Westfleisch achieves respectable result in 2013

Added value further extended

In the last business year Westfleisch produced approx. 10 % of the red meat manufactured in Germany in total. In spite of the record high Giesen classified the recent business year as a "year of consolidation" of the farmers’ cooperative. The depth added value was further extended in deboning, self-service packaging of fresh meat and sausage production sectors. According to Giesen this redounded in 2013 more than in the recent years to a "satisfying balance" that he rendered together with his fellow board member Carsten Schruck. Exports secured - despite bans from Russia and China – the group’s yield and hence the regional production.

Pioneer role for Westfleisch

Westfleisch, as a company owned by farmers, assumed already several times a pioneer role in the German meat industry. "With high quality and safety standards, the meat sector must regain trust that was lost in the past and must fight for it", can be read in the current Westfleisch annual report. For example by means of the "Brancheninitiative Tierwohl" (Animal Welfare Initiative), mutually agreed by the food retail sector and the German Farmers’ Association DBV. Thereby Westfleisch feels reassured in its "Aktion Tierwohl", which was initiated with the participation of more than 120 farmers three years ago. Much experience from this will be incorporated in the new sector initiative and its intention that more welfare shall become standard for animals for production.

What Westfleisch has practiced for seven years already, paying a voluntary minimum wage, will become statutory in the meat sector starting this summer. A code of ethics for the collaboration with service contractors will define the social requirements of employees of subcontractors. The annual sustainability report complying with the high GRI-standard is part of the neutrally checked "Westfleisch Partnership for Quality", in which economic, ecological and social aspects are independently checked on a regular basis.

Out-of-home consumption growing

Westfleisch has picked up a significant social trend:
the consumption of out-of-home meals and the snack in-between are increasing in Germany. Lunch specials, party service and catering account already for a quarter of the turnover of butcheries.

Works canteens, lunch offers in schools and kindergartens provide a growing turnover, although the per-capita consumption of pork and beef is slightly declining in Germany. 

Westfleisch has responded to this development with investments of approx. 35 m Euro and the further upgrade of the group-own refining centers WestfalenLand and Gustoland. This plus of added value is positively reflected in the 2013 profit and loss statement. Gustoland increased the sales of sausage by 11.1 % in 2013. The convenience specialist IceHouse, subsidiary of WestfalenLand – launched about four years ago is and located in Münster as well – enhanced the turnover even by 31 %. And in the current business year 2014 Westfleisch will probably invest further 33 m Euro in technology and sites.

Reapproved for export to China

Westfleisch increased exports to the European Union by 7.7 % to approx. 300,000 tons. Meat from Westfleisch is requested well in Scandinavia (+15.3 %) just as in the Czech Republic (+28 %) and Romania (+40.6 %). Giesen: "Anyone who wants to stay successful in the market is essentially dependent on exports." In the last business year Westfleisch exported 41.3 % (-0.1 %) of its meat production. Compared to the previous year the export percentage rose to 32.8 % (+0.1 %). Westfleisch was temporarily cut off from exports to the Russian (since February 2013) and the Chinese (since April 2013) markets. Only since spring of the current year, the direct access to the booming Chinese market is reopened again. The Russian ban on pork and certain pork products from Germany was imposed due to the outbreak of the highly infective African Swine Fever in Poland, so Westfleisch could supply 17.3 % less fresh meat. Fortunately interesting alternatives could be gained.

No. 1 piglet marketer

Last year the "livestock" sector (sales: +10.7 % / turnover: +10.3 %) distributed approx. 2.3 m piglets to Germany and abroad. Hence Westfleisch remains the largest piglet marketer in Germany. Approx. one-fifth of the piglets are mainly exported to Central and Eastern Europe.