Fritz (beverage brand)

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fritz-kulturgüter GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 28 February 2003
Seat Hamburg , Germany
management Mirco Wolf Wiegert
Winfried Rübesam
Number of employees 214
sales € 44,551,659.33
Branch Food
Website fritz-kola.de
As of December 31, 2018

fritz is a registered beverage brand that was initially developed and sold by fritz-kola Hampl und Wiegert GbR since 2003 and later by fritz-kola GmbH . Since September 2014 the company has been called fritz-kulturgüter GmbH . The company headquarters are in Hamburg . The drinks are produced in contract breweries .

Company history

In spring 2002 the then students Lorenz Hampl and Mirco Wolf Wiegert created a new cola drink while looking for an idea for self- employment. The recipe for their cola "for adults, less sweet, but with a lot of caffeine" was developed by a food specialist. They christened the drink “fritz-kola” because they considered it a “fine North German name” and had the first batch produced and bottled by a brewery . Hampl and Wiegert designed the black and white company logo for the bottles themselves, using “just their two heads” as a signet to avoid any copyright problems . In November 2002 they registered the "fritz-kola" logo together with the two heads as a word and image mark .

In developing and implementing their business idea, the two founders were able to contribute their knowledge from studying foreign trade and international marketing (Wiegert) as well as media technology (Hampl). In February 2003 they founded the fritz-kola Hampl und Wiegert GbR and initially sold their cola drinks directly to the catering trade. In 2004 they added fruit lemonades to their range, and from 2005/2006 their range of beverages was included in beverage wholesalers. The fritz-kola GmbH , based in Hamburg was registered in February 2008 in the commercial register, managers are Hampl and Wiegert. The GmbH coordinates production, marketing and sales, whereby the drinks are produced and produced by five contract breweries in Wagenfeld (Lower Saxony), Güstrow (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Haigerloch (Baden-Württemberg), Siegsdorf (Bavaria) and Gänsefurth / Hecklingen (Saxony-Anhalt) are currently sold both via the beverage wholesalers and directly to the catering industry.

The drink was initially sold in and around Hamburg, and later in other German cities. It is now available in large parts of Germany, with gastronomy being the main sales channel before food retailing . Since 2006 fritz-kola has also been sold outside of Germany, the company website names clubs, bars and other sources of supply such as beverage dealers and distributors in the Netherlands , Austria , Switzerland and Spain (as of 2010).

Fritz-kola GmbH is represented at supraregional and international trade fairs for the catering and hotel industry etc., such as the Internorga 2008 in Hamburg or the Intergastra 2010 in Stuttgart.

According to a FAZ report from May 2009, Hampl and Wiegert did not give any exact figures on questions about the filling quantity and sales amount, but only stated that they had long since exceeded the million mark for the bottles filled annually and that sales and turnover have doubled every year. The company has an annual turnover of 44.5 million euros (as of the end of 2016). The net profit for the 2017 financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2017 was EUR 4,805,658.95. The company is located in the former Colgate factory in Hamburg- Billbrook . In 2016 Lorenz Hampl sold his shares in the company to co-founder Mirco Wolf Wiegert; The parties have agreed not to disclose the content of the contract. Dirk Lütvogt and Florian Rehm from Jägermeister were brought on board as investors by Mirco Wolf Wiegert. In August 2017, the company was also expanded to include Winfried Rübesam as an additional managing director.

marketing

fritz-kola advertising sign in Duisburg
fritz-kola trucks, beverage logistics in Berlin

With their fritz-kola, Hampl and Wiegert wanted to "counter the 'commonplace Cola' with a stronger cola and attack the cola monopolies as an independent company". As early as 2005 they declared: “We want to break the Cola monopoly.” However , they withdrew an advertising campaign with a poster on which Coca-Cola was dumped. The Coca-Cola Group threatened the lawyer, Hampl and Wiegert shied away from a legal dispute and let the posters hang up again.

After Hampl and Wiegert had copied the first bottle labels in the copy shop and affixed them to the bottles by hand with glue, they later commissioned the Hamburg agency Red Rabbit to further develop product and brand communication for fritz-kola. The agency developed a striking corporate design , relying on an independent look and recognition, and set up fritz-kola as a trendy brand. The low-budget campaigns with, for example, more than 250 print motifs as well as catering advertising material, cinema and radio commercials and with posters were successful with the scene audience and ensured considerable growth in sales from 2006 onwards.

