Wurst Of The Week

I do not often read the financial pages as devoutly as I used to but this curious fact tickled my tastebuds. The German car manufacturer Volkswagen, the Tesla of the 1930s, sold 5.2 million VW-branded cars last year (2024), a performance that was outstripped by the 8.5 million units of component number 199 398 500 A they flogged.

And what is their best-selling item?  Astonishingly, an old banger or rather their very own currywurst, a sausage topped with ketchup and curry poweder and served with chips. It is made by the group’s own in-house butcher in their headquarters in Wolfsburg and has been a staple of the menus in its in-house canteens since 1973 and sells for €3.44.

But not all the wursts are sold in-house. They have proved so popular that they are now on sale in selected supermarkets around the state of Lower Saxony and business is booming.

However, it has not all been plain sailing. In 2021 one VWW canteen announced it was dropping the currywurst, an announcement that met with such vigorous opposition that they had to quickly backtrack.

Cars not so good but sausages -delicious!