Dusseldorf The move to the top of the company really could have been easier for Stephanie Moßbacher. In January, the 32-year-old took over the sole management of Byodo Naturkost from Mühldorf am Inn in the second generation. While organic products were booming during the pandemic, inflation since the Ukraine war has scared off many new customers. They now prefer to buy organic products from cheap discounters instead of branded products from health food stores or organic retailers, which are suffering badly.
“We at Byodo are also noticing that consumers are paying more attention to their money,” says the entrepreneur. For their regular customers, however, the price only plays a secondary role, and no savings are made on sustainability. This has already been shown in previous crises.
Byodo’s brand business, which accounts for about half of the family company’s sales, is not growing as strongly as in previous years. On the other hand, the other business areas of the organic specialist, such as catering for gastronomy, canteens and clinics and the sale of organic raw materials, are growing strongly.
“In 2022 we will grow overall,” expects Moßbacher. Byodo can cope with the dry spell. “We have not rested on our laurels over the past two years, but have optimized core processes, opened up new sales channels and further developed our product range.”
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Natural food had increased significantly during the pandemic. “It was to be expected that after Corona, the purchasing power of healthy food would shift more to holidays and gastronomy. But nobody could have expected such a strong wave of inflation as a result of the Ukraine war,” says Kathrin Jäckel, Managing Director of the German Association of Natural Foods and Natural Products (BNN).
Organic food stores with sales slump
The Germans continue to buy organic, but less in natural food stores. It is currently suffering from a double-digit drop in sales. Jäckel regrets that organic shops are perceived by consumers as expensive. Organic companies, which are now in distress, are essential for the green transformation of the food industry, which the government is striving for. Most recently, organic food had a market share of 6.8 percent.
>> Read here: Germans buy cheaper organic food – first specialist markets go bankrupt
Byodo’s sales increased to around 32 million euros in 2021 – an increase of 17 percent compared to the pre-Corona year 2019. The company currently employs 110 people.
Moßbacher does not comment on the annual surplus, according to the Federal Gazette it was 1.7 million euros in 2020. Stephanie Moßbacher’s father, Michael, founded the company in 1985 with 7,000 euros in seed capital. Through an advertisement, the business graduate came across two chefs who wanted to make tofu in Munich. Moßbacher liked the idea. The soybean quark – something exotic at the time – was produced in a backyard and sold to the few organic shops and restaurants. When bankruptcy threatened in 1992, the co-founders left.
Moßbacher then positioned itself more broadly – with Ökoring, a wholesaler for organic products. With his new business partner Andrea Sonnberger, an ecotrophologist, he built up his own organic brand: Byodo – Japanese for “common path”.
Many organic pioneers are now retiring. The handover to the second generation took place at Byodo Feinkost in January.
(Photo: © MaxMeissner)
Byodo established cooperations with delicatessen specialists throughout Europe at an early stage. Before that, organic was more for idealists, for whom taste played a subordinate role. 160 organic products are now offered under the Byodo brand alone. Pasta comes from Tuscany, the balsamic vinegar from Modena. “We deliberately look for partners who understand their craft best and go into product development together,” says Moßbacher.
Byodo was a pioneer with many ecological products, such as organic frying oil. Ten years ago, the first vegan mayo made from sunflower protein instead of egg came onto the market. “Sometimes we were too early with innovations, for example with a sandwich cream,” says Moßbacher.
Many bio pioneers are retiring
There was also a recent problem in the supply chains for organic raw materials. But Byodo sees itself well positioned for times of crisis. We have usually been working with suppliers for years. “If a supplier ever has problems, we look for a solution together.”
The Bavarians are particularly feeling the shortage of sunflower oil, an important ingredient for Byodo products, as a result of the Ukraine war. “But the rapidly rising energy prices for production are causing us more problems,” says Moßbacher. Byodo has already had to raise prices. “We have distributed the increase across the entire range so that we don’t scare customers away.”
The manufacturer had to raise prices.
(Photo: byodo)
At the kitchen table, organic was a constant topic for Stephanie Moßbacher from a young age. The fact that she is the second generation to run the organic supplier was not a matter of course. Many bio pioneers are now retiring. “They are mostly strong personalities like my father. Visionaries with their own minds who persistently pursued the bio-idea when no one else believed in it,” explains the daughter. “I admire that and of course it’s in me, but it doesn’t make the succession any easier.”
Her father and business partner Andrea Sonnberger are still active partners, but stay out of the day-to-day business. Stephanie Moßbacher holds ten percent of the company shares, her father 25 percent, Sonnberger 35 percent. In 2018, GLS Beteiligungs-AG, which specializes in sustainable investments, took over almost 30 percent of Byodo. “That made us more powerful.”
Moßbacher prepared for her current role during her studies, specializing in sustainability and marketing. She gained professional experience in a PR agency and in brand management at Burda. She joined Byodo six years ago. “Here I can really shape something,” she explains the step. As a trainee, she got to know all areas and employees, then she headed marketing and product management and joined the management team in 2020.
Moßbacher now wants to further digitize the processes at Byodo. “We can become even more digital and faster in purchasing and logistics. At the same time, this lowers costs so that we can keep prices stable.” For Jäckel from the Naturkost-Verband, Byodo is an example of how an organic company can remain agile and keep up with the times.
Internally, Moßbacher is increasingly focusing on participatory leadership and interdisciplinary teams. “We have to bring the corporate culture into a new era in which a lot of personal responsibility is lived.” In any case, Byodo has no problems finding employees, she emphasizes. “More and more people are finding sustainability and meaning important when choosing their employer.”
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