fkess

According to today's Wall Street Journal VW is in the sausage business and has been for years.
The plant is at Wolfsburg and they make bratwurst, currywurst and many more kinds. Started as a way to feed the workers (and slave labor?)durng the war and continued on. Not to be outdone the premium car division oF VAG-Audi makes their own sausage weisswurst (pork only).
The wurst market is booming and VW's business is booming. Maybe the dealers should serve lunch to all of us with cars still under warranty.
Thought you all should know the great news.
Floyd

Cleese

VW's Mixed Grill:
An Assembly Line Turns Out Sausages

Car Maker's Wurst Sideline Keeps Its Workers Well Fed
By NEAL E. BOUDETTE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


WOLFSBURG, Germany -- At its massive headquarters plant here, Volkswagen AG made 515,000 cars last year. But cars aren't the factory's highest-volume product. "We make 1.5 million currywursts a year," boasts Klaus Labersweiler, head of the car company's meat department, while giving a tour of his white-tiled facility. "That's more wursts than cars."

In fact, Europe's largest auto maker is expanding its sausage production and extending the line. Its butcher shop, located in a corner of its assembly plant here, supplies about two dozen company plants and offices in Germany and hopes to reach VW cafeterias across Europe.

In Wolfsburg, employee canteens have added soup made from the company's best wurst . Soon there will be VW currywurst spread, for smearing on bread at breakfast. Still in development: VW currywurst ragout and a microwavable two-wurst package suitable for vending machines.

How Volkswagen built one of the auto industry's strangest sidelines is an unusual tale of industrial history. It dates back to the Wolfsburg plant's origin as a **** government project before World War II.


When construction was started in 1938, Wolfsburg was little more than a castle and a few hundred people. For the thousands of workers who built the first "people's car," the plant had to provide housing and food. During the war, the plant employed slave laborers. Afterward, the British army restarted production, and again the plant had to provide many basics for its employees.

For a time, the plant kept its own cattle and vegetable gardens, but that ended long ago. Remaining from that era are the VW greenhouses that provide fresh flowers for executive suites and special events. The greenhouses turn out memorial wreaths whenever a current or former Wolfsburg plant employee dies.

The butcher shop might have passed away, too. In the 1950s, it produced meats that have been German staples for ages -- bockwurst, liverwurst, beef sausage and suelze, a meat-and-gelatin loaf that is sliced and served cold. Currywurst was concocted right after the war, and by the early 1960s it had become a favorite of the legions of laborers rebuilding Germany, especially in northern cities. The tangy new sausage also sparked a feud between Berlin and Hamburg, with each claiming to have invented the dish.

In 1962 or 1963, VW butchers, amused by the Berlin-Hamburg dispute, decided to try making this newfangled wurst . After about six weeks of experimenting with different combinations of curry, spices, pork and beef, they had a sausage that workers loved.

One of the men working in the VW butcher shop at the time was an uncle of Mr. Labersweiler's. The man encouraged his nephew to take up the meat trade, noting it would be a good way to get a job with the car maker. After an apprenticeship with a local butcher, Mr. Labersweiler joined Volkswagen in 1967, at the age of 17. In 1976, he became a master butcher. In 2000, amid the mad-cow disease scare, he helped reformulate the recipe to use only pork.

Today the public can enjoy a grilled VW currywurst for the equivalent of $2.88 at soccer games at Wolfsburg's VW Arena, or a plate of two wursts , smothered in spicy VW ketchup, at the restaurant at Autostadt, the plant's theme park for car enthusiasts and customers. Another option is Autostadt's Ritz-Carlton hotel, which features VW currywurst on its room-service menu.

Next year, the butcher shop will install additional equipment needed to obtain a European Union license to export currywurst to VW plants in Spain, Belgium, England and other countries.

VW regularly hears from stores and grocery chains interested in carrying its currywurst, but the company puts the brakes on those ideas. VW's corporate chef, Nils Potthast, says VW probably could do a good business selling its wurst in stores. But, he adds frankly, "From a corporate image standpoint, I'm not sure it makes sense to have the VW name on a meat product."

Mr. Potthast was hired two years ago to add tastier and healthier food to cafeteria menus. Currywurst is such a favorite among employees that he started to experiment with new variations, like the soup. He's nearly done with the currywurst spread but is still tinkering to get the color just right. "It's not red enough," he says.

Top management supports the effort and sees no reason to outsource sausage production. Indeed, VW currywurst is often served at board meetings. At one gathering last year, the brass sampled the new currywurst soup, which was served in espresso cups. Currywurst, says Chief Financial Officer Hans-Dieter Poetsch, "is part of VW culture."

The currywurst recipe is actually one of the company's most closely guarded trade secrets, known only to Mr. Labersweiler and three or four others. Even Mr. Potthast, the chef, is out of the loop, although a local company that provides VW's mix of spices is in on the secret. "They've signed a nondisclosure agreement," Mr. Labersweiler says. "The main ingredients are curry and pork. I can't say any more than that."

Mr. Labersweiler is willing to say one of the secrets is keeping the sausage relatively lean. "The fat content is only 25% to 30%," he says, shouting over the roar of a stainless-steel meat grinder. "Your average wurst is 50% fat or more." Another key is fresh ingredients. Four days a week, VW receives a shipment of two tons of pork, which is almost immediately fed into the grinders. "We use the just-in-time method," Mr. Labersweiler explains. "No preservatives or filler. Everything we get, we turn into wurst that day."

One part of VW isn't clamoring for more currywurst: Audi AG, the premium car division, in Bavaria. Audi has a butcher shop of its own that makes its weisswurst, a mild Bavarian specialty made of pork, veal and milk.

Asked which is better, Mr. Potthast says you can't compare them. He prefers weisswurst before noon with sweet mustard and a beer. Currywurst is good any time of the day, with lots of ketchup of course, he says.

"They're totally different products," Mr. Labersweiler adds. "It's not like comparing a McDonald's hamburger and a Burger King hamburger."