“Discovery fair prices for high-quality food”, is the motto of Supreme Food, a company based in Mannheim, Germany, which produces, among other things, fruit spreads. Managing Director Jan Vollweiler (right) spoke to us about what makes his fruit jams special and the challenges he sees in marketing his products.

Raw materials from Serbian production
“We have a long-standing partner in Serbia who grows fruit on 100 hectares of land. The raw materials arrive at our production site within a radius of 10 km, which minimizes our CO2 emissions. Another advantage of Serbia as a production site is the state legal requirement prohibiting the use of genetically modified seeds. This protects the soil and improves its ability to regenerate. Any fruit pits that remain after production are burned, for energy production. Thus, a large part of the energy consumed comes from apart from pectins, which we buy in Switzerland, chocolate in Belgium and jars in Austria, 94% of the raw materials we buy from said producer go directly to our production. , explains Vollweiler.

The young company was founded during the first lockdown in 2020. “We went to market with high-quality fruit spreads characterized by unusual flavors, for example a combination of strawberries combined with white chocolate. In doing so, we used quite sophisticated marketing with our design and invested heavily in product development,” says the CEO.

Expansion of the product portfolio in the B2B sector
In the future, the company also wants to integrate other products such as olive oil from Greece into its range. “We can rely on a vast network for this. Everything comes from one region – Kalamata in Greece – and we also work with a farming community. We look forward to bringing the products to market as soon as possible.

For now, spreads and other products are marketed mainly online and are mainly in the B2B sector. “The products are sold by means of affixed and personalized banners. For Christmas 2021, we presented these products in a large shopping center in Mannheim via a sales stand. In general, we travel to many regional events where people are looking for Specifically Currently we are also in talks with a chain of delicatessens But most of our business is still in the B2B sector, i.e. with banks and large corporations who buy the spreads fruits as corporate gifts.

Future projects with food retailers
Vollweiler has also had talks with food retailers, but he’s still somewhat cautious in this area. Vollweiler: “Our products are sold for €4.99, with a content of 230 grams. However, retailers don’t want to sell fruit spreads for more than $2.99 ​​a jar. We could possibly consider partnering with such a project in the future, but this would require purchasing significantly larger quantities. Our production site can produce up to 800,000 jars of 230 g per month. Again, it is important to me that our producer can also earn a lot of money from this.

After all, in the past he has already experienced that a large plum jam producer who cooperates with him had to lower the prices so much that he could barely live on it. “A large food retailer, however, is re-presenting it as the big consumer advocate and wants to think about this group in turn when it comes to pricing,” Vollweiler says. “But I see the willingness to pay more for high quality products, especially in our generation.”

Asia is increasingly becoming a buyer’s market, he said. China, in particular, is increasingly interested in European jams, he said, as evidenced by sales of the French brand St. Dalfour, for example, as well as those of Austrian manufacturer Julius Meinl. “People there spend a lot on good quality European products, which is also understandable. The middle class in China is about 500 million people who are quite spendthrift. In the past, people treated themselves to wine or champagne as a gift. Today, people tend to give each other high-quality processed products, such as fruit spreads,” says Vollweiler.

Images courtesy of Supreme Food

For more information:
John Vollweiler
Pure Supreme Food e.Kfm
Friedrich-Ebert-Str. 49
68167 Mannheim
Germany
Such. : +49 (0) 151 191 031 16
supremefood@outlook.de
www.supremefood.de