L.W.C. Michelsen

L.W.C. Michelsen traces its history to 1 October 1814, when Christian Friedrich Michelsen established a flour-trading business in Hamburg. After the original premises were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1842, his grandson Ludwig Wilhelm Christian Michelsen rebuilt the business and developed it into a delicatessen house; his initials supplied the name L.W.C. Michelsen. Johannes Carl Peters, who had joined the firm as a partner, purchased the business from the Michelsen family in 1899.

Under Peters ownership the company expanded as a delicatessen and wholesale business. The detailed company history dates its appointment as a royal court supplier to 12 January 1912. Production, warehousing and offices were moved to Billbrook in 1988, and the later headquarters were established at Michelsenweg in Hamburg-Hammerbrook. Jan Erik Peters and Malte Peters joined the business in 2009; since Malte Peters left the management in 2025, Jan Erik Peters has headed the seventh-generation family company alone.

L.W.C. Michelsen is best described as a delicatessen manufacturer and wholesaler rather than a confirmed distillery. The company operates its own Hamburg manufacturing facility but also states that its assortment includes products from partner manufacturers. L.W.C. Michelsen should be treated as the brand/company responsible for the product rather than automatically as its distillery.