Stern-Wywiol Gruppe sales up 12%

2015 was a good year for Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, having achieved a record sales figure of €444 million (US$504mn), or a 12 percent growth. The family-owned company in Hamburg expects sales to increase even further in the global market for food and feed ingredients where the company is investing €25 million in research and production in the next two years. Meanwhile, Stern-Wywiol’s total number of employees in Germany and other parts of the world grew to about 1,000.

The Stern-Wywiol Gruppe comprises eleven independent specialist firms in Germany which develop, produce and market functional ingredients for the production of food and feed. They include Hydrosol, Mühlenchemie, SternMaid, SternVitamin, Sternchemie, SternEnzym, HERZA Schokolade and Berg+Schmidt. Each company has specific competence in a particular field, for instance bakery or dairy products, deli foods, meat, fish, chocolate, flavorings, lecithin, enzymes or vitamins.

“This special, customer-friendly structure is the basis of our innovative power and our success,” says Torsten Wywiol, CEO for the group of companies. “Our diversified and flexible production system and our intensive applications research enable us to develop and sell product solutions tailor-made to individual customers. That is how we were able to assert ourselves against the big corporations in the international ingredients market again last year and achieve above-average growth across all the units.” The culture of innovation has high priority throughout the group, in the sectors of dairy products, baked goods or vegan specialities alike: “Our barbecue sausages made of vegetable protein are a real hit in terms of flavour and crispness, and they are sold successfully by a number of meat producers,” he adds.

Torsten and Volkmar Wywiol Photo: Stern-Wywiol Gruppe

Above all, the ingredients group scores with a transparent management style and wide personal scope for the individual – and not only for employees: customers and suppliers are treated as equal partners, too. Short decision-making routes and a culture of cooperation between the divisions, from Research and Development through Production to Sales are further advantages of an owner-managed family business.

With an export share of over 80 percent, the independently operating companies supply customers in more than 100 countries in all of the continents. Fifteen foreign affiliates with a specific knowledge of their region, and in some cases research and production facilities of their own, ensure the group access to the most important markets.

The group will invest another €25 million in research and production capacities in Germany and abroad over the next two years. New food technologists and sales staff will also be taken on for these functions in Hamburg and abroad. Mr Wywiol says this will create a basis for continued growth of the group and a sales target of €470 million in 2016.