricks to technically sophisticated, dry-pressed solid clinker tiles and thus the founding of today’s company Argelith Bodenkeramik H. Bitter GmbH. The two entrepreneurs faced many challenges, as the mineral-rich, red-firing clay from Wehrendorf was not easy to process. But in the 1980s, success became apparent. The industrial tiles from Wehrendorf were appreciated for their quality and also gained international recognition. A reference product from this period, which Heinrich Bitter still looks back on with great pride today, is the Hanseviertel in Hamburg.

With the early death of Christel Bitter in 1999, the company lost its co-founder, whose focus had mainly been on the commercial side of the business. Heinrich Bitter, who was focused on technical progress and growth, pushed ahead with the idea of the company’s own porcelain stoneware production against many doubters and laid the foundation for the company’s current existence in the year 2000 by investing in the construction of a porcelain stoneware production facility.

The company was managed by Heinrich Bitter, Markus Reineke and Désirée Leinker until 2022. Reineke led the company safely through challenging times, while Leinker increased the export share from 15% to 50%. In 2022, Heinrich Bitter handed over the management of the company to his daughter Eva Bitter. In the midst of the energy crisis, the team focused on stabilizing the company. Thanks to the widely recognized, outstanding quality of Argelith ceramics, demand remained stable even as costs rose, safeguarding jobs.

Today, our focus is on maintaining the delivery of Argelith’s long-standing reputation for product and service quality to our valued customers – the world’s installation contractors, vibration experts and contractors specialized in the installation of acid-resistant floors. And through innovation and continuous development, we want to ensure that we remain your best partner in the field of industrial porcelain stoneware tiles tomorrow.