Poster advertising with slogan (2009)

The motto "much, much caffeine", which is contained in the company logo and on company signs, etc., emphasizes the high caffeine content in contrast to the corporate colas. The provocative slogan “coke is eighties”, with which Hampl and Wiegert have been promoting their product for several years, is also intended to appeal to the target group of trendy catering customers. The slogan, which alludes to cocaine consumption (“coke”) in the big city scene, ironically propagates fritz-kola as an alternative for “the kick you need for big city life”. Recent advertising campaigns, for example with the slogan “fritz-kola - instead of snow in the nose”, refer directly to the comparison with cocaine consumption. In Hamburg's Schanzenviertel, the slogan "Only water cannons make you awake" was used to advertise.

Two fritz-kola poster motifs by the Red Rabbit agency were placed on the outdoor shortlist at the 2008 Cannes Festival . In 2006, an advertisement showing a man with a horse's head having sex with a woman was less well received by experts; Horizon magazine called it the “flop of the week”. The radio campaign “Three days awake” was in the final of the Amboss creative award in 2009 .

The market launch of fritz-kola took place in 2003 as part of a retro trend and the return to brands with a regional reference, which also helped Afri-Cola to a revival. Especially in markets that are almost completely dominated by large international corporations - such as the cola market in the hands of Coca-Cola and Pepsi - such a market gap strategy can work according to the " Asterix principle", explains the business and TV journalist Michael Opoczynski : “Fritz-kola is an example of this. The target group addressed are consumers who care about individuality. ”In April 2009, the Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung found in a review of the Internorga 2009 and an outlook on the season:“ Fritz-Kola is becoming more and more a cult brand . ”

The Pfand campaign sticker is next to it with fritz-kola lettering

The success of fritz-kola is part of a market development in the German soft drink sector in which large brands are stagnating and regional products are gaining market shares. In the case of cola beverages, in addition to fritz-kola, this also applies to Vita Cola , Premium-Cola and Schorschi Cola . In addition to customer interest, the situation in the retail sector is also responsible for this: market leaders such as Coca-Cola can, thanks to their bargaining power as providers of mandatory brands, achieve a high cost price . At the same time, the retailers are engaging in a tough price war with decoy offers for corner items such as milk, butter and Coca-Cola, which ultimately pushes the margin to zero. This situation is different for regional soft drinks: neither do the suppliers have a corresponding market power, nor are the products considered to be corner items, which means that the margin for retailers is significantly higher.

Sociopolitical positioning

Fritz-kola often uses her advertising campaigns for political statements. In June 2020, for example, the group published an advertising illustration on its Facebook page that shows US President Donald Trump being gagged and shot to the moon with a cannon-shaped Fritz Kola bottle. In other contributions, the company takes a clear stand against racism, right-wing extremism and populism and supports the federal initiative Exit Germany in this context .

The company's “Drink from Glass” campaign on Facebook

Since 2015, fritz-kulturgüter GmbH has continued the “Pfand Gehört Daneben” initiative, which its founder Matthias Gomille gave up due to lack of time. Furthermore, fritz-kola makes a name for itself as an advocate of glass bottles and regularly organizes campaigns against the increasing consumption of plastic. In this context, fritz-kola founded its own initiative with “Drink from Glass”.

In 2017, at the upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg, fritz-kola explicitly condemned the politicians Erdoğan, Trump and Putin on advertising posters with the slogan “man, wake up” because of their positions on freedom of expression, climate protection and social security systems.

Since 2018 fritz-kola has been a supporter of the donation stream Friendly Fire . In the rooms of the live stream, some Fritz Kola refrigerators were set up for the streamers. In addition, you can buy Fritz Kola bottles with a logo design adapted to the stream in the Friendly Fire shop every year. In 2019, a computer with the Fritz Kola logo was auctioned and the proceeds were included in the donation amount.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, fritz-kola sympathized with the cultural workers, musicians and organizers and supported the United We Stream concept, produced by Arte and Radio Eins , under which concerts were broadcast online during the exit restrictions. In addition, fritz-kola organized a fundraising campaign for selected music and cultural festivals.

ingredients

fritz-kola has a caffeine content of 25 mg caffeine per 100 ml. This is considerably higher than that of the market leaders in the Cola market segment, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola with 10 mg / 100 ml (ordinary filter coffee has a caffeine content of approx. 64 to 96 mg / 100 ml). In addition, fritz-kola has a distinct lemon taste . From a health perspective , the high caffeine content of the fritz-kola drink has met with some criticism. Regular or excessive use of caffeine can lead to what is known as caffeinism and cause symptoms such as nervousness, muscle twitching, insomnia or palpitations. fritz-kola contains only insignificantly fewer carbohydrates, ie sugar, than the market leader Coca-Cola in its cola drink.

