10 Leading Coffee Companies from Bremen

Bremen-based companies in coffee wholesale, roasting, and logistics are leaders across many market segments. Alongside well-known players, there are also hidden champions—firms few have heard of, yet whose products are instantly recognizable to true coffee lovers. Here are ten examples of coffee businesses from Bremen.

When you talk about coffee, you have to talk about Bremen: Germany’s smallest federal state plays a big role in the global coffee trade. With imports and exports totaling 589,000 tons in 2023, Bremen ranks even ahead of Hamburg as the country’s coffee capital. Roughly every third coffee bean entering Germany passes through the ports of Bremen.

Almost all coffee imported through Bremen—more than 95 percent—is raw coffee. Germany, and northern Germany in particular, is one of the world’s key centers for coffee refinement. From here, not only the domestic market but also neighboring countries such as France, Poland, Austria, and the Netherlands are supplied with roasted coffee.

Thanks to the short distances to the ports, some of Germany’s largest coffee companies have set up operations in northern Germany. These include wholesalers, logistics providers, and roasteries.

In Bremen and its surrounding region alone, four major roasters are based: JDE Peet’s (headquartered in Amsterdam), Melitta (Minden), Azul (part of Dallmayr, Munich), and Markus Kaffee (part of Aldi Nord, Essen). They also use Bremen’s ports for exports—around 147,000 tons of coffee are shipped from Bremen each year.

Their industrial coffee supply chains span the globe, involving logistics, wholesale, and specialized services such as decaffeination. The following list provides an overview of Bremen-based companies active in the coffee trade and processing sector. Businesses with direct-to-consumer sales, such as online shops, are not included.

10 Coffee Companies from Bremen

1. JDE Peet´s
   Formed in 2015 through the merger of Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Peet’s, this Dutch group is the fifth-largest coffee company in the world. The “Jacobs” part of its name traces its roots back to Bremen in 1895, when entrepreneur Johann Jacobs began trading coffee—laying the foundation for a coffee empire. Today, the company employs around 900 people in Bremen and continues to roast coffee there. The group’s brands include Jacobs, Senseo, Tassimo, and L’OR.

2. Melitta
   While Melitta’s corporate headquarters are located in Minden, its most important roasting facility is in Bremen, where up to half a million packs of coffee are produced each year. The European headquarters are also based in the Hanseatic city, employing 270 people including the roastery staff. In addition to large-scale production, the company operates a specialty roastery here to meet the growing demand for artisanal, small-batch products.

3. Azul
   Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, Azul is a true Bremen original, even though the brand now belongs to Munich-based Dallmayr. The company reaffirmed its strong ties to Bremen in 2019 by opening the “Rösterei am Deich,” a specialty roastery that produces premium blends for both the hospitality industry and retail customers. Azul also runs its own shop and offers guided tours for groups.

4. Westhoff
   Hotels, restaurants, and hospitals are among the clients of Westhoff, a Bremen roastery that has been in operation since 1868. In addition to its own “Westhoff” brand, frequent restaurant visitors might also know “Il Mio.” The company offers coffee in every form imaginable: beans, ground filter coffee, and single-serve instant portions. It also supplies hospitality clients with complementary items such as sugar, condensed milk, and biscuits.

5. Coffein Compagnie
   A name few consumers might recognize though they’re certainly familiar with its products. Coffein Compagnie is a global leader in coffee decaffeination, with the capacity to remove caffeine from over 100,000 tons of beans annually. The company continues a proud Bremen tradition: in 1906, Ludwig Roselius invented decaffeinated coffee here with the creation of Kaffee HAG and built Europe’s first coffee factory. Incidentally, the extracted caffeine doesn’t go to waste: it often ends up in other products, such as cola drinks.

6. CR3 Kaffeeveredelung M. Hermsen
   “Coffee refinement” is part of the company’s name—but what does it mean? Besides decaffeination, it includes steaming raw coffee to remove bitter substances from the widely used Arabica beans. CR3 applies these processes to much of its annual throughput of around 200,000 tons of raw coffee. The company operates storage facilities with a total capacity of 35,000 tons—one of the largest of its kind in the world. Another impressive figure: CR3 analyzes more than 150,000 coffee samples per year for up to 120 quality characteristics—around the clock.
7. Gollücke & Rothfos
   A distinguished name in the trade, Gollücke & Rothfos is one of Germany’s largest green coffee importers, with a market share of up to 20 percent. Both major brands and small roasteries rely on the Bremen-based company to source top-quality beans from around the world. Its portfolio includes more than 500 varieties of green coffee, many of which are tested daily by professional cuppers. Founded in Bremen, the company is now part of the Swiss-based Volcafe Group.
8. Vollers Group
   Without the right logistics, coffee trade would grind to a halt. Founded in 1932, Vollers has become an international logistics powerhouse with Bremen as its home base. The company manages storage, container transport, import/export services, and additional processes such as sieving, cleaning, blending, and quality control. In recent years, Vollers has also made major digital investments, including an online marketplace where business customers can buy and sell green coffee.
9. J. Müller
   By ship, road, or rail—wherever a coffee bean travels with J. Müller, it’s in good hands. The company is a heavyweight in coffee logistics, operating its own coffee terminal, dispatching a daily “coffee train” from Bremen to Berlin, and offering storage for more than 65,000 tons of coffee. Like Vollers, J. Müller also provides cleaning, batch blending, and quality control services. Around 100 employees work at its Bremen site.
10. F.L. Michaelis
    Alongside the industry giants, Bremen is also home to smaller specialty firms that have carved out their own niches in the coffee world. One of them is F.L. Michaelis, an importer active in both coffee and tea. Founded in 1875, the company has a proud history and today supplies roasteries and specialty tea retailers with carefully selected products.