Masters of pastry perfection Mette Munk

MASTERS OF PASTRY PERFECTION

Mette Munk is a leading European bakery based in Denmark that specialises in frozen Danish pastry products. Philip Yorke talked to Claus Olsen, the company’s sales and marketing director about its innovative ‘Bake-Off’ lines and the growth of its private label products, as well as its move into new global markets.

Mette Munk (Monk’s Mill) was founded in 1135 by 12 Benedictine monks who built a watermill by the river in Odense, Denmark to produce flour for its local inhabitants. Over hundreds of years the Mill produced flour and was eventually sold as an independent limited liability company. In 1962 the ‘Monk’s Mill’ opened the Mette Munk Bakery and made the strategic decision to specialise only in the production of high-quality, traditional Danish pastry products.

Today Mette Munk is owned by a management team that has worked closely together in the ‘bake-off’ industry for many years and who had the vision to relaunch the company as a premier European pastry brand. To achieve their objectives, significant investments were made in the latest stateof-the-art production facilities and frozen pastry technology.

With their considerable combined experience and technical expertise, the team has been able to reinvigorate the company and relaunch it with a range of high-quality pastry products. Their entrepreneurial vision has transformed Mette Munk into a highly efficient and modern company that constantly sets the standards for others.

Traditional Danish craftsmanship driving sales

Mette Munk’s success is based on a number of key criteria that includes an up-tothe-minute appreciation of what consumers and the retail bakery trade are seeking. This is in addition to offering them a high level of customer service. However, perhaps most important of all is the company’s commitment to producing a truly authentic Danish pastry that relies on traditional, natural ingredients and age-old craftsmanship.

Mette Munk has two key product categories: Danish pastry and dessert & savour tarts. Its tarts are made with perfect, shortcrust pastry cases and a tasteful sweet or savoury filling. Making light flaky pastry is an art that Mette Munk has developed to perfection. The company’s Danish pastries are of unsurpassed quality and made with a rare passion and respect for quality. All Mette Munk’s products are deep-frozen and ready to be baked to ensure optimal freshness and to maximise shelf-life, as well as to preserve their authentic Danish pastry taste.

Olsen said, “When we took over the company in 2006, we had to invest heavily in the latest technology and equipment in order to achieve the high standards that we had set ourselves. So when this was done, we had the most advanced pastry lines in Europe and our ongoing investment in new plant and technology means that we still believe that this is true today. In the first year alone we invested more than €6 million and cut out all non-profit items, which meant that over 50 per cent of the original lines had to be discarded. Exports soon saw growth, but for the domestic market, we soon found out that it was difficult to attract the big customers without having a full product assortment so we addressed this after researching the market needs. Hence we decided to establish a sister company as a joint venture in order to gain access to a large complementary frozen bread assortment at lower prices.

“For the Danish market we also set up a special sales and marketing company to handle the Danish catering and convenience sector, called ‘Nordic Bake Off’ which sells our foodservice-packed Danish pastries to hotels, service stations and cafes. Today Nordic Bake-Off represents revenues of around DKK 70 million in addition to the Mette Munk turnover, which is in the region of DKK140 million”.

Olsen added, “We export both our retail packed products and our flow-packed products as both branded and private label brands in the USA, Canada, the UK, Sweden, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as to China (soon) and Japan. In our domestic

Magdeburger Mühlenwerke

Magdeburger Mühlenwerke is one of the most modern mills in Europe, with state of the art milling equipment and situated in the middle of the absolute best wheat district in Europe. Magdeburger Mühlenwerke, part of the Gebr. Engelke Milling group and the largest privately owned milling group in Germany. The Gebr. Engelke Milling group has been owned by the Engelke family since 1714 and is now controlled by the 10th generation. Magdeburger Mühlenwerke is known for it´s outstanding quality wheat- and rye flour and enjoy the support of many loyal customers all over Europe, customers who appreciate only the best. As the export manager Thomas Brumme and sales agent Alistair F. Jensen state “ We are pleased to have customers like Mette Munk who demand only the best from us and we will continue to evolve and set even higher standards together”.

market we are the clear brand leaders in the convenience market sector and the retail sector. We are growing fast in North America and are leaders in Scandinavia where traditional Danish authenticity is very important. For this reason all our manufacturing processes are carried out in Denmark where we rigorously control standards and can guarantee the highest quality natural ingredients. In any event, our highly specialised process technology would be very difficult to achieve outside Denmark.

“We are currently focusing on our biggest growth markets which outside Scandinavia are the USA & Canada and Germany. However, we are also spreading our customer base to countries such as Russia and Japan and in 2013 we will be operating in China but there will be no joint venture involved as this will be a sales and distribution operation only.

“When it comes to maintaining our stateof-the-art facilities, we have just invested €2 million in new automated packaging lines and the latest palletising equipment to accelerate selection and delivery times for customers. We are continuing to develop innovative, new pastry products in association with our clients, in many cases to enhance their ownlabel pastry lines.”

Growth in ‘Private-label’ and ‘Bake-Off’ markets

Mette Munk provides the big retail food chains with the opportunity to launch their own successful Danish pastry lines with dedicated private-label products. In this way supermarkets can strengthen their own market position and meet the changing and often challenging needs of their customers.

This particular market is seeing continuous growth as retailers recognise the benefits of having own-label pastry products in-store. Furthermore, private-label products can be utilised in both the consumer retail market and in the convenience/catering (instore Bake-Off) sector. For this last sector, the company’s pillow-packed boxes can display the client’s own brand label and for the retail sector Mette Munk offers several packaging possibilities to suit a variety of individual requirements.

The description, ‘Bake-Off’ refers to Danish pastry that is supplied pre-proved, frozen and unbaked. This style of presentation is growing fast and when Mette Munk’s Danish pastry is baked at its client’s premises, the retailer’s customers benefit from the advantage of newly-baked Danish pastries. Retailers also find that its wonderful fresh-baked aroma is a major attraction for their customers.

Recently Mette Munk developed and perfected a natural fruit filling called ‘Real Fruit’, which involves a unique process created by mixing fresh berries and fruits together with sugar, into a clean, natural fruit filling with no added colour, aroma or modified starch. n

For more information about Mette Munk’s latest products and private label opportunities visit: www.mettemunk.dk