Melitta Group honored as Top Innovator

The prize is awarded to the most innovative medium-sized companies in Germany. The basis is a scientific selection process with more than 100 test criteria.

"We are very proud of the innovative strength of the Melitta Group, which is reflected throughout the company in new products, innovative methods and processes. The areas of digitalization and sustainability are also drivers of innovation," says Johanna Ober-Sundermeyer, Head of Corporate Innovation. "The award is a reward for the courage of the employees, who consciously think outside the box and dare to do something new."

At its core, the TOP 100 analysis is about whether innovations are the result of structured innovation management in companies – or whether they arise more by chance. The test criteria are divided into five categories: innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovative processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success.

"Since the founding of the company, which is based on the invention of the coffee filter by Melitta Bentz, it has been our aim to detect trends and needs and implement them in products earlier than others. This is even more true today than it used to be. We are pursuing an innovation strategy based on openness, collaboration and entrepreneurship, with a focus on the consumer," explains Johanna Ober-Sundermeyer.

Event formats and series such as an Innovation Roadshow or the Fuck-up Stories, our in-house AI platform "Melina", but also product innovations such as the sustainable capsule machine for tea Avoury® at Melitta Single Portions, the rental of coffee machines at fresh at work or sustainable product innovations at Cofresco such as the paper freezer bags from Toppits® as well as our innovation incubator in Berlin 10X Innovation are examples from the group of companies that together led to the award.

About the TOP 100 seal

Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal for special innovative strength and above-average innovation success to medium-sized companies. Since 2002, the scientific management has been in the hands of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke. Franke is the founder and chairman of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. With 27 research awards and over 200 publications, he is one of the world's leading innovation researchers. The mentor of TOP 100 is the science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar. The project partners are the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft for the Promotion of Applied Research and the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (BVMW).