Opening gateways and hearts: 10 years of working together with Deutsche Post

Karl Knauer has been collaborating with Deutsche Post since 2013, so for 10 years now. Each year, the company designs unusual chocolate-filled Advent calendars that spark Christmas excitement among employees, customers, and business partners alike. By applying creative design ideas and expertise in production, and with a lot of attention to detail, calendars resembling a sleigh, a Christmas village, and a treasure chest have all been produced and sent worldwide in recent years. The high-quality, luxuriously filled gifts are eagerly awaited as far away as Singapore.

“We really value our long-standing, special collaboration with Deutsche Post. And we are really keen to keep on positively surprising and inspiring our contacts by developing solutions that are a perfect fit for the occasion or sentiment”, says Oliver Wedinger, Key Account Manager at Karl Knauer, describing the team’s motivation.

Real packaging craftsmanship. Without plastic
This proved to be the case in 2019, for example, when Karl Knauer produced the first plastic-free Advent calendar for Deutsche Post. Both companies place great importance on sustainability and environmental protection, so it was a significant milestone when, in 2019, they were able to create the sleigh Advent calendar without using any plastic at all.

A heartfelt message in yellow
Two years later, in 2021, a year dominated by the challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic, Deutsche Post transformed the outside of the Post Tower in Bonn into a yellow heart. This heart symbolised solidarity, resilience, and gratitude in difficult times. Karl Knauer took up the idea and designed an Advent calendar in the shape of a yellow heart, with 24 small folding boxes filled with chocolate.

24 heavenly chocolates
Just how many custom Advent calendars Karl Knauer has created for Deutsche Post so far remains a secret. The Karl Knauer co-packing team, which is responsible for filling the Advent calendars, has been carefully packing chocolate specialities into the calendars for 10 years – delighting the hearts of chocolate lovers in the process.

The whole package – from design proposal to dispatch
Karl Knauer develops each custom design of the Advent calendars in close consultation with Deutsche Post. Illustrators take care of the graphic design. Karl Knauer handles everything from producing the Advent calendars and co-packing them in boxes of 10, to their subsequent dispatch on pallets. Order picking is organised and calculated so precisely in advance that there is no need to ship half pallets. This saves costs and also contributes to reducing carbon emissions.

Years of experience and optimal preparation are the key to ensuring that the high-volume workflow runs seamlessly every year. There have been no complaints to date, neither with the content nor with the packaging and shipping. Axel Breme, Brand Management Vice President at Deutsche Post, DHL Group, is therefore also very happy with the partnership, “In Karl Knauer, we have a partner at our side who provides us with an excellent new Advent calendar every year, one that lets our Deutsche Post and DHL brands shine for our customers in the best possible light.”