Based | 1883
Headquarters | Wuppertal, Germany
High Govt | Fredrik Lundqvist, CEO Thermomix USA and Canada
Product Class | Cooking equipment
Vorwerk, a German direct gross sales firm based in 1883, is rising its operations in the US, introducing a revolutionary technique to deliver folks again to the desk. The Thermomix, Vorwerk’s multi-use kitchen equipment, has been inspiring residence cooks around the globe for over 50 years and is now making a splash in American kitchens. Good timing, as all of us are greater than able to get pleasure from an awesome meal with those we love.
The straightforward act of sharing a meal with family and friends has turn out to be extra valuable than ever earlier than, after far too lengthy spent aside.
A Legacy of Household and Innovation
Whereas maybe an unfamiliar identify on this aspect of the pond, Vorwerk has an almost 140-year historical past in Europe, primarily as a supplier of small residence home equipment. You may say it’s the $3.4 billion firm most American ears have by no means heard of. The corporate is household owned and operated to today, serving 60 markets around the globe with two core companies—Thermomix and Kobold vacuum cleaners.
Fredrik Lundqvist, CEO of Thermomix USA and Canada, has been with the corporate for many of his profession, most not too long ago spending 10 years in Asia efficiently launching Thermomix China. He now operates the American and Canadian enterprise from Thermomix’s North American headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California.
“I’ve been with the corporate for 18 years and recognize how the founding household continues to make an affect on the day by day exercise and way forward for Vorwerk even immediately. Their imaginative and prescient and dedication as a household enterprise has guided the corporate for the reason that starting and is likely one of the key components to its success.”
An organization which now faucets into fashionable expertise to satisfy shoppers’ evolving sensible kitchen wants, Thermomix’s early beginnings had been impressed by a want to make cooking less complicated. Within the Nineteen Sixties, one of many merchandise within the Vorwerk line was a blender. One of many Vorwerk gross sales managers, Hansjorg Gerber, was watching a gross sales demonstration that concerned utilizing the blender to make soup—including substances, lighting the range to warmth the water, transferring the blended recipe to the stovetop, and he puzzled if one equipment may substitute all these particular person steps.
“I like this story as a result of it actually exhibits that the Thermomix was born, not someplace in an innovation lab, however with our clients in an actual state of affairs,” Fredrik defined. “Thermomix was born over 50 years in the past out of a quite simple thought, combining a mixer with a heating ingredient. That one nice thought spurned the success of what’s now a worldwide enterprise.”
That first Thermomix, the VM2000, was the primary Vorwerk product to mix meals processing and heating. Over the following 5 many years, the Thermomix would evolve to take action far more. As we speak, the most recent Thermomix, the TM6, is a Wi-Fi-enabled “kitchen assistant” with 24 cooking features—from easy mixing to stylish temperature management cooking—able to delivering constant, restaurant-quality outcomes at residence.
The all-in-one countertop kitchen equipment—featured in Oprah, Good Housekeeping, New York Instances, Goop and extra—can execute over 80,000 recipes from begin to end with the power to weigh, prep and put together meals in a wide range of cooking modes—from a easy sauté to a excessive forehead sous vide. Cookidoo®, the corporate’s digital cooking platform, is the hub for an ever-growing library of Thermomix recipes, all accessible on the equipment’s 6.8-inch full-color touchscreen show display. House cooks merely select their recipe and comply with the step-by-step instructions because the Thermomix mechanically adjusts the prepare dinner time, temperature and velocity for every step. However Fredrik is fast to level out, that even with all its expertise and capabilities, Thermomix continues to be a easy piece of German engineering supposed to make meal preparation straightforward and pleasant.
“Over the previous 50 years, Thermomix has spearheaded innovation in easy, wholesome and scrumptious meal preparation and opened the door to the sensible cooking class with our two most up-to-date fashions,” Fredrik mentioned. “Regardless of the excessive expertise, it’s nonetheless a easy device anybody can use, and which adapts to you and your loved ones. You possibly can comply with recipes step-by-step from the display or prepare dinner creations by yourself along with your private type.”
One Product, One Kitchen, One Buyer at a Time
Only a few firms within the direct gross sales trade supply a single product, however Thermomix believes their one-product strategy permits them to prioritize their clients and ship distinctive service.
“Thermomix’s one product strategy is exclusive: As an alternative of making extra objects to litter a kitchen, we are able to concentrate on our dedication to shoppers and guarantee they discover day by day worth of their lives with easy-to-make and scrumptious wholesome meals. Ideally, we hope you’re so excited it would be best to be part of us or suggest to your pals,” he mentioned. “We’re dedicated to providing very sturdy merchandise which can be additionally future centered.”
The rising group of U.S. Thermomix Impartial Consultants joins the broader area of 100,000 consultants worldwide. Slightly than a conventional starter or enterprise equipment, potential consultants merely be part of the corporate after they’re able to share Thermomix with family and friends. Some consultants personal a Thermomix already; others take part within the firm’s TM4U Program and earn the equipment via 4 private gross sales inside the 90-day Good Begin Interval. As soon as a marketing consultant joins, they’re supplied with mentorship, training and instruments to start out sharing.
“The one factor that basically defines our tradition is our openness; anybody with a deep appreciation for meals will be profitable right here,” Fredrik shared. “Our consultants come from very completely different backgrounds. Some are excited with the prospects of earnings {and professional} progress, whereas others are right here simply because they love cooking, they usually need to be taught extra. Whichever the case, all get pleasure from and recognize the sense of neighborhood. We’re all very captivated with meals and that makes for a wonderful tradition.”
Thermomix is primarily bought via consultants. All different gross sales are straight via the corporate web site, however even these gross sales embrace pop-up options to decide on a marketing consultant to work with as a result of that’s the place the true magic occurs. As consultants share Thermomix in cooking demonstrations crammed with all of the sounds, smells and flavors of that have, clients can absolutely perceive the product and all that it might obtain. “Thermomix isn’t simply bringing household and mates again to the desk, these reside, in-person cooking demonstrations are bringing consultants and clients again to the private interactions which can be the hallmark of direct promoting,” mentioned Fredrik.
“After so many Zoom conferences and phone conferences, we’re thrilled to return again collectively as soon as once more,” he mentioned. “We consider it’s necessary to see, really feel, and odor Thermomix in motion and are engaged on new ideas—comparable to expertise facilities—the place our consultants can meet amongst themselves and with potential clients. A ardour for meals and human connection are the important thing substances for Thermomix success around the globe. I do know it’s the fitting recipe for us right here as nicely within the U.S.”
As Thermomix grows stateside and adapts “the recipe” for American clients and consultants, Fredrik is each enthusiastic about what will be discovered and assured within the firm’s strategy to constructing a brand new market.
“With only a few years beneath our belt, we’re enthusiastic about Thermomix’ prospects for achievement in America,” he defined. “Direct gross sales originated within the U.S., and the entire world has loads to be taught from this market and from this trade. We need to make the very best of the corporate’s worldwide success by tapping into the unimaginable alternatives within the North American market. We’re not going to be a German firm. We’re going to be an American firm with German roots.”
From the October 2022 problem of Direct Promoting Information journal.
