60 years of Kaufland meat products
This year there is an anniversary coming up at Kaufland Fleischwaren: Kaufland's own meat plants are celebrating their 60th anniversary. Since it was founded in 1964 as a craft business with five employees, four meat plants in Germany now supply the over 770 German Kaufland stores every day. The meat plant in Modletice (Czech Republic) also supplies the Kaufland branches in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
“We stand for the highest quality of meat and sausage products and, over the course of our existence, have developed from a craft business into a highly automated company with innovative production methods. It was always important to us to preserve the butcher tradition and thus to remain true to our principle of passion, tradition and our own production to this day. “Today we still produce many of our popular products according to traditional recipes and always create an exciting mix with new recipes that surprise our customers,” says Jürgen Absmeier, member of the Kaufland Fleischwaren International management team.
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| The company has remained true to the principle of 'passion, tradition, home-made' to this day. Photo: Kaufland |
History of Kaufland Fleischwaren at a glance
As early as 1964, the year it was founded, it became clear that the success of in-house production was resounding and so in 1968 the large butchery was expanded to 23 employees who processed over 600 tons of meat annually. In the years that followed, the demand for home-made meat products grew ever greater. In 1972, production started in the company's first meat factory in Neckarsulm with 55 employees, followed in 1980 by the expansion and expansion of the range of products with the purchase of another meat factory in Offenburg. The opening of the first Purland show butcher shop in the Kaufland branch in Neckarsulm in 1984 marked a new phase in the company's history. For the first time, the butchering of a pig down to the finished, packaged schnitzel was carried out directly in front of the customers. Ten years later, a third production facility was put into operation with the new meat plant and fresh produce warehouse in Osterfeld. At this point, Kaufland Fleischwaren already employed 500 people. The growth of Kaufland Fleischwaren and the change towards industrial production continued steadily at the beginning of the 2000s. The new meat plants in Möckmühl and Modletice were put into operation in 2001 and 2002. In 2005, the Neckarsulm and Offenburg meat plants were closed, but the workforce moved to the ultra-modern, specialized sausage plant in Heilbronn. The final step in 2013 was the commissioning of a fifth meat plant in Heilbad Heiligenstadt.
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| The opening of the first Purland show butcher shop in the Kaufland branch in Neckarsulm in 1984 marked a new phase in the company's history. Photo: Kaufland |
Today, around 3.000 employees process over 800 tons of quality meat every day from selected suppliers of controlled origin. Pork, beef and poultry are used to create over 350 meat and sausage specialties for the Kaufland own brands K-Purland, K-Classic, K-WertSchätze and Let's BBQ. In Möckmühl, products are also made from meat from the animal welfare program K-Respect for Animals. In production, the company relies on the most modern, partly highly automated technology, the highest hygiene standards, strict quality controls and, as before, traditional butchery craftsmanship. In addition to some basic products, each of the meat plants is responsible for the production of various regional specialties. Rostbratwurst or pork knuckle are produced in Heilbad Heiligenstadt and Hackepeter and onion meat in Osterfeld. With its production capacity and variety of product range, Kaufland is one of the leading meat production companies in Germany and the Czech Republic.
