Tasty startups
When appetite meets economy
The pandemic was particularly hard on the food service industry. However, manufacturers of food intended for consumption at home or on the road could not complain at first. But then inflation, supply shortages and customers' frugal budgeting followed. Shrinkflation and other terms are going around in society. How is the industry reacting to these years of crisis? And are the events dampening the mood of those willing to start up a business? Business information provider databyte gets to the bottom of these questions with information from the commercial register.
From food and beverages
In the area of food and feed production, the commercial register currently records 18,219 active companies. 18% of them are under female management. 4,260 beverage manufacturers are listed in the commercial register in October 2023, of which only 13% have at least one woman in management. Both industries make customers' and female customers' mouths water, but in economic terms, a few points separate the delicious producers:
Before and during the pandemic, both categories saw strong growth in fresh startups. In 2021, they culminated in 1,290 new food and feed fabricators and 301 additional beverage manufacturing companies. Bankruptcies, on the other hand, remained at the usual level. In 2022, too, new filings and bankruptcies were in thoroughly positive territory. Nor do the figures for this year so far show any major changes.
Many German states are benefiting from their food and feed producers, especially Saarland, closely followed by Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia. Beverage producers seem to favor Rhineland-Palatinate, at least it is the only state to achieve a share of more than 0.5% of the total number of companies creating there.
En détail
Since not every category of the industry appears equally strongly, it is worth taking a closer look at the subcategories: By far the most start-ups in the food and feed sector fall under manufacture of other food products. In this category, the Classification of Economic Activities groups together all those companies that manufacture or process products such as sugar, confectionery, coffee, tea, seasonings and sauces, ready meals or homogenized and dietetic foods. Last year, the Commercial Register recorded 599 companies of this variety, 2023 is currently at 389. In second place comes the manufacture of bakery and pasta products, 2022 with 206 and by October 2023 with 160 new businesses. Bronze is secured by the slaughtering and meat processing sector, with 127 and 72 fresh companies respectively, despite lower meat consumption in society.
In contrast to the beverage producers, the bankruptcies of the previously mentioned food manufacturers show a slight increase. For example, bankruptcies of other food producers increased from 48 to 61.
Sip by sip
Most of the liquid food newcomers belong to spirits. With 67 start-ups in 2022 and currently 37 in 2023, manufacturers of high-proof drops defend the pole position. Also alcoholic, but mostly not quite as strong, are the products of the companies in second place: beer manufacturers. The commercial register recorded 56 and 25 new companies in this field in 2022 and up to October 2023, respectively. Manufacturers of soft drinks and the production of natural mineral waters are in a distant third place, with 31 companies founded in 2022 and 29 so far in 2023.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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