  • Fritz-kola
  • Fritz-kola Bio
    • Nutritional information per 100 g fritz-kola: 163 kJ (= 40 kcal ) calorific value / 9.9 g carbohydrates / 25 mg caffeine
    • Ingredients: Natural mineral water, cane sugar, carbon dioxide, caramel sugar syrup, lemon juice concentrate, barley malt extract, caffeine-rich extract from green coffee

Products

fritz products are filled exclusively in glass bottles as returnable bottles. In addition to the classic fritz-kola, there are three other kola products: “kola-kaffee-lemonade” with coffee aroma , a sugar-free fritz-kola and, since 2011, a variant with sweetness made from stevia . In May 2018, the company expanded its fritz-kola range to include the “green & fair” variant, which was later renamed “Fritz-kola Bio”, in which all ingredients are certified organic and the sugar is traded according to Fairtrade standards.

In addition, several lemonades are sold under the name fritz-limo in the flavors honeydew melon, apple-cherry-elderberry, lemon and orange. Formerly, apple spritzers were also offered under the name fritz-limo, which you can buy since October 2014 with the new spritz spritz name. In addition, the two new spritzers, rhubarb juice spritzer and grape juice spritzer, were introduced. Since February 2012 there has also been a cola mix lemonade ( Spezi ) under the name Mischmasch . In June 2016, in addition to fritz-kola, fritz-limo, Mischmasch and fritz-spritz, fritz-mate was launched onto the market as a fifth product group. The only product in this group is the mate tea of the same name . All variants are sold in 0.33 liter bottles. It is also available (except for cola coffee and lemonade) in its own 0.2 liter catering bottle with an “unobtrusive and handy shape”, which was introduced in 2008 and has been available in a 0.5 liter bottle since 2014 Screw cap. While Mischmasch has its own design, the other labels differ mainly in color.

The Anjola lemonades have also been products of fritz Kulturgüter GmbH since 2013 and the market launch in 2015.

