Headquartered in Bonn, Germany, Kessko is a medium-sized company with 120 employees offering over 500 products in the B2B sector, including everything from baking ingredients to flavouring preparations and the current core business of brittle sprinkles, along with virtually any products that can be produced from cocoa beans with Klaus Nannt as Manager Director.
By Dr. Jörg Häseler
An IFS food-certified company today, Kessko was originally founded in 1905 by Gustav Kessler, Sr in the town of Hilden, Germany. Now in its fourth generation, Kessko is already a trusted, flexible partner to other companies that process high-quality products for the manufacture of individual sweet products. This tradition-rich brand deals with current market requirements and confidently takes on trends, even with organic products as well.
Kessko has made a name for itself around the world through constant innovations, continuous research-&-development and with its ever-growing range of high-quality convenience products. Today, the company offers practically every product required for the manufacture of a classic product range in the sweets industry. When Kessko was founded, its portfolio also included consumer products such as powders for vanilla pudding or jelly.
But the market, particularly in the baking sector, has undergone a great many notable changes and the number of bakeries has fallen significantly, necessitating the past and future establishment of new fields of business. “It was a conscious decision on our part to place the focus in the future on special products in the brittle and chocolate segment,” reports Mr Nannt. The smallest bar in the catalogue is the 2.5 kg bar. Kessko procures most of its cocoa beans from the Ivory Coast, while relying on the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Java, Indonesia as the countries of origin for its premium raw cocoa. The cocoa beans are roasted in-house and used to manufacture cocoa mass and cocoa nibs, with the cocoa mass serving as the basis for numerous chocolates and couvertures. Cocoa nibs are enjoying growing popularity as a “Super Food”. The company’s chocolates include true specialities such as the Rheingold variety, characterised by its smoothly melting chocolate with genuine caramel and a hint of salt, making it a persuasive variety in terms of taste and application. Kessko also makes its own caramel in a classic manufacturing process featuring butter, sugar and milk constituents for a product that is used in various applications and products.
“Our advantage over global players is our great flexibility, because as a smaller company we can switch our systems over more quickly and even make a smaller quantity,” explains the Managing Director. The company’s philosophy has now changed in line with its desire to increasingly expand its industrial business, given that there is scarcely development potential still left among bakers and confectioners. At present, the company offers chocolate and many other products in an immense number of varieties including vegan, lactose-free, soy lecithin-free, etc. In addition, Kessko markets a chocolate without a sugar substitute which is instead sweetened with the sugar alcohol maltitol.
He proudly reports that a new Chocotech GmbH system for the manufacture of brittle was recently purchased for a high six-figure sum. This investment, which was subsidised by the German federal government, will lead to numerous changes because it is with these types of special products that one reacts to the high demand in this segment. One benefit is the larger possible bandwidth of products. Another very important aspect is the manufacturer’s sustainability, since the current high level of energy consumption in the manufacturing method can be significantly optimised. Brittle and caramel sprinkles produced by this machine are then sent to very well-known chocolate manufacturers and other top buyers. “We are currently the only German manufacturer of individual brittle sprinkles,” adds Klaus Nannt.
As a B2B manufacturer, Kessko works very closely with its contracting companies. The customer specifies what should be produced and then intensive discussions are held at the developer level, a department in which Kessko has three employees. “Given our company’s size, no one can outperform us so easily at the developer level,” he explains further. The result is a global clientele with a primary focus, for instance in France, where there are numerous cooperations with industrial customers.
Meanwhile, chocolate chips are offered on a large scale in tubular bags, which Klaus Nannt describes as sustainable due to savings in packaging material. The new packaging stands for reliable product safety, optimum packaging resource use and the highest quality standards. The all-encompassing protection of flavour, colour and the product coupled with simultaneous packaging material savings are the focus in packaging development. But this new presentation is also making a positive impression in normal daily life. The block bottom bag ensures a stable standing position on the shelf and a free introductory clip makes it possible to optimally reclose the bag. And with a view to avoiding waste materials, the foil can also be disposed of in a space-saving manner.
The new tubular bags are available in 5 kg and 10 kg packages, with the result that the product stays fresh for longer, even inside larger packages (e.g., 15 or 20 kg). Despite the makeover, all of the products retain their accustomed quality and natural taste. In the usual tried-and-true fashion, Kessko chocolate continues to be made directly from the cocoa bean in Bonn, where it is roasted, ground and conched, and is now protectively packed in the new tubular bags in the final step.
As a successful tradition-rich company, Kessko is a reliable partner for professional operations. With its own in-house product development department and experienced application technicians, Kessko develops customised, flexible solutions.
