Sales increase by more than 250 percent | New product range for meat substitutes | New “DeKoepers” brand

Tönnies continues to invest in expansion of activities in the veggie sector.

Rheda-Wiedenbrück, 06. August 2021 – About six months ago, the Tönnies Group bundled its activities in the vegetarian and vegan segment under its own business unit Vevia 4 You GmbH & Co. KG. Now the Rheda-Wiedenbrück-based food manufacturer is making an initial evaluation. And that turns out to be more than positive. For in addition to a broad listing of the products under the brands “Gutfried”, “Veviva” and “Es schmeckt” in the food retail trade, consumers also confirm the path taken in this area. For the group of companies, this area is an integral part of its sustainability agenda.

“It has paid off that we have focused on quality rather than speed in product development,” says Maximilian Tönnies. Accordingly, the company’s goal is to score points with products that are convincing in terms of taste. To achieve this, the decision-makers at Tönnies have conducted extensive taste tests together with the product developers. “In the area of product development, we have made a big leap in a short time. Consumer panels show the acceptance of the products by consumers. This is where we now want to establish ourselves.” But the group of companies is already seeing a sharp jump in sales: while revenue in 2019 was still at 8.3 million euros, Tönnies is planning for sales of 30 million euros by the end of this year – an increase of more than 250 percent.

The driver for this is expected to be the market for meat substitutes following the successful start in the sausage substitute segment. Tönnies’ range in this segment is aimed not only at vegetarians and vegans, but also at flexitarians, i.e. those who want to do without meat from time to time. “For this target group, taste and sensory perception are quite important. Our goal is for both to come very close to the meat product,” explains Maximilian Tönnies. And that’s exactly what they’ve achieved with the new products in the “Wie” series, he says. “The chicken nuggets, chicken schnitzel or fish sticks taste like the original. Our product developers have done a great job. Even my father tastes that now.” The company spent two years tinkering with these products before they were ready for the market.

The “Wie” series is nearing completion, with only the finishing touches missing. But there are already broad listing commitments for the products. “We were able to convince the food retail primarily with the taste,” says Maximilian Tönnies. With a multi-channel campaign (including TV commercials), the company is also launching a corresponding marketing offensive in September.

The vegetarian and vegan articles are produced in the company’s own plant in Böklund. Capacities there are to be further expanded and extended. Tönnies plans to invest a double-digit million sum here in the coming years. This will also involve expanding the product range and further optimizing the products. There is a clear business plan for this: For example, the company is planning sales of around 24 million euros in sausage substitutes by the end of this year, and around 6 million euros in meat substitutes. By 2025, total sales in both areas together are expected to rise to over 120 million euros.

Even though meat and sausage production will continue to make up the group’s main business, Maximilian Tönnies says, “We have long since ceased to be a pure slaughterhouse, but a food manufacturer.” Among other things, he points to activities in the convenience sector – for example, with cheese products under the new “DeKoepers” brand, which can be prepared in the microwave or on the grill in a short time. Likewise, the company has snacks, sauces or even grill items on its radar. “We still have some good ideas up our sleeve there that consumers can look forward to.” Incidentally, the company does not use rainforest soy in any of its meat substitute products, relying instead on European soy. “This is part of our t30 sustainability strategy, which we continue to drive forward unwaveringly. We want to produce enjoyable, healthy food that is as sustainable as possible.”

Ownership structure remains unchanged | Disruption proceedings ended | Expansion of organic production

Tönnies remains a family company

Rheda-Wiedenbrück, 04. August 2021 – The shareholders of the Tönnies Group – Robert, Clemens and Maximilian Tönnies – today announced that the previous ownership structure will remain unchanged. The shares in the company will thus remain in family hands. The shareholders emphasize that they will continue to lead the company into the future together as a family business. In addition, both shareholder trunks declare the dispute to be over.

In the first half of 2021, the two shareholder trusts Robert Tönnies (50%) and Clemens and Maximilian Tönnies (50%) jointly examined various options for the future design of the ownership structure. They came to the conclusion that the current structure is exactly the right one to continue decades of successful work. All shareholders have the goal of shaping the future of Tönnies together with the operational management. The company is well positioned and ready to tackle the socio-political challenges systematically.

