The Team
The People Behind Wollenhaupt
Get to know us!
The people who put their passion, enthusiasm and expertise into their work every day, for your benefit.
Owner and Managing Director of Tea Department: Dirk Wollenhaupt
Personality is a central character trait of our products, our tradition and our staff. A sense of community and camaraderie, a strong team spirit that ensures quality, enjoyment and variety – we want to convey this photographically, too.
So, come meet our team and get to know us a little better. We look forward to it!
Product Development
Without innovation, tradition would probably be a short-lived pleasure. Our product development and marketing team is the best example of merging traditional values and new products through creative ideas. Here, the familiar becomes the source of the new, the unknown.
You can find our experts not only at their desks, of course, but also in workshops with customers, in the laboratory and at international trade fairs – as part of their trend research.
Quality Assurance
Does the hibiscus look right? How is the quality of the apple bits that just came in? What were the results of the analysis of the camomile flowers? What others may call picky is a compliment to our “quality assurers”. It is good to have such strict, fastidious and expert quality control at our company.
They are meticulous and know exactly what is important: Visits to the countries of origin and direct contact with suppliers as well as knowledge about country-specific legal matters are an essential basis for ensuring safe and delicious products.
Sales Team Teeland
Our strong sales team for all retailers. Extensive product and market knowledge, many years of experience and a keen sense for customer requirements characterize this dedicated team. You need help with assortment selection, have questions about products and marketing, or would you like support for the start-up of a stationary tea shop or online shop? The Teeland colleagues are happy to help. Whether by phone, by email or with a visit directly to your site.
Sales Department Germany, Austria, Switzerland
There are no sales without sales representatives! Our field sales representatives and Inside Sales Department for the Germany, Austria and Switzerland region are motivated by their close proximity to our customers every single day. The team is distinguished by its exceptional service and advising, excellent technical and interpersonal skills, years of experience, and the ability and desire to really listen to the requirements and wishes of the customers.
This is the first point of contact, where the right solutions are created, ideas are developed together, questions are resolved, prices calculated and contracts concluded – a lot of it happens by phone, by e-mail or directly onsite at the customer’s premises. The colleagues put a top priority on establishing and maintaining a close and trusting basis for cooperation.
Sales Department International
Our Team International East is the right contact for our customers from Europe to Asia and Australia. For customers from the USA, Central and South America and Western Europe, our sales colleagues from the Team International West are in an excellent position. Our colleagues are familiar with the markets, cultures and country-specific regulations as well as dealing with complex logistics structures of worldwide distribution. And also the linguistic competencies characterize this internationally active team. The team offers individual customer workshops in which you can work together on new concept ideas and recipes to expand your assortment. Use the comprehensive product and market knowledge of our colleagues for your business. By telephone or by email, this team will be happy to serve you as a competent partner in terms of tea.
Marketing
Our marketing team operates according to the motto: after the catalogue is before the catalogue. Everything here revolves around product range design, taking into account future trends, price calculation and the ongoing maintenance of all products in our product information system and web shop. Trade fairs and sales events are planned and organised, sales promotions and interesting information for our customers are communicated via newsletters. Our social media team always has its finger on the pulse and acts according to our guiding principle: "Designing enjoyment and bringing it to the world" and the graphics department not only has good ideas for product photo shoots, it also designs packaging solutions, labels and POS sales documents for our specialist retailers as well as trend presentations for wholesalers.
Would you like to know more about our products and services or find out about new products? Our homepage is always worth a visit!
Tea Trading
The tea trading business has been a core competency of Wollenhaupt Tee GmbH for more than 130 years. The colleagues’ decades of experience and their tireless passion for tea has lead to precisely the expertise that our customers and tea aficionados benefit from every day. Our experienced tea trading team provides thorough, expert advice. As members of the “Ethical Tea Partnership”, they put a special focus on sustainable certified teas - and a lot more: Utilising their knowledge of the strengths of the various main regions of origin, they diversify the highly varied product portfolio and ensure year-round availability of different harvest and tea qualities by keeping extensive inventory stocks on hand. You would like to know more about tea trading, the tea trade at Wollenhaupt? Learn more about tea trading and lot ware.
