OLD TRADITIONS REINTERPRETED

Of this total, 650 square meters is dedicated to a twelvemeter-long service counter, a cozy country bistro with space for 80 guests, and the traditional factory outlet shop. Private consumers and business customers from the hospitality industry will find a wide selection of fresh and grilled meats in a walk-in meat cooler, while packaged Kupfer sausage products, special items, and sale items can be found in a dedicated walk-in sausage cooler. “The heart of the meat market is our own sausage kitchen, which is located directly behind the sales floor,” explains Jakob Kupfer, who runs the company together with his wife Julia. The 27-year-old master butcher belongs to the fourth generation of the family business. With 25 employees, including twelve salespeople, ten butchers, and two cooks, they produce fresh meat and sausage products every day according to age-old traditions – from hearty Franconian specialties to international delicacies, and always with the aspiration to offer products of unparalleled quality.

In the meat market’s production area, Kupfer relies on state-of-the-art technology, including cold-smoking and hot-smoking systems from Schröter. The equipment manufacturer from East Westphalia supplied two THERMICjet HRKRBA JETsmokers as well as an ARCTICjet DA – both with one wagon each. “We first started working with Kupfer back in 1995, when they opened their new facility in Heilsbronn,” says Klaus Schröter, thinking back to the beginnings of the longterm business relationship. “Our project discussions were always very fruitful and helped us ensure that the systems we supplied were perfectly tailored to their needs. For example, a wheeled undercarriage that fits into the wagons used in the SEMIjets we delivered in 2005 makes it possible to transport heavy blocks of pressed ham. Furthermore, we built new BAKEjet rotating baking systems for the company’s production facility in Heilsbronn that are compatible with its existing racks that are 1,500 millimeters long.” This is how an extremely close and trusting business relationship developed over time, which can also be seen in the fact that Schröter is brought into the process early on whenever the company begins planning a new project. Such was the case with the meat market, which also required custom planning – the result being that Kupfer uses a JETsmoker here for full-fledged hot-smoking, cold-smoking, baking, and cooking processes.