In a challenging moment in its history, Volkswagen saw its global vehicle sales retreating 3% by 2024, while the company’s net profit shot 30%. The German automaker announced cuts of up to 35,000 jobs by 2030 and the closure of factories in Germany as part of a restructuring plan. But a very peculiar sector of the group is on the rise: the production and sale of sausages.
Curry sausage, also called “VW Currywurst”, sold 8.6 million units in 2024, a number that exceeds 5.2 million vehicles sold by VW in the period, according to Fortune magazine. The amount is only slightly smaller than the 9 million cars sold throughout the Volkswagen group last year.
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Currywurst has been produced since 1973 by the automaker and serves both the company’s factories and consumers in Germany supermarkets. It is also present at the football stadium in Wolfsburg, headquarters of the company.
According to Fortune, 6.3 million units of the original version of the sausage were sold by 2024, and about 10% were consumed internally by the company’s employees. Another 2.2 million were marketed in a hot dog format, plus 42,000 units from a vegan version.
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“Volkswagen is synonymous with innovation – in two, four and many other wheels, and yes on the plate!” Wrote Gunnar Kilian, Volkswagen’s HR director at LinkedIn. “With over 8 million sausages Volkswagen Genuine Curry sold, we are celebrating a new sales record. But let’s not settle: our next news in Currywurs is already on the way!”
In addition to sausages, the automaker sold 629,000 bottles of her ketchup VW in 2024 and another 25,000 buckets of 10 liters. The company also distributed its ketchup for the first time to customers in the US last year, with the free brand of ketchup Gewürz coming out of the automaker’s shelves.
