NNormally a milk processor handles prices for the white raw material from the cow. At the Heinrich Birkenstock cheese dairy, however, a good deal of attention is currently being paid to the cost of building materials. Which not only, but recently also has to do with the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. Klaus Birkenstock and his son Nils are planning a new building for their family business in Hüttenberg, whose products are known far beyond their central Hessian homeland and are popular as a spicy accompaniment to Ebbelwei in Frankfurt, for example. The Birkenstocks make hand cheese and need more space for it. A new production facility is therefore needed, with which the family business can venture into unfamiliar territory and take risks.
The excavators are already rolling on the new property, a stone’s throw away from the traditional company in the Hochelheim district. Other construction workers are already grabbing. However, they cannot work as planned. Russian construction steel was recently missing. The cost plan is even harder to stick to than the schedule. The cheese dairy estimated the construction project in autumn at 28 million euros. The sum exceeds the annual turnover – but it will not be enough. It should be at least two million euros more. Even the prices for roof battens have literally exploded. Because everywhere is being built in view of the still low interest rates, not only in this country. “The cost plan is constantly changing,” says Nils Birkenstock and sighs.
Handkäserei Birkenstock
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Hand cheese from Hüttenberg
But the new building is necessary, even if the current premises do not look outdated. Alone, there is a lack of space: “30 years ago we had enough space here. It was said that it would last for the next 100 years,” says the senior boss. But the imaginary century is already drawing to a close. There are several reasons for this. Unlike back then, the medium-sized company has to keep its own packaging films for almost every one of its customers. The boxes required for this take up a lot of space. The same applies to the boxes in which the products are shipped. The cooling surfaces on which the cheese matures before it goes on sale are also not sufficient. The traditional location cannot be expanded, so the Birkenstocks have no alternative to a new building. They can count on help from the state of Hesse and the European Union, both of which are supporting the new building with three million euros each.
Break new ground in quark
The country wants to strengthen domestic agriculture and regional processing structures, as Minister of Agriculture Priska Hinz (Die Grüne) says. The investment promotion goes well with this, especially since Birkenstock obtains some of its raw materials from Hesse. The Upländer farm dairy supplies organic quark. The people of Central Hesse get their traditional quark from northern Germany. Especially in Hesse, dairies have become rare as suppliers. Klaus Birkenstock knows that hand cheese manufacturers, who have their stronghold in Hüttenberg, used to buy from small dairies in Wetterau and Vogelsberg. Quark, which is used for hand cheese, was a kind of waste product for these companies. But they don’t exist anymore.