blue systems was founded by german businessman clemens tönnies jr. he is a son of the deceased bernd tönnies who founded meat production heavyweight tönnies lebensmittel in 1971. clemens tönnies jr. inherited 25% but left the company by transferring his shares to his brother robert, who now owns 50% of tönnies lebensmittel. the other 50% are owned by bernd’s brother clemens tönnies sr. who is also the chairman of fc schalke 04's board of directors. tönnies lebensmittel generated 4.3 billion euro revenue in 2011.