Following Motatos' withdrawal: afreshed launches Retterbox in Germany and Austria

The Austrian afreshed Group is taking over part of the business left behind by Motatos in Germany and Austria. Since September 1, 2026, the group has been operating Retterbox, a new online store for surplus food saved from waste. This is based on a transitional and cooperation agreement with Motatos. Three executives from the former DACH business are also moving to the new provider.

Retterbox thus becomes the afreshed Group’s third brand, alongside afreshed and etepetete. While the group has primarily marketed rescued fruits and vegetables to date, it is now expanding its business model to include non-perishable branded foods.

Retterbox Succeeds Motatos

Motatos had closed its German online store in May 2026 and withdrawn from Germany and Austria. According to the company, the Swedish food rescue organization had previously saved around 40,000 metric tons of food from going to waste. With Retterbox, part of the infrastructure it built up will now be continued. afreshed and Motatos have signed a transition and cooperation agreement for this purpose.

By continuing the Motatos service in Germany and Austria, the conditions for this mission are perfectly met. We are already overwhelmed by the participation of our suppliers and the tremendous support from existing and new customers.

Lukas Forsthuber, Maximilian Welzenbach, and Bernhard Bocksrucker, founders of the afreshed Group.

The market knowledge, supplier relationships, and communication channels that Motatos has built up to date are intended to support the launch of the new brand. The existing Motatos websites in Germany and Austria will redirect to Retterbox in the future. In addition, both companies are supporting the transition with a joint customer campaign. According to the companies, there will be no direct transfer of customer data. Existing Motatos customers must register with Retterbox themselves.

Former Motatos leadership team joins Retterbox

In addition to parts of the network, Retterbox is also bringing on board experience from Motatos’s previous DACH operations. Ben Hulme is joining the new brand as Managing Director, Ina Schahin is taking on the role of Commercial Director, and Jens Pöhnisch will serve as Buying Director. All three previously managed the Motatos business in Germany and Austria together.

This allows Retterbox to draw on existing contacts in the food industry as it builds out its business. Several suppliers had already committed to supplying goods for the new platform even before its launch.

For afreshed, this reduces the effort required for a complete restart. Instead of building customer, supplier, and industry contacts from scratch, the group can at least partially build on the market presence of its former competitor.

About 500 Products at Launch

At launch, Retterbox’s product range will include approximately 500 non-perishable food items across eight categories. These include, among other things, pantry staples, confectionery, snacks, sauces, and spices. The products are generally still in perfect condition but can no longer be sold in regular retail stores due to factors such as overproduction, packaging issues, or an approaching best-by date.

Every day, there are still perfectly good brand-name products being written off, and households looking for exactly these products at the right price. This time, we’re deliberately starting small and will only grow once the processes are proven to work.

Ben Hulme, Managing Director of Retterbox

For each item, we will therefore clearly state why it was rescued and its minimum shelf life. The initial product range includes, for example, surplus chocolate from a premium Swiss manufacturer as well as 1,000 packs of coffee from the social enterprise brand Angelique’s Finest, which were acquired shortly before reaching their best-by dates.

Orders can be placed via the online store and the Retterbox app. Deliveries are made to Germany and Austria. The minimum order value is 20 euros; shipping is free for orders of 45 euros or more. Logistics and order fulfillment are handled by the afreshed Group’s central warehouse near Vienna.

afreshed Expands Its Business Model

For the afreshed Group, Retterbox is more than just an additional brand. Founded in Linz in 2021, the company is significantly expanding its existing product range. The group already includes afreshed in Austria and etepetete in Germany. Its existing business has focused primarily on rescued organic fruits and vegetables. Retterbox now complements the dried food assortment.

This marks the first time the group has brought together fresh and shelf-stable rescued food under one roof. In the long term, afreshed aims to build the most comprehensive range of rescued food possible. Raiffeisen-Holding Lower Austria-Vienna holds a 25.1 percent stake in the afreshed Group.

Food Rescue as a Business Model

Retterbox addresses a problem within the supply chains of food manufacturers and retailers. Overproduction, product line changes, short remaining shelf lives, or packaging changes can result in goods that are fundamentally saleable no longer being sold through regular channels.

Platforms like Motatos have developed a business model around this: They take over such inventory, sell it at a discount to end customers, and simultaneously create an additional sales channel for manufacturers. The fact that Retterbox is launching immediately following Motatos’ withdrawal—with an experienced management team, existing supplier contacts, and approximately 500 products—enables the new brand to enter the market relatively quickly.

A new brand emerges from a competitor’s exit

The nature of the transition is particularly interesting from a strategic perspective. afreshed is not fully acquiring Motatos but, through a cooperation agreement, is utilizing parts of the established network and reach, while the new brand is being developed independently within the afreshed Group. For the Austrian group, this creates the opportunity to expand its business model to cover a significantly larger portion of the grocery basket. At the same time, Retterbox can enter a market that has already been familiarized with the concept of discounted, rescued brand-name products through Motatos.

Whether this will actually result in the full range of rescued products that afreshed aims for in the long term will now depend primarily on supplier availability, customer loyalty, and the cost-effectiveness of logistics. In online grocery retail in particular, striking a balance between low product prices, shipping costs, and sufficient shopping cart values remains a key challenge.