Melitta Invests €100 Million at Bremen Coffee Roastery to Boost Production by 50% in Germany
May 27 – 2026
Coffee Geography Magazine
The Melitta Group has announced a landmark investment of more than €100 million in its Bremen coffee roasting plant, a cornerstone of the company's ambitious "Melitta 2033" growth and internationalization strategy.
The significant capital injection aims to increase the facility's production capacity by approximately 50 percent, enabling the family-owned company to meet rising global demand for roasted coffee while maintaining its commitment to quality. The investments will be rolled out gradually over the next five to six years, focusing on enhanced flexibility, sustainability, and quality improvements at the Bremen roastery.
"The goal of our Strategy 2033 is to at least double the Group's sales by then," said Jero Bentz, member of Corporate Communications and great-grandson of company founder Melitta Bentz. "A central lever for this is the coffee business in Europe. With these investments, we are creating important conditions to meet individual customer and market needs even better and thus achieve our growth and internationalization goals in the coming years."
Jero Bentz, member of Corporate Communications
As part of the investment package, Melitta plans to acquire two adjacent plots of land in Bremen. The project includes constructing a new building while expanding and modernizing existing structures. The majority of the funds will be directed toward new roasting, packaging, and silo systems, as well as advanced process control and monitoring systems. These upgrades are designed to help the facility flexibly respond to increased demand across Melitta's diverse coffee product portfolio.
The Melitta Group, headquartered in Minden, North Rhine-Westphalia, traces its roots to a revolutionary invention. In 1908, Melitta Bentz, a 35-year-old Dresden homemaker, invented the first paper coffee filter, receiving a German patent on July 8 of that year for her "Filter Top Device lined with Filter Paper." She founded the company bearing her name the same year.
The 1930s saw further innovation when Melitta revised the original filter design, tapering it into a cone shape with added ribs. This created a larger filtration area, allowing for improved coffee extraction. By 1936, the widely recognized cone-shaped filter paper—the '102' model—was introduced, becoming the company's most popular product.
Today, Melitta operates as an internationally active group of companies and remains one of Germany's best-known independent family businesses. With approximately 5,500 employees, operations in 75 countries, and annual turnover of €2.53 billion (2025), the Group develops, produces, and sells branded coffee products, paper coffee filters, and coffee makers worldwide.
The Bremen investment underscores the company's commitment to its European manufacturing roots while positioning itself for continued global growth through the end of the decade and beyond.