The industry
With sales totalling €168.6 bn (in 2015), the German food industry is one of the largest food industries in Europe. Nevertheless, the market power of the retailers, the changed behaviour of the consumers and, in recent years, the heavily fluctuating production costs caused growing pressure on the food industry. Once again, this has especially affected small and medium-sized businesses. For instance, the price pressure on branch bakeries and industrial producers of fresh bread, caused by the introduction of automatic baking machines in food discounters, put enormous pressure on these businesses. On the purchasing and selling side, the producers of meat products (slaughterhouses and food retailers) are confronted with two highly consolidated industries. The situation is aggravated by the decline in meat consumption in Germany. After decades of growing demand, the beverage industry had to register a drop in sales because the market is saturated. Only those that continuously adjust and improve their business models have a chance to survive on the very demanding food product market.
In recent years, hww has supported a large number of companies from the food industry. We present an overview of our know-how in our newsletter hww kompakt (only in German). Download the issue here.
