The history of COUNTRY GRILL starts with a visionary and courageous young farmer in a small village called Martinlamitz in northern Bavaria.

In the year 1964 Max Hertel, 25 years old, took over his parent’s agriculture business including a small village pub. The small farm with 17 hectares of farmland was not very profitable. Max Hertel was looking for alternatives and finally found a profitable niche in raising poultry. He built a new chicken farm and from then on sold his fresh chicken on farmers markets and at butcher's shops. 

The new chicken farm had just opened when he had to deal with a new problem: Dutch poultry producers were overstocking the German market with deep frozen and low-priced chicken. Max Hertel, with his strict philosophy of 'quality', suddenly had sales difficulties. 

New paths

He was forced to cut his own path. Coincidentally Max Hertel found a used grill unit. He decided to offer take-out rotisserie chicken on farmers markets instead of fresh poultry. „I just tried it. It was an attempt thus it could have also failed.” says the successful businessman today. It did not fail at all: „On the first day we sold approximately 20 rotisserie chicken. At the end of the day we were sold out. It was both a big surprise and a relieve, since we invested all the money in the new chicken farm “ says Max Hertel today. 

Unconsciously, the young entrepreneur developed a new business idea. He founded Hertel´s Brathähnchen GmbH and created the first mobile rotisserie chicken company in Germany. The proverb ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ became true in Max Hertels case and his persistent success is the proof. The faith in quality has always been the basis.

In-house grill technology

High quality standards also show in the grill technology from our own workshop. Since the performance and the handling of the grill devices available on the market was not good enough for Max Hertels requirements he decided to build his own grill unit. In 1969 he had already built his first rotisserie grill unit and just one year later his first sales vehicle was completed, manufactured in his own workshop. Today more than 50 HERTEL' S rotisserie sales trucks are in business all over Germany. The sales vehicles that were originally manufactured for internal use are sold all over the world since 1987.

The pioneer of rotisserie chicken Max Hertel and his wife Lilly are proud of their lifework and their three children that are now running the business. Both their sons and their daughter are working with their spouses for the family owned company. Of course Max Hertel and his wife are still working as well. 

The highest quality standards

The principle of the Hertel family, selling only high quality rotisserie chicken, is still up to date. Only fresh species-appropriate grown chickens are bought from reliable local suppliers. The fresh poultry is seasoned with a special mixture of spices using the secret recipe of Lilly Hertel. The perfection takes place at the grill. Specially trained grilling professionals are masters of their trade thus every single chicken is a culinary delight. 

The success story of rotisserie chicken is still ongoing. Both the offspring of the founder and the dedicated system-partners of COUNTRY GRILL and HERTEL'S continue the philosophy of Max Hertel and take care of delicious rotisserie chicken in their area.