Tea Purchasing Department
The colleagues from the tea department ensure that only the best tea raw materials are purchased and used in our tea blends. Every day, samples from different origins are tasted and tested to see if they fulfill our high quality standards. India, Tanzania, China, Japan or Vietnam, our tea experts regularly visit various tea gardens of all origins, always in search of the best tea qualities, specialties and rarities for our customers.
Fruit, Herbs and Ingredients Purchasing Department
Our buyers from the field of herbs, fruits and ingredients are well-versed: they know what, where, when, how, on what terms and conditions is available. They work hand in hand with the quality assurance, product development and sales teams.
Our purchasing department is on the go, looking for new suppliers of fruits, herbs, spices and ingredients that we use in our tea blends. Exotic customer requests for exceptional ingredients are also fulfilled thanks to the best market and product knowledge and a worldwide network of producers.
Also own cultivation projects for special herbs and flowers were initiated in cooperation with small farmers by our purchasing team.
Nonfood Purchasing Department
Accessories and teaware, but also packaging material of all kinds is the spectrum of our shopping Nonfood.
Our catalog range includes around 450 items, from the tea strainer to tins, cups and teapots in a variety of designs. The non-food buyers regularly visit large trade fairs and, with a sure sense for design trends, are looking for suitable articles for our extensive range.
According to packaging, our colleagues also offer comprehensive know-how about sustainable packaging materials, high-quality folding cartons or other individual special wishes in packaging design.
Production Planning and Scheduling
The production planning and scheduling team knows exactly how to produce a high-quality, outstanding product. They plan and schedule the complex processes that turn the raw ingredients into a Wollenhaupt tea. Right on schedule. And precisely. From cleaning and cutting the ingredients, to the mixing processes and through to packaging and shipping.
They monitor the production, check the processes and ensure that the products are completed and delivered on schedule, always keeping in close contact with the colleagues from Purchasing, Sales, Production and Shipping.
Blending Unit Classic Tea
A typical "English leaf blend"? No problem! Just ask a colleague from the "classic tea" production team and he or she will tell you the exact ratio of Ceylon, Assam and Darjeeling that makes up the blend.
Speaking of quantity: ln the old days, we had to manually haul heavy sacks, today a forklift does all that. Our colleagues move large amounts of the best teas (black, green, white) everyday. Under their care, the bulk tea lots are in the best hands.
Blending Unit Flavoured Tea, Herbs and Fruit Ingreditents
The colleagues from the “flavour mixing” team carry out the planned work processes. They are experienced in preparing flavoured blends, have a skilled touch when it comes to sensitive ingredients and special raw ingredients, and most importantly, they know their equipment. Flavoured tea is only an enjoyment if it is made with experience, know-how and expertise. Our in-house team knows exactly how to blend teas evenly and gently - even if it concerns hundreds of kilos of tea: The blends they create are always beautiful and deliciously enjoyable.
Packaging Department
Whether box, tin or bag, 10 g or 2 kg - our colleagues in the Packaging Department are inventive minds, solution finders, true engineering talents. Everyone at the company knows that they have always found the right solution to a packaging challenge. Their patience and attention to detail are hallmarks of this creative, highly accomplished team. What would our products be without their food-safe, secure and aesthetic packaging!
Picking
Pick-by-scan methods, a highly efficient warehouse system, safe and secure packaging materials - all of these are essential to ensuring perfect, fast deliveries. Our colleagues in the Picking Department create the conditions for damage-free transport and, of course, keep an eye on the seasonal business, so that all of the required teas and accessories are available in sufficient quantities at all times. Their department is a secured area, only selected staff have access to it.
Shipping
The colleagues in Shipping work closely together with the picking team in the secured air freight security area. Each year, 15,000 pallets have to be neatly packed and transported safely and securely. And not just that: They also have to be picked up on time and delivered on schedule. Our staff in the Shipping Department are committed day in and day out to making sure our customers get what they were promised. To this end, they keep in close contact with freight forwarders and logistics companies and know the interdependencies and transport times. They have daily contact with truck drivers from around the world - and you can hear that, too! Our shipping team is also skilled when it comes to different languages: They speak German, English, Danish, Polish, Russian, or in a pinch, gesture with their hands and feet.