From the shopfloor: Volkswagen expands its grocery business

Products that have long been served internally to employees are now being listed by grocery retailers in the surrounding region, expanding Volkswagen’s presence in food retail.

This product line expansion builds on the long-standing meat plant operation at the Wolfsburg car plant. Since 1973, Volkswagen has produced its own currywurst for the more than 60,000 employees working at the site. Annual production volumes exceed eight million units, rivaling individual car sales of the whole group. The expanded grocery range includes currywurst, curry ketchup, and now convenience soups.

Both the sausage and the ketchup are officially branded with the Volkswagen logo and carry their own spare-part numbers, positioning them as part of the company’s extended product portfolio rather than licensed merchandise.

More than selling sausage

Sebastian Rennack
international retail analyst
Aletos Retail

Local anchoring in food retail is usually achieved through small regional suppliers. In this case, the local hero is Europe’s biggest car factory.

The iconic currywurst product line is sold only in grocery stores in the Wolfsburg region, where many current and former Volkswagen employees live. Volkswagen’s forages into the food business is a logical step and not only cosmetic marketing: The company undoubtedly is the largest employer in this part of Germany. Historically Volkswagen used to provide as much as 85% of employment in the geographic area within Volkswagen or its supplier ecosystem. The number of households directly or indirectly related to Volkswagen can conservatively be estimated at at least 120,000 in the Wolfsburg geographic cluster alone.

Volkswagen’s food offer creates emotional proximity, cultural relevance, and genuine cult status. For nearby retailers, the Volkswagen food line means not just selling a sausage, but selling shared industrial identity rooted in the region and translated into a grocery format. Effectively, it becomes a locally rooted traffic driver, combining industrial heritage, food credibility, and emotional brand equity.

Supermarkets in the Wolfsburg region actively promote the Volkswagen food assortment as a regional hero brand

Chilled Volkswagen Originalteil curry sausages are merchandised alongside newly launched ready-to-heat soups, products previously exclusive to the Wolfsburg factory canteen

The currywurst uses the official Volkswagen trademark and is listed with a genuine spare-part number (‘Volkswagen Originalteil’), reinforcing its status as an authentic brand extension

The packaging names the producer as Volkswagen Service Factory and references the Wolfsburg site, underlining its industrial origin rather than a typical food manufacturer

The original Volkswagen curry ketchup is also available in stores around Wolfsburg, extending the factory canteen experience into retail

Hypermarket operator Globus merchandises the range under ‘Gutes von hier’ (‘Good from here’), a regional private-label concept sourcing products within a 40-kilometre radius from the individual store. The signage design is inspired by a German town entrance sign, reinforcing local identity