Premium Food Group covers 20% of its total electricity requirements with hydropower from Lake Chiemsee

The Tönnies Group (Premium Food Group since 1 January 2025) is underpinning its sustainability ambitions: The food producer from Rheda-Wiedenbrück has signed a five-year contract with the Alzkraftwerk Heider power plant in Tacherting, Bavaria. This secures the family-run company around 50 million kilowatt hours of green electricity from the hydroelectric power plant each year. The contract started on 1 January.

‘We cover a good 20 per cent of our total electricity requirements with green electricity from southern Germany,’ reveals Gereon Schulze Althoff, Head of Sustainability at the Tönnies Group (Premium Food Group since 1 January 2025). ‘This investment therefore fits perfectly into our t30 sustainability strategy,’ he adds. This year, 64% of the electricity mix in the production plants already came from renewable energies. ‘We are continuing on this path unwaveringly with the green electricity from the Alz power plant,’ emphasises Schulze Althoff.

Three quarters of the more than 100-year-old power plant is fed with water from Lake Chiemsee, which lies around 20 kilometres to the south. The remaining quarter comes from the Traun. ‘The water is used to generate electricity via turbines and generators,’ explains Susanne Lewecke, Head of Energy and Environmental Management at Tönnies (Premium Food Group since 1 January 2025). ‘The hydropower plant converts the energy of the water into electrical energy and makes it usable,’ Lewecke continues.

The Rheda-Wiedenbrück-based family business launched its sustainability agenda t30 at the end of 2019. The food producer has thus set itself clear and measurable goals in the areas of climate and environmental protection as well as social responsibility by 2030. The aim is to produce food sustainably. It was only in the middle of the year that the Tönnies Group (Premium Food Group since 1 January 2025) launched ESG-linked financing.