named HERMANN’S as a tribute to her great-grandfather. Although completely funded by Bahlsen Group, it was decided HERMANN’S would be built as a separate entity from the family’s business. “We started talking to mentors, we


found people in the consultant space who were working on brand strategies and innovation strategy, we went to strategy workshops, and we saw there was a very practical way to build a strategy as a 100% daughter company of Bahlsen,” she says. “Now we have a huge network of


entrepreneurs in the innovation space, which we call our ecosystem that we are constantly learning and picking new ideas from.” The result is a hip, dog-friendly, creative


when she met Laura Jaspers, former assistant of Werner- Michael, who was now working for Bahlsen’s UK marketing team. “One day we were talking about how the mass food


market was being called into question as a whole by a society that is more aware and critical than ever about things like sustainability, what ingredients are being used to make food, and what they are prepared to buy,” she says. “We realised there is so much innovation happening with


food, but it was not the established industry doing it or even talking about it—it was tech people, it was scientists, it was bloggers. “We thought, ‘Hang on, if established businesses, like


Bahlsen, cannot develop innovation themselves, maybe we can build a company that finds innovation that is happening in the market, import it, connect it with an established business, and help make it useable within their company’.” With an established food business behind her, and


resources at her fingertips, Bahlsen thought she was in the perfect position to marry the two concepts, and make money doing it. She summarily quit her degree at King’s College and together with Jaspers, got to work creating their business,


Hermann was brilliant at finding, and I thought if we do not assume we have a company for baking anymore, instead we


can have a company that is brilliant at finding opportunities and using those opportunities to grow as a business


ISSUE 75 | 2019


Top: Bahlsen named her new project after her great- grandfather and Bahlsen founder Hermann Bahlsen


space in Berlin—a consultancy, platform, and restaurant—all working in harmony to bridge the gap between start-ups and big business. The consultancy finds food innovations to import and works with established businesses to adapt it for production. The platform, Bahlsen says, is to get the industry to rethink nutrition, products and supply chains, as well as tackle big challenges facing the industry, such as sustainability and waste. But the star of the show is its restaurant,


which Bahlsen uses to reach out to the public and where HERMANN’S can test new innovations on consumers. It holds regular events, hosting guest chefs to exhibit their creative ideas on a willing audience, and runs workshops about alternative ingredients. Only earlier this year, guests were invited to HERMANN’S to experience a six course zero-waste dinner, created by the team at Restaurant Nolla in Helsinki. The concept has stirred enthusiasm


in Berlin. Daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung called it “revolutionary”, while food website Essen and Trinken opined that with food waste, sustainability, and plastic use now firmly in the public conscience, HERMANN’S is a necessity. Since then, food enthusiasts have come in droves, curious to learn more about the future of food. “That is the best bit—when people


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