Rooted: Herrmann Kräuter supplies METRO with fresh herbs

Close exchange …

Senior partner Willi Herrmann puts in a nutshell what’s essential to him and his family: ‘freshness, quality and innovation.’ Herrmann Kräuter is an owner-operated family business in its fourth generation. Founded in 1946, it is now specialised in herbs and various kinds of lettuce, cress and edible seedlings (‘microgreens’). The fragrant Rhineland fields of dill and parsley, two of the top sellers among the company’s 28 herb varieties, comprise but a fraction of its cultivated land. Herrmann farms a total of 1,300 hectares of open land in Germany. Many of its crops can stand up to the German winter – for example thyme, which Herrmann grows domestically year-round. To ensure a constant supply to its customers, the company complements its domestic production with acreage in other countries, such as Spain.

Is that sustainable? Yes, because – unlike the 2,400-square-metre photovoltaic system on the roofs of Herrmann’s buildings or the company’s own biogas combined heat and power unit – sustainability isn’t always immediately recognisable. The weeding robot in the parsley field, for example, is an alternative to chemical herbicides. It’s just one of five autonomously driving devices, which are equipped in part with advanced laser technology.

🎬 From herb fields to METRO shelves - to the exclusive video report that takes you behind the scenes:

‘Sustainability doesn’t always simply mean “less plastic”, but also throwing away less,’ Willi Herrmann explains. ‘For a while, at our customers’ request, we packaged chives completely in paper. But the paper only kept the product fresh for a short time.’ This is another instance of the close communication between the supplier and the wholesaler. ‘From METRO, we got the response: too many spoiled goods,’ says Willi. ‘So we went back to putting the chives in plastic foil, sealed in front. It’s certainly just an intermediate step,’ he emphasises. But one with advantages for professional customers: in the sealed package, the chives can be used up to four days longer – a real plus for chefs, who then don’t have to throw away as much of the product.

Another example of a jointly developed innovation: the recloseable ‘top seal’ herb packaging from METRO Chef that uses separable materials. The container can be put in the recycling bin for paper and the ultrathin polyethylene foil that encloses it can go in the recycling bin for plastic waste. It’s practical in the kitchen for removing the product in portions, but uses only 5 grams of plastic, compared to 50 grams for conventional resealable plastic herb packaging. That’s persuasive: Herrmann supplies METRO’s entire assortment of cut herbs throughout Germany, from 40-gram packages to one-kilo units. METRO Austria additionally sources so-called microgreens from Herrmann – edible seedlings of vegetable plants like peas or maize. This is yet another field of innovation Herrmann is active in.

… with partners and employees

There’s one constant amid all this innovative energy: the family atmosphere – despite a workforce now numbering around 800, including seasonal field labourers. Father Willi, 64, mother Marion, 63, and Guido and Thomas, 41 and 36, discuss the business situation every morning over breakfast. The Herrmann sons literally grew up in their parents’ enterprise. ‘They didn’t have a say in the matter,’ senior partner Marion jokes. Today, the four family members divide the work between them: Guido is responsible for organizing the harvest and deploying personnel to the fields. Thomas is in charge of sales and commercial activities. Willi oversees the company’s technological development and Marion is responsible for its finances and personnel.

‘What’s important to us, above all, is our responsibility for our employees and understanding their concerns,’ says Marion. The seasonal workers are lodged in three company-built hotels. A number of love stories have begun there. ‘When couples have formed, we’ve sometimes accompanied them right up to the birth of their children,’ Marion chuckles.

When operations get especially busy, the family join the employees at the conveyor belt and work side by side with them. ‘That’s when you realise how strenuous it is,’ she says. This is surely one reason for the palpably casual, collegial sense of cooperation among the employees and management. Whether it be on the state-of-the-art packaging lines (where almost no one needs a scale to bundle 100 grams: ‘after two days, you’ve got the feel for it’) – or in the field, where women work row by row in small groups, carefully cutting herbs with knives and pre-sorting them. As in the dill field, for example, since the plants here are especially sensitive. No matter the level of mechanisation, sometimes the human factor is indispensable.