Challenge

Our corporate culture is inextricably linked with our tremendous passion for quality. Excellence is one of our seven core values. Safety and transparency have the utmost importance in everything we do.

This also applies to our products. We are the quality leader in many of our markets and stand out from the competition with exceptional durability, great reliability, and consistent product properties. High levels of product safety and quality are therefore closely connected with our reputation and economic success in all business fields.

This is also true for transparency: we want our customers to be able to understand what commodities and materials the products they buy are made of, how they are procured and manufactured, and what impact the use and disposal of these products has on the environment and society. Moreover, we want to inform our customers about the correct usage of the product and offer a wide range of opportunities for dialogue.

Targets and KPIs

Our overriding objective is to deliver the quality and transparency our customers expect and to give them pleasure and security at all times when using our products. We want to expand our quality leadership in numerous markets.

We therefore consistently demand high quality standards during the development of our products and draw on impressive innovations, new methods, and scientific findings to assist us in this. We are in close contact with our customers and regularly conduct customer surveys and product testing. In addition, we run collaboration projects with our B2B customers to develop new products or enhance existing ones.

We also demand high standards of our suppliers, as the quality of our products is largely dependent on the ingredients and materials which we procure. Consequently, we have defined clear quality criteria for the goods they supply. Incoming merchandise and raw materials are systematically checked to ensure they comply with the agreed standards.

Moreover, we attach great importance to carefully monitoring the quality of our production processes. Effective control mechanisms and safeguards have been in use at all our operating divisions for many years to ensure end-to-end quality throughout the production chain. All products are tested throughout the manufacturing process to ensure they are safe, legally marketable, and meet the defined quality standards.

As the Melitta Group manufactures a wide range of differing products, responsibility for the quality management systems lies with the operating units. Quality management systems certified to ISO 9001 are in place at all operating divisions where this is expedient and appropriate. Furthermore, in addition to the legal requirements, our quality management system includes various voluntary commitments and involvement in national and international quality initiatives and certificates. These include, for example, IFS Food, IFS HPC, BRC Consumer Products, FSSC 22000, QAI Organic, and HACCP.

In recent years, we have significantly increased the amount of information provided about our products’ components and their manufacturing. As well as the details required by law, this includes additional voluntary disclosures, such as the MISSION eco & care label. This label offers consumers a quick insight into how sustainable our electrical appliances are.

We offer our customers a large number of communication options and channels. For instance, as well as customer service addresses, our website contains FAQs, videos, instructions for use, and information on recipes. Customers can submit suggestions and criticism to us via all the usual channels and these are logged and responded to by our customer service teams. We regularly measure customer satisfaction, primarily by using consumer surveys and the net promoter score method.

As part of the transformation process, additional requirements – such as reusability, repairability, environmentally friendly disposal, and recyclability – are becoming increasingly important. These demands are being made by government authorities, as well as by our corporate clients and end consumers. We are therefore systematically integrating environmental and other requirements into our product design processes.

We attach particular importance to the topic of “Product safety and transparency” in our value creation area of “Electrical appliances”. After all, these products potentially pose the greatest risks during use. We comply with standards and have our appliances tested by independent third parties. Our objective is to further develop our electrical appliances with regard to product safety and transparency in accordance with our “Electrical Appliance of the Future” concept. This sets the highest standards with regard to:

• Quality of use and useful life
• Availability of spare parts and repairs
• Ability to recycle and reuse the product and packaging
• Holistic approach to structuring supply chains responsibly
• Energy and resource consumption

What we achieved in 2022

• Implemented several new or amended laws and regulations throughout the Group regarding product safety and transparency
• Successfully (re-)certified our quality management systems
• Expanded our packaging instructions and information offerings
• Expanded the “Cukipedia” information platform, a knowledge database for consumers on the correct storage of food in the refrigerator
• Renewed our support of the “Don’t Throw Me Away!” educational initiative of the Hollen Environmental Center (since 2015)
• Expanded our consumer communication and sustainability information

What we are currently working on

• Preparatory measures for the implementation of future regulations (e.g. EU Packaging Regulation, Deforestation-free Supply Chains, EU Ecodesign, Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, EU Green Claims Regulation)
• (Re-)certification of several of our quality management systems