Over the past few months, the buying mood in the specialist health food trade and farm shops has stabilised again to some extent. This has also prompted Vakuum Food & Co, an innovative manufacturer of potato and vegetable crisps, to tackle new projects at both production and marketing level. Thanks to strategic partnerships and well thought-out product range expansions, the young company from the Oldenburger Münsterland region now wants to inspire new markets for its healthy snacks, explains co-managing director Andre Tombült .
The innovative company sees itself purely as a private label manufacturer. "This means that many of our customers bring their yields to us and we process these raw materials into healthy crisps as a contract processor, so to speak. The majority of our products can be found in local food markets, health food shops and farm shops." Vacuum Food uses state-of-the-art processing technology to process the products gently. Vacuum frying means that the water evaporates at low temperatures, and the chips can be fried at 110 degrees instead of the usual 160 degrees. As a result, the chips will ultimately suffer no discolouration, and they will contain low arcylamide levels and less fat. In addition, the PEF technology of regional partner Elea Ltd. is used, in which the surface of the raw material is treated using pulsed electric fields. A smooth surface, due to the even pore formation created by PEF, enables gentler and shorter frying.
The biggest challenges include the current logistics costs and the sometimes difficult procurement of raw materials. Tombült (here at Potato Europe 2022) confirms that there have been considerable yield losses this year due to the wet conditions, for red beetroot as well.
New approaches to marketing and production
Vakuum Food relies on strategic partnerships to expand its sales channels. For example, the company recently started cooperating with the Munich start-up Best Foodies. Tombült: "The TV appearance on the Austrian equivalent of 'Höhle der Löwe' has led to increased awareness in Austria and recently even to a listing at Billa. We have also been able to carry out initial, successful tests with the processing of local chickpeas, which are delivered to us already dried and fried and flavoured by us. We also see great potential for this new product in the future, for example in the catering and hotel industry as an alternative to salted nuts. We were already able to make contacts in this area at this year's Internorga."
Vakuum Food's basic range includes conventional potato crisps and organic vegetable crisps in sweet potato, beetroot, parsnip, carrot and vegetable mix varieties. "Our vegetable crisps are seeing nice growth rates. In some cases, we have to convince customers and create new incentives to buy, as they often have bad experiences with vegetable crisps. However, we are currently seeing positive reviews and repeat purchases in all sales channels, whether bricks-and-mortar or online. In this respect, we are on the right track."
For more information:
Andre Tombült
Vacuum Food GmbH & Co. KG
Göttinger Str. 8a
49434 Neuenkirchen-Vörden
Tel. 05493 - 999 97 77
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.vakuum-food.de