The shareholders agree that Tönnies is unique worldwide in its orientation as an integrated food producer. This corporate value is to be continuously increased. In the course of their strategic deliberations, the shareholders have therefore unanimously determined further focal points for the company’s development in addition to the expansion of the core business in Germany.

In the coming years, the focus will be on sustainability, climate protection and animal welfare. The expansion of new business areas such as pet food or plant-based meat alternatives will play an increasingly important role. Tönnies is already the market leader in the organic sector. In the interests of sustainable corporate development, this segment is to be continuously expanded.

With the clear statement for the joint future as a family business, the shareholders are making their contribution to putting an end to the rumors and speculation about a sale or partial sale of the company.

Online

Digital plant tour provides insights into Tönnies production

Rheda-Wiedenbrück, 02 July 2021 – How is work done at Tönnies in Rheda-Wiedenbrück? And what do slaughtering and butchering actually look like? Questions like these were answered by the food company several times a week during an extensive guided tour for countless groups of visitors before the Corona period. In order to continue to show transparency, the family-owned company in Rheda-Wiedenbrück has taken a new approach: anyone interested can take a digital 360-degree tour of the plant online.

It is now more than a year since Tönnies took its last group of visitors, for the time being, on a tour of the plant on Gütersloher Straße. “During the year, we showed several thousand interested people our plant here,” says Tönnies Managing Director André Vielstädte. “However, due to Corona and the still increased prevention measures, the tours have been reduced to almost zero.” Nevertheless, in order to give as many interested parties as possible an insight into the production of the high-quality food, the company has developed a digital plant tour.

“We stand fully behind our production and our processes. We have nothing to hide there – on the contrary,” explains Andrè Vielstädte. “Many visitors have repeatedly described to us how impressive they found the tour and our plant.” That’s why the motto continues to be: full transparency. Thus, virtual visitors can click their way through the entire food production process: Tönnies shows the delivery of the animals at the holding pen, the feed for stunning, slaughtering and cutting, shipping and logistics. “In the digital tour, we show everything that we have always presented openly and transparently to visitors during a normal tour on site,” adds the managing director. “It’s important to us to show how we work.”

On several days, the various stations of the production have been recorded with a 360-degree camera. “This gives the digital visitor the opportunity to rotate completely in all directions. This gives a complete insight into the respective areas,” Vielstädte continues.

A Tönnies employee accompanies users on the tour. She explains interesting facts about the company and the production areas. With the digital plant tour, the family-owned company from Rheda-Wiedenbrück is taking a path that no competitor in the industry has yet taken. “If we talk about consumers knowing too little about agriculture, then that also applies to food production. We now want to remedy this with our digital tour,” emphasizes André Vielstädte.

The digital tour can be accessed at www.toennies.de/digitale-betriebsfuehrung/

Balance Sheet 2020: Tönnies is market leader for organic meat

+17% growth for international locations // successful growth in first half of 2020 // Corona closure impacts plant in Gütersloh District

Rheda-Wiedenbrück, 1. April 2021 – The Tönnies group of companies developed stably in 2020 despite the restrictions caused by the corona. After a strong first half, the balance sheet for the second half of the year was, as expected, weaker. The corona-related closure of the plant in Rheda had an impact. Nevertheless, the company can look back positively on the year as a whole.

Clemens Tönnies, Managing Partner of the international group of companies sums up the year as follows: “The corona year 2020 was the biggest challenge in the history of our company and its employees. Whereas at the onset of the Corona pandemic in the first half of the year we were asked by the politicians to produce more and fill the supermarket shelves for the lockdown, the four-week plant shutdown in Rheda and subsequent production cutbacks due to the outbreak, which the employers’ liability insurance association now classifies as an industrial accident, negatively affected the Rheda balance sheet.”

Despite this localised phenomenon, Tönnies is satisfied with the balance sheet of the entire Group. “Our company consists of 29 production sites worldwide, 28 of which had a decent year,” says Clemens Tönnies. With the Corona prevention measures it has introduced, Tönnies is regarded worldwide as a blueprint for prevention in the food industry.

In 2020 the company recorded, internationally, annual sales of around 7.05 billion euros (- 3% compared to 2019). The stagnation is mainly due to the significantly lower pig price (on average 9.3% lower than in 2019) and the four-week plant shutdown at the Rheda site.

