One of Germany’s leading butter manufacturers, the Bavarian-based Meggle Group, is to become a limited joint stock business.
The company is seeking a more dynamic marketing structure in an effort to accelerate growth, particularly in the fast expanding Eastern European markets, according to administrative board chairman Toni Meggle. Meggle will remain the parent company while new subsidiaries will include Meggle International and Meggle Eastern Europe.
Ownership of the r500 million turnover company, which has been in the family for almost 120 years, remains unchanged.
The Meggle workforce has now topped 1,500 with around 300,000 tonnes of milk processed at the company’s Wasserburg plant every year, along with over a million tonnes of whey.
The company has repeatedly established itself as a pioneer in dairy marketing. For instance, it has introduced herb butter blends onto the European market, as well as a range of associated innovations such as garlic and lemon-parsley flavours. In addition, buttered baguettes and croissants ready to heat and eat are now market leaders throughout German-speaking and Central and Eastern European countries. The family concern has also established a name worldwide for functional dairy products with the biggest seller being pharmaceutical lactose.
“The new structure gives us more flexibility and dynamism in exploiting the markets now opening up, but also allows us to retain the tradition and independence of the family enterprise,” explained Toni Meggle.
Toni Meggle became a household name across much of northern Europe in the late 1990s when he appeared in TV adverts discussing Meggle products with a superimposed image of Marilyn Monroe.