The FINANCIAL — Volkswagen AG has taken an important step towards fully integrating the Porsche sports-car brand with the rest of the German auto-making giant's portfolio to reap some more economies of scale – culinary and automotive.
According to Borsa Italiana – London Stock Exchange Group, the German auto maker has started to supply its famed "VW Currywurst" sausages to Porsche Automobil Holding SE's plant in Leipzig.
Volkswagen's established its own sausage-making facility in the early 1970s. Since then it has enjoyed steady growth over the years. Volkswagen's total annual sausage production today exceeds six million units. In 2011, production of the best-selling curry-flavored sausage rose by around 8% to 4.84 million sausages.
The business unit, led by VW's "sausage king" Francesco Lo Presti, employs about 10 staff and operates profitably, according to a VW spokeswoman. She declined to elaborate on financial details.
As drivers of Porsche and VW cars would expect, the auto maker uses top quality meat for the sausages and no glutamate or artificial flavors that might be associated with cheaper brands. The exact recipe is a secret, the spokeswoman said. The VW sausage is 25 centimeters long and weighs in at 170 grams. It has around 390 calories per unit.
Volkswagen mainly supplies the sausages to its own staff canteen, some supermarkets and for catering the company's guests during auto shows such as the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. Guests invited Monday evening to a Volkswagen event in the Swiss city where it plans to present the new-generation Audi A3, a four-door version of the upcoming VW Up mini car and the Skoda Citigo will be able to dine on the VW Currywurst.
Investors are eagerly awaiting news on how exactly Volkswagen plans to complete the full integration of Porsche, a deal which is worth around four billion euros, as original plans to merge the Porsche holding company with Volkswagen by the end of 2011 fell through after hitting legal and tax obstacles. Volkswagen may instead speed up plans to buy the 50.1% of Porsche's automotive operations it doesn't already own.
With Porsche staff now dining on Volkswagen sausages, there's clearly some extra meat on the auto makers' integration plans.
Discussion about this post