Partner profile: Kale&Me – The hot-shots in Hamburg

Everyone is talking about detox, clean eating and matcha tea. Super foods like goji and acai berries, chia seeds and freshly pressed juices are all the rage among health-conscious people. “At Kale&Me, we have discovered a new generation of the juice market with cold-pressed fruit and vegetable juices,” explains Annemarie Heyl, the co-founder of the innovative start-up company from Hamburg.

The inspiration behind the business idea came from Cape Town, where the young entrepreneur and her partners Konstantin Timm and David Vinnitski found their passion for cold-pressed juices. “For us, it was clear that we didn’t just want to take part, we also wanted to get involved in pressing right from the beginning,” she adds with a grin. The trio do not think much of the hard-line, commercial approach: “We leave preservatives, added sugar and mass production for other juice companies.” The original idea of producing juices for friends and family soon became a profitable business with international appeal. They are currently entering the markets in Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands.

Pamela Pine, Catie Carrot, Al Avoca, Rosy Roots, Kalvin Kale, Amy Almond and Billy Basel – the juices they have created are made from pure fruit and vegetables, which are sourced from local suppliers depending on the season. They are pressed using traditional packing presses – without the heat that arises with centrifugal presses – thereby preserving nutrients and vitamins. In contrast to conventional products, the gently produced juices keep for up to eight weeks – without any additives, thanks to a special method of cold pasteurisation. “And they always taste like they’re fresh from the garden,” explains Annemarie Heyl with pride.

The three founders of Kale&Me also developed a fasting cure in collaboration with renowned nutritional advisors, which takes either three or five days and concentrates exclusively on a juice diet. The Kale&Me juices are specially tailored to this programme and contain an optimal combination of vitamins, trace elements, plant ingredients, proteins, fats and carbohydrates, adjusted to the right times of day when the juices are enjoyed.

The juices are primarily sold in the Kale&Me online shop. To ship their products, the creative Hamburg start-up only uses high-quality packaging material to ensure ideal cooling for the exquisite juices. Here, the young entrepreneurs count on the coolpacks and isohood inlays by ECOCOOL. Dr Florian Siedenburg holds Annemarie Heyl’s team in high regard and is delighted that his cooling elements can play their part in safely distributing these healthy lifestyle products from Hamburg across the globe. ECOCOOL itself delivers its goods to Kale&Me using recyclable folding crates. “This precisely accords with our company philosophy based on environmental awareness,” Heyl notes in reference to her reliable, flexible partner in ECOCOOL, which is just as innovative and resourceful in its creative workshop as the hot-shots in Hamburg.