Web links

Commons : fritz-kola  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Gazette: fritz-kulturgüter GmbH: Annual financial statements for the business year from 01/01/2018 to 12/31/2018
  2. ↑ Federal Gazette: fritz-kulturgüter GmbH: Annual financial statements for the business year from 01/01/2018 to 12/31/2018
  3. ↑ a b c Henrike Roßbach: With caffeine, luck and patience . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of May 4, 2009. (Business section - portrait of the company founder)
  4. ↑ Register information : Register number RN 30255345 at the DPMA .
  5. ↑ fritz-kola GmbH (Hamburg District Court, HRB 104144): New entry on February 8, 2008, announced on February 11, 2008 in the Electronic Federal Gazette .
  6. ↑ fritz-kola with a new filling station in Saxony-Anhalt. Retrieved September 24, 2019 .
  7. ↑ a b Sources of supply ( memento of March 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on the company website of fritz-kola GmbH.
  8. ↑ a b history on the company website of fritz-kola GmbH. (Retrieved June 8, 2014.)
  9. ↑ 82. Internorga from March 7 to 12, 2008: fritz-kola GmbH (PDF; 924 kB). In: Beverage Wholesale , Issue 3/2008, ISSN  0724-6153 , p. 20.
  10. ↑ a b Gastronomy at the cutting edge . In: Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomiezeitung , issue 5/2010, January 30, 2010, ISSN  0002-5895 , p. 35.
  11. ^ Bürgel company profile , accessed via LexisNexis on August 30, 2010.
  12. ↑ Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2017 at www.unternehmensregister.de, AG Hamburg HRB 104144
  13. ↑ Christina Marx: scene gastronomy: trends in sight ( Memento from April 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) . In: About-drinks.com of January 8, 2010. (Accessed August 31, 2010.)
  14. ↑ Co-founder of Hamburger Alternative Brause leaves. In: LebensmittelZeitung online, December 23, 2016. - Available for subscribers.
  15. ↑ One of the two founders of Fritz-Kola listens to orf.at, December 23, 2016, called December 23, 2016.
  16. ↑ a b Inga Wermuth: Germany needs more caffeine: The trend colas are coming . In: Slogans.de of March 22, 2006. (Accessed August 30, 2010.)
  17. ↑ Tina Kaiser: Idealists against global corporations . In: Die Welt from January 23, 2005.
  18. ^ Heinrich Voß: In Hamburg connected as the gateway to the world: Fritz-Kola . In: Beverage Wholesale , No. 6/2007, ISSN  0724-6153 , p. 20.
  19. ^ Only in glass: Fritz-Kola . In: Beverage specialist wholesalers , No. 6/2008, ISSN  0724-6153 , p. 32.
  20. ↑ Fritz-Kola. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Heike Hucht: Große Freiheit Schanze . In: food service , No. 9/2008, ISSN  0936-1618 , p. 58.
  22. ^ Reference fritz-kola at Red Rabbit , Hamburg. (Retrieved August 30, 2010.)
  23. ↑ Jens Holst: Fritz-Kola: When the soft drink rises to your head . In: Horizont , No. 39/2006, September 28, 2006, ISSN  0175-7989 .
  24. ↑ Amboss 2009: One million euros media budget for Dmax . In: Advertise & Sell , November 20, 2009, ISSN  0042-9538 .
  25. ↑ Christian Teubler: Recipes, Retro and Revolte (PDF; 235 kB) . In: Beverage Wholesale , No. 8/2005, ISSN  0724-6153 , pp. 36-38.
  26. ^ Michael Opoczynski : Business start-up . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-593-37965-1 , pp. 103-104. (A publication in collaboration with ZDF WISO ; with the collaboration of: Ruth and Friedhelm Schwarz.)
  27. ↑ Ulrich Jungk: Thirst is and remains the best waiter . In: Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung , edition 16/2009, April 18, 2009, ISSN  0002-5895 , p. 11.
  28. ↑ Friederike Haupt: Zero Sugar, Double Caffeine In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , No. 29/2007 of July 22, 2007, p. 35.
  29. ↑ Fritz-Kola. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  30. ↑ limitless for each other. all over. September 27, 2019, accessed June 10, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Fritz-Kola. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  32. ↑ in a joint issue with "Gastronomy against Racism". September 25, 2019, accessed June 10, 2020 .
  33. ↑ About us - PFAND BELONGS TO IT. Retrieved September 26, 2017 .
  34. ↑ Fritz-Kola “Drink out of glass”: “We could earn more money if we switched to plastic”. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Anja Janotta: Fritz-Kola starts campaign against the G20 summit. In: Advertise & Sell . June 27, 2017, accessed July 19, 2020 .
  36. ↑ Katharina Brecht: Erdogan, Trump, Putin as snore noses: How Fritz-Kola takes a stand against the G20 summit. In: Horizont Magazin . June 27, 2017, accessed July 19, 2020 .
  37. ↑ fritz-kola supports the charity stream "Friendly Fire 5". In: about-drinks.com. December 6, 2019, accessed January 2, 2020 .
  38. ↑ festival savior package. Retrieved June 10, 2020 .
  39. ↑ Katrin Ried: Corona: Fritz-Kola becomes a festival savior. In: Advertise & Sell . June 3, 2020, accessed July 19, 2020 .
  40. ↑ If you hear voices - you may be drinking too much coffee . In: Mensvita.de from January 20, 2009. (Accessed August 31, 2010.)
  41. ^ Fritz-Kola: Gesundheit ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Cola.de . (Accessed August 31, 2010.)
  42. ↑ Fritz-Kola. fritz-kulturgüter GmbH, June 24, 2020, accessed on June 24, 2020 .
  43. ↑ fritz-kola organic / green & fair. fritz-kulturgüter GmbH, June 24, 2020, accessed on June 24, 2020 .
  44. ↑ Markus Weber: Fritz-Kola congratulates Coca-Cola on the copycat product . In: advertise and sell from August 15, 2013.
  45. ↑ aboutdrinks.com: fritz-kola launches organic kola with Fairtrade sugar (accessed October 12, 2018)
  46. ↑ Company history on fritz-kola.de. Retrieved August 30, 2016 .
  47. ↑ fritz-spritz, presentation of the three spritzers on fritz-kola.de under “Diversity”. Retrieved August 30, 2016 .
  48. ↑ Presentation of fritz-mate on fritz-kola.de under “Diversity”. Retrieved August 30, 2016 .
  49. ↑ Christian Teubler: Winner in the Schorlenmarkt (PDF; 274 kB) . In: Beverage Wholesale , No. 5/2009, ISSN  0724-6153 , pp. 23-24.
  50. ↑ new // fritz in 0.5l glass bottles. (No longer available online.) In: fritz-cola.de. May 20, 2014, archived from the original on June 6, 2014 ; Retrieved June 8, 2014 .
  51. ↑ Anjola. In: anjola.de. Retrieved September 15, 2016 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 ′ 8.4 "  N , 10 ° 4 ′ 33.9"  E