The car market is in a critical situation, with sales falling sharply and the German company Volkswagen closing 2024 with a 30% drop in net profit. However, the company has achieved extraordinary results with a typically German product that has little to do with cars: sausages, especially the “currywurst” type, which have become popular throughout Germany and also internationally, thanks to advertising by former Chancellor Schröder. The sausages are included in the Volkswagen company catalog and last year they sold almost as many units as the cars themselves, reaching 8.5 million sausages that were sold in restaurants and supermarkets in Lower Saxony.
In practice, it was possible to sell as many sausages as vehicles, but unlike vehicle sales, which fell by 2.3% in 2024, reaching 9.03 million models from all brands of the Volkswagen Group. The opportunity to buy sausages at Volkswagen has been present at its main building in Wolsburg, since 1973. According to some industry specialists, the success of these sales is linked to the great variety of sausages that they have included in their catalog, such as the hot dog format, reaching a total of 2.18 million pieces sold.
However, the traditional currywurst sausage has sold 6.317 million. This increase in the company's sales of sausages began a few years ago, reaching seven million in 2019, and during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 they reached 6.5 million. However, the trend suggests that these sales will continue to grow, reaching a greater number of sausages sold. Moreover, according to the Volkswagen Group's communications director.
In 2021, news broke that Volkswagen had decided to remove currywurst from the menu of one of the company's 30 restaurants, the one serving employees at its headquarters, and that it would operate without meat, becoming a predominantly vegetarian and vegan restaurant. In this regard, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder took advantage of this situation to draw attention, promoting the hashtag #RettetDieCurrywurst, “save currywurst,” on social media. Furthermore, the former leader wanted to express support for the company's employees, saying on Linkedin: “Currywurst with chips is one of the energy foods of qualified employees.” This caused numerous protests from employees and finally, in 2023, the German company decided to lift the ban and return meat to its restaurants. So, thanks to the return of these sausages to Volkswagen restaurants and their popularity among Germans, the company has managed to cover some aspects of the automotive crisis it is going through. (A2 Televizion)
A2 CNN Livestream
MUND TE LEXONI GJITHASHTU
