Höflinger miller saves cake gossip

The social start-up Kuchentratsch in Munich was pulled out of insolvency because a bakery group stepped in.

For a long time it looked as if the time was over for the Munich start-up Kuchentratsch. In July, it filed for insolvency. But after founder Katharina Mayer had already given hints in September, it is now clear: Höflinger Müller GmbH is joining the company. New bakers are already being sought and the baking grannies and grandpas will continue to be employed on a mini-job basis.

In 2014, Mayer presented her idea for a start-up on "Die Höhle der Löwen," where grandmas create cakes and pies and sell them online. The idea worked so well that Mayer wanted to move within Munich with Kuchentratsch and set up an "experience bakery" on 650 square meters. Shortly before the end of the conversion, it became clear: The money was not enough, the investors did not want to close the gap and even a crowdfunding campaign did not bring the needed 400,000 euros.

Now Kuchentratsch is one of the more than 140 stores of the Höflinger-Müller Group. Katharina Mayer will no longer be making decisions for her start-up from the end of the year. At Kuchentratsch, Höflinger-Müller products are now also sold - and vice versa. "The Oma cakes are the perfect complement in our stores," says Höflinger-Müller Managing Director Franz Höflinger.