Serving Up Coffee

Shown here is a photo depicting the method in which the soluble coffee is filled into modern sales enhancing jars, sealed airtight and closed at a rate of up to 380 per minute per packing line.

At Private Label Manufacturers Association’s PLMA Amsterdam 2007 show, PLI had the opportunity to sit down with Arnulf Meuser, DEK’s (Deutsche Extrakt Kaffee) marketing and sales director of Western Europe, about their company.

DEK is best known for their high-quality soluble coffee and soluble coffee drinks. Founded in 1955 in Hamburg, Germany, the company operates eight factories and is present in 60 countries, mainly in Germany, France, England and Russia.

To DEK, quality assurance is extremely important and a main focal point in providing customer satisfaction.

Quality assurance consists of choosing only the highest quality green coffee beans and inspecting the beans before and after the beans are shipped to Europe. Close relationships have been formed with the countries that supply the beans, ensuring that only the finest mild arabicas and full-bodied robustas are purchased. The company complies with ISSO, BRC and IFS standards.

Product Trends

DEK keeps abreast of current trends and technology. Private labels are growing and it is imperative to upgrade products and techniques such as aroma optimizing. At the moment cappuccino is very active in the market. Therefore, DEK has employed new technology to produce a new aroma, and better foam. According to Arnulf Meuser, the most popular customer selection is classic cappuccino, and chocolate cappuccino comes in at a close second. However, Meuser stresses that DEK builds each coffee option to adhere to the customers’ demands.

Varieties

DEK freshly roasts its beans daily. The coffee is first cleaned, and then roasted to create the desired flavor (from mild to espresso); the coffee is then ground and brewed. There are different procedures for drying the freshly filtered, liquid coffee concentrate–spray drying, producing a fine coffee powder by spraying it in a warm jet of air; agglomeration, combining the coffee powder to form granules and freeze drying, by shock freezing, crushed into small chips and gently dried in a vacuum camber. Incidentally DEK was the first in Europe to freeze dry premium quality coffees, the first to use plastic lids and were the first to establish high frequency sealing of the jars to avoid contaminating the coffee through glue. Seventeen years ago DEK produced it’s coffee in sachets, but switched to tins in order to offer customers “more bang for a buck.” The company also sells the coffee in jars and boxes, the former boasts new jar shapes.

KORD Group

DEK is a part of the KORD Group, which is the European Coffee Group. KORD is based in Hamburg and according to Meuser, claims that DEK is the #1 green coffee maker in Germany. The KORD Group coordinates the green coffee purchases for the production companies of the group, in terms of administration, packing, sales and production.

For more information visit www.dek.de.