Changes in the pig market

The pig market had a real shake up last year, especially as a result of the gastro-lockdown. The export ban on pork to third countries due to the African swine fever in Germany also severely restricted exports. The price per kilogram of carcass weight varied between 2.02 euros and 1.19 euros last year, which naturally had a significant impact on the company’s sales.

“We need stable and adequate prices for agricultural producers in the long term, higher than in the last quarter,” says Dr. Wilhelm Jaeger, head of the Agriculture Division. “If we want to maintain agricultural production in Germany in the future, we need the acceptance of society at large. That’s why we are committed to the goals of Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner’s Borchert Commission,” said Jaeger. “We have almost achieved our goal of establishing Husbandry System 2 as the standard in supermarkets. The starting date is June 2021.”

The organic market is growing

At the same time Tönnies is continuing to invest in open-front stables and the organic market. “We can see good growth potential in the organic segment, where we are already the market leader. If consumers demand more organic products as a result of a change in thinking, then we will deliver.”

In total, Tönnies processed 16.3 million pigs (-2%) at its German sites, with the decline related exclusively to the 4-week closure of the Rheda-Wiedenbrück site in Eastern Westphalia and the subsequent reduction in production. The company grew strongly at its other locations, particularly abroad. 4.5 million pigs were processed in Denmark, Spain, Great Britain and Poland (+17%).

Beef division: start-up of new Badbergen plant

The development in beef is particularly pleasing. The new Beef Competence Center in Badbergen has started production. Here, too, Tönnies is consistently implementing its concept of slaughtering and producing meat as a single biological unit. Demand for beef has grown steadily in recent years. “Our investments of around 85 million euros in the Badbergen Beef Competence Center are now paying off for the first time. The quality is top,” reports Ulrich Steinemann, managing director of the beef division. “We are bundling our volumes at a highly specialized, digitized plant which is setting standards worldwide. The automation rate is extremely high, so that fewer than 500 employees at the plant are able to carry the company.”

Even though the ongoing gastro-lockdown is impacting sales throughout Europe, burger patty production at the new Badbergen site is running successfully. As Tönnies supplies the cattle segment, especially in the foodservice sector, to European countries such as France and Great Britain, which are also affected by the lockdown, the division did not achieve any growth in 2020. At its German sites Tönnies processed a total of 420,000 cattle, including cutting. This is 4% less than in the previous year.

International growth at foreign locations

Internationally, Tönnies is pursuing its growth strategy in a very consistent manner. Investments in Great Britain, Denmark, France, Spain and Poland amounted to a three-digit million euros sum. In the UK alone, Tönnies is investing 25 million euros in its locations. With sales of over 500 million euros, Tönnies is the market leader there in numerous segments. “The British market is a growth market for us. We want to serve the growing consumer demand there with our quality meat,” says Frank Duffe, Tönnies international board member.

From an economic point of view, the production plants in Denmark, France and Poland are also developing very positively. In Spain, a letter of intent was signed for the construction of our own slaughterhouse in the Aragon region. In China, the foundation stone for the joint venture with the Chinese Dekon Group was laid a few weeks ago.

The veggie market is growing

Tönnies is also pressing forward with its growth course in the market for vegetarian and vegan meat substitute products. The company has bundled its activities in this segment with the consumer brands “es schmeckt,” “Vevia” and “Gutfried veggie” in an independent business unit of Vevia 4 You GmbH & Co. KG and an independent production plant in Böklund.

“Last year, we set up our own plant for vegetarian and vegan products at our headquarters in Böklund,” reports Maximilian Tönnies. “We are now expanding this capacity further and doubling the production area, since consumer demand and confidence in the products are growing sustainably.” Interest in vegetarian and vegan products has been growing for years. “We don’t see the production of vegetarian and vegan foods as competition for our meat products but as a market segment in its own right and as an excellent addition to our already very broad product portfolio,” emphasizes Maximilian Tönnies. “It was important to us to take the next step of an independent, separate production under the most stringent hygienic requirements. This is part of our sustainability agenda t30, with which we are sustainably developing the entire group of companies.”

Generation transition in full swing

With the t30 sustainability agenda adopted in 2019, the company is in the full process of developing into the most sustainable food company in the industry.
In addition to heading the zur Mühlen Group division, Maximilian Tönnies (30) is taking on more and more responsibility in the Group as a whole. “I am delighted that the transition to the next generation is in full swing,” says Clemens Tönnies (64). “Max is moving into the next generation along with our highly motivated management team.”