Pasta Profits
Posted - November 1, 2008
Alb-Gold : Inspiring noodles
By John Coghlan – as printed in O.W.N. Fall 2008
How can you succeed with noodles? In 1977, each day, Alb-Gold produced about 110 pounds of Spatzle – traditional German noodles. Today the company produces, each day, a thousand times that much. A European leader in the tough high-quality noodle market, now it’s time for Alb-Gold to increase its market share also in the United States. In Amana, Iowa, where one hundred fifty years before inspired German-Protestant mystics built their communities, Alb-Gold is opening a plant in a joint venture with successful German beverage manufacturer Bionade. Alb-Gold will build the 50 million US dollar factory following the highest environmental standards. Connecting the Alb-Gold plant with the Bionade bottling plant, will be an information and nutrition center open to the public, a similar successful concept of Alb-Gold at its main plant in Germany.
Egg Crisis, Sunny-side Up
The story begins with Klaus Freidler’s father who had established a chicken farm in 1968. Freidler, Alb-Gold’s CEO, remembers the farm as it was forty years ago:“The egg market was in a big crisis. Prices went down and we had lots of problems selling our eggs for good money.” But one day when visiting a local fair, Freidler turned the egg crisis sunny-side up – into opportunity. An exhibitor was showing onlookers how to make good noodles with a noodle machine. What hit Freidler was how many eggs went into the dough. “That was the answer to our problems. We had tons of eggs, why not produce high quality egg-noodles? I bought the machine the same day.” Alb-Gold hatched.
Creativity and Ecology
Alb-Gold became “bio“. To be even more eco-friendly, Alb-Gold has also used advanced technology to decrease its environmental footprint and reduce the use of natural resources, including solar panels installed on the processing plant. Lost heat from pasta-dryers now heats administrative buildings. But Freidler was too creative to stick to traditional spinach and tomato Spatzle. Alb -Gold moved to making ginger, herbal and other exotic noodles The menu at Alb-Gold’s on-site restaurant “Sonne” (which means the sun, also the firm’s logo) and the cooking studio include lemon, chocolate and gingerbread Spatzle for desserts.
Freidler showed how Alb-Gold added eco-consciousness to the company’s ethos. Alb-Gold stipulates that its spelt farmers must put flower strips around their fields. “For most of our organic products, we use cardboard boxes. There is no extra plastic bag for the noodles,” says Friedler. “We think this is one of the best ways to pack the noodles and to avoid plastic in the landfills.” Then Alb-Gold further committed itself to quality and went organic. It started offering organic pasta in the early 1990s. Today 25% of the firm’s noodles are certified organic. The premium specialties, the ecological and organic and last but not lesast exotic tastes and forms have lead Alb-Gold to success.
Noodle-Beverage Fusion
Then, in 2004, at a mountainbike-event sponsored by Alb-Gold, Freidler showed his creativity yet again: he met Peter Kowalsky, managing director of the German well-known organic beverage company, Bionade. Both were committed to regional values, high food quality and sustainable development. From this and further opportunities to share values and visions came the idea of opening joint plants in Iowa.
Alb-Gold’s success also comes from connecting direct consumers with the roots of the food they taste.Each year, the plant hosts over 350,000 visitors. They see how the noodles are produced; try them at the restaurant; learn some recipes at the cooking studio; walk through the herb garden to learn about the local herbs used in Alb-Gold noodles; shop at the store that features many regional foods and hand-made products from local artesans; visit the stalls where companies offer food samples; and attend the many cultural and sports events the company supports each year – a host of activities to inspire.
Alb-Gold produces 15% of its noodles for export, most going to the United States and Canada. In 2010, when the new plant in Iowa opens, US sales will doubtlessly go up.
But success aside, Freidler wants Alb-Gold to avoid the big mass supermarkets, where price, not quality or health, comes first. The company will continue to sell through the gourmet channels, to natural health stores, specialty food shops and will also provide its line to the food service segment. To meet distributors who share their views Alb-Gold will exhibit along with Bionade at fairs like Expo West, All Things Organic and the Fancy Food Expo in NY. This fall they will also be present at Biofach America, parallel event to Expo East in Boston. A good showing for a remarkable year and company: Alb-Gold is celebrating its fortieth year – contact them and earn a 40th anniversary-discount.
