Goes vegan: Leipzig’s Dani Olmo (right).
© motivio / Imago
Vegan and soccer: do they go together? Veganz founder Bredack explains his commitment to Leipzig and which world club is still trying to establish a partnership.
Munich – football and a classic bratwurst – that’s part of what most Bundesliga fans want when they visit a stadium. RB Leipzig is going other ways. Before this season, the Saxons concluded a partnership with Veganz, which will run until 2024 and which was recently named the most innovative food company of the year in a Handelsblatt ranking. With the help of the Berliners, vegan alternatives are now being offered in the Red Bull Arena: stadium sausage, schnitzel baguette, crispy nuggets and sweets.
“Our slogan is ‘eat something for the climate'”, emphasizes Veganz founder Jan Bredack, 49, in an interview with our newspaper. “Our mission is not to hit people with a club and say: ‘Don’t fly anymore! Don’t drive the car anymore! You kill animals! ‘ Definitely not. We want to offer a friendly offer, to point out that a vegan diet consumes four times less CO2 and thus has more influence on the climate than flying and driving a car together. “
Vegan stadium sausage: Veganz founder Bredack on cooperation with RB Leipzig
In terms of taste, Bredack would like to take away fans’ fear of vegan food. The stadium sausage in particular has been very well received in the Red Bull Arena so far. “We can convince people with this,” Bredack is sure. “When people try the stadium sausage and notice no difference to their usual bratwurst, then the last prejudices fall.”
Football and Vegan? Veganz founder and CEO Jan Bredack talks about the cooperation with RB Leipzig – he has been vegan himself since 2009.
© Veganz
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“When people try the stadium sausage and notice no difference to their usual bratwurst, then the last prejudices fall.”
The RB Leipzig soccer academy, where professionals and young players also eat regularly, supplies Veganz with its products. “We supply them with products with little or no sugar,” says Bredack. Lactose is avoided at Leipzig anyway, and the club also makes sure that the players eat little gluten. A diet similar to that of Bayern star Robert Lewandowski (33). This also reduces the players’ susceptibility to injury.
Vegan football partnership – Madrid, Wolfsburg and Stuttgart are also showing interest
Veganz can be seen on the advertising boards at RB Leipzig and at games in the DFB Cup and the Champions League on the shirt sleeve. Interesting: Actually, Bredack was only talking about a collaboration with another club. But from the Veganz founder’s point of view, that didn’t work. “At the time I said: If I could imagine a partnership, it would be with Leipzig. We were then recommended and invited to RBL “, reveals Bredack, who was born in Salzwedel, and explains:” The people of Leipzig are young, dynamic and a start-up themselves, do not think in rigid structures and are ready to break new ground and to cooperate with innovative companies like us. RB is known beyond the borders of Leipzig and is anchored in the same region as we, the eastern federal states. I’m from the east too. There is a connection. “
After the collaboration with Leipzig was announced, one of the largest football clubs in the world contacted Veganz: Real Madrid. “They made us an offer and emphasized that we would be a great match,” says Bredack. The talks are already underway. Wolfsburg and Stuttgart are also trying to establish a partnership.
“VfL has a climate protection and sustainability agenda and has come a long way. That’s why it would be a collaboration that we could imagine, ”says Bredack. And at VfB? “The connection came about through Timo Hildebrand, whom I accompanied on his way to becoming a vegan. VfB is young and wild like us, ”explains Bredack, who has been following a vegan diet since 2009 – inspired by his second wife.
Football and Vegan: Veganz Founders on Cooperation – Why It Wasn’t Right at 1860 Munich
Before founding Veganz in 2011, he was a manager at Daimler, turned his life around after a burnout – and lived more modestly. But he still has points of contact with his former employer: Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton (36), who drives for Mercedes and is also vegan, loves Veganz products privately. “He receives a package from us every few months. But we don’t pay him, ”says Bredack. “A partnership with a Formula 1 team is currently out of the question for us for many reasons.”
Veganz’s marketing focus is currently on football. Bredack explains: “We don’t do TV advertising anymore. Our budget for this is now flowing into sport, especially football. “
By the way: Third division TSV 1860 also hoped for a cooperation with Veganz. “We got on really well,” reveals Bredack: “In the end, the visibility would have been too regional for us.” (Pk, bok)
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