Nuremberg Bratwurst: Industry giants are investing in the region – including Hoeneß

Created: 05/19/2022, 07:12

By: Nikolas Pelke

Summer time is Bratwurst time: senior boss Reinhard Wolf treats himself to a real Wolf sausage at the topping-out ceremony.

© Nikolas Pelke

In Nuremberg, the big bratwurst manufacturers like “Wolf” are currently investing millions in modern factories.

A protective seal made the bratwurst boom possible.

Nuremberg – summer time is barbecue time.

With the start of the culinary open-air season, the large sausage manufacturers in Nuremberg now have even more to do.

At the well-known sausage manufacturer “Wolf” in the north of the Franconian metropolis alone, around 200 million sausages roll off the production line every year.

In total, more than a billion of the small "Nurembergers" are manufactured in the city each year.

Bratwurst empire in Nuremberg is growing: 18 million euros investment in the region

The family-run "Wurst-Imperium" from Schwandorf in the Upper Palatinate alone is currently spending an impressive 18 million euros to update the existing production facilities for the production of the famous and probably lucrative specialty from Nuremberg.

Sausage for the party and not just as a pose for the photographers: company boss Christian Wolf and mayor Christian Vogel (from left).

© Nikolas Pelke

"It will be a milestone.

We hope that everything will be ready by the end of the year,” said company boss Christian Wolf happily at the topping-out ceremony in the north of Nuremberg recently.

After the costly expansion of a whopping 3,600 square meters, even more sausages will soon be rolling off the production line in Nuremberg.

Bratwurst industry is good for Nuremberg's image

The city of Nuremberg is also happy about the success of the small sausages.

"The bratwurst is an economic factor, an export product and also - as one of the most important culinary products in our city - an image factor," emphasizes Nuremberg's economics officer Michael Fraas (CSU).

A look at the four industry giants shows that big money can obviously be made with the small bratwurst.

Reinhard and Christian Wolf invest around 18 million euros in the Nuremberg production site.

© Nikolas Pelke

In addition to Wolf, the other sausage top dogs have already invested heavily, confirms Rainer Heimler, Chairman of the Association for the Protection of Nuremberg Sausages.

"I don't have the feeling that the manufacturers of Nuremberg bratwurst are doing badly." The Franconian mini sausage owes its economic success particularly to its protected monopoly position.

"If retailers want our bratwurst, the supermarkets can only shop in Nuremberg," Heimler says happily about the European seal of protection that bratwurst fans in Franconia enforced almost exactly 20 years ago.

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Nuremberg bratwurst has been protected since 2003

Without the help of the European Union (EU), the economic triumph of the Nuremberg sausage factories would have been unthinkable.

In the summer of 2003, the famous nine-centimetre bratwurst was the first bratwurst in the world to receive the coveted seal of protection.

Since then, “original” grilled sausages from Nuremberg can only be made from pork, pepper, salt and above all marjoram within the city limits of the Franconian metropolis.

(By the way: Our Nuremberg newsletter regularly informs you about all the important stories from Middle Franconia and the Franconian metropolis. Register here.)

Professional soccer players like Uli Hoeneß recognized sausage potential early on

In addition to Wolf, manufacturing companies such as Kupfer and Schlütters are among the top dogs.

Also well known is the company "HoWe", which is run by Florian Hoeneß, the son of the former soccer player, manager and president of FC Bayern Munich.

With an impressive production output of up to four million Nuremberg sausages per day, according to the Nuremberg Bratwurst Protection Association, "HoWe" is one of the "leading manufacturers" of the geographically protected Nuremberg Bratwurst.

With around 300 employees, the "HoWe" sausage factory leads the quartet of industrial sausage manufacturers in Nuremberg.

In addition to the large sausage factories, there are several medium-sized companies in Nuremberg, according to the economics department, and around 30 Nuremberg butchers who produce the small but fine sausage specialty under the protected designation of origin.

Under the Wurst-Fabrik company logo, the luxury cars are lined up for the topping-out ceremony.

© Nikolas Pelke

Bratwurst expansion in Nuremberg: Wolf senior boss with a "good nose"

The commitment to the Nuremberg sausage has obviously also paid off economically.

On the Wolf factory site alone, the luxury cars are lined up in the shadow of the company logo for the topping-out ceremony.

Of course, success does not come by chance.

A few years before the official award of the seal of protection, Reinhard Wolf, the senior boss, had obviously shown “a good nose” and took over the existing sausage factory at the airport in the north of Nuremberg.

Incidentally, in the new building, which is almost 20 meters high, Wolf also wants to produce vegan and vegetarian sausages in addition to the Nuremberg classics after completion.

Senior boss Reinhard Wolf, who developed the family business from a small workshop into an important manufacturer of meat and sausage specialties from 1977 onwards, bears the current trends in sausage taste with composure.

"I'm a conservative butcher and prefer to eat the original," senior boss Reinhard Wolf recently revealed at the topping-out ceremony.

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