Today for tomorrow

We have been part of the food world for over 100 years and understand the many different effects on ecology, society and health. Today’s actions have a major influence on tomorrow’s world – positive and negative. Our goal? To set as many positive impulses as possible and thus enable a natural, sustainable and reliable food supply.

We want to balance our economic activities, environmental requirements and a good life for everyone – for us, that means sustainability. That is why we are taking responsibility for our supply chain and making it even more sustainable. As a family-owned company, acting responsibly has been very important to us for generations. The basis of our company is especially important to us: the protection of nature and high standards of human rights.

We build bridges between the growing region, industry and market and inspire our partners and customers to create sustainable value for all by raising awareness, empowering and enabling.

The global challenges of our time are not easy and can only be mastered together. We want to develop and implement innovative solutions for a sustainable future with transparency and respectful cooperation.

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As a family-owned company, we have been taking responsibility for the environment and people for more than 100 years

Miriam Gautier, Managing Director, Dirk Schmidt, CEO und Shareholder, Patrick Burmester, Managing Director & Peter Sielmann, CFO (f.l.t.r.)

Strategic importance of sustainability

“Today for Tomorrow” – we want to live up to this claim. Decisions that we make today, here and now, have a major impact on tomorrow and create the foundation for a sustainable future.

As a family business, we are aware of this and have ensured that we act in a responsible manner for generations. The basis of our company is particularly important to us: the protection of nature, high standards of human rights and, of course, our employees.
We have firmly anchored economic, ecological and social sustainability in our corporate strategy and have been certified according to the ZNU standard since 2021. We have defined clear goals and want to initiate real changes that ensure improvements in the value chains at all levels. ​

Our aim is to provide as much positive impetus as possible and thus enable a natural, sustainable and reliable food supply.

Taking our key groups – customers, suppliers, employees, authorities and non-governmental organizations – into account, we have defined the central areas of action for our commitment:

  • Economic: Quality, innovation, procurement, good service performance
  • Ecological: Packaging
  • Social: Employee satisfaction, human rights
  • Sustainability communications

They form the framework for our strategic goals and the resultant measures, which we are continuously developing. Specifically, we have set ourselves the following goals:

  • Economic: IFS Broker certification always at Higher Level higher 95%

→In 2023, we were pleased to complete the IFS Broker Audit at a higher level again.

  • Ecological: We have set ourselves the target of implementing at least 10 innovation projects that contribute to environmental sustainability (climate/energy, resources, biodiversity/animal wellbeing) by the end of 2024.

→ Our R&D team has already managed to implement 7 projects that achieve added value in one of the above categories.

  • Social: We want to be a good role model when it comes to equality and have therefore set ourselves the target that the female share in management positions should always be >30%.

→ We are proud that, at fall 2023, 38% of our managers are women and we want to maintain this high proportion in the coming years.

We take responsibility for sustainable development along our added value chain

We ensure more sustainable development here at our Hamburg location and with our partners at the origin. We build bridges between the growing region and the market in order to promote sustainable value creation at all levels. In our key role, we ensure a proactive exchange of knowledge. We want to sensitize, strengthen and empower our partners and customers with a view to sustainable added value for all (environment & people) AND we want a balance between our economic activities and environmental requirements.

For this reason, we are committed to contributing to the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGsof the United Nations. Specifically, these are the following goals:

Social

For us, social responsibility means actively promoting a society that is characterized by diversity, justice and respect for one another.

Sustainability goes beyond the borders of our company. We see ourselves as sharing social responsibility for the communities in which we operate.

We advocate human rights and fair working conditions for ourselves and our partners and promote the active participation of all actors along our added value chain.

Environment

We are aware of our responsibility to the environment and future generations. We act on the basis of this responsibility.

This means that we want to make our business activities and value chains increasingly sustainable, climate-friendly and resource-efficient.

Various areas such as climate, biodiversity, water and packaging are constantly being considered as part of our ZNU certification.

We want to be a role model and inspiration for others.

Economy

As a family business, we are very aware of the economic responsibility we carry for our employees, but also for our partners, suppliers and customers, and we strive for long-term success together with them.

We create the conditions for this with a corporate culture characterized by integrity and transparency, sustainable innovation and reliable quality.

We pursue the goal of continuous improvement in the area of sustainable procurement. We are committed to fair added value in our supply chains.