Munich Startup: What does your startup do? What problem are you solving?
Bastian Fisser, co-founder of The Bitery: The Bitery has reinvented the cookie – as a product, as a brand, and as an experience. We bring ready-to-bake premium cookies to food service, corporate catering, and retail. Freshly baked, crispy, and emotionally engaging – our cookies combine quality with convenience and hit exactly the right nerve of the times. Our products are extremely popular with end consumers because they combine indulgence with experience. At the same time, they offer businesses an economically sound and differentiating product. Whether in food retail or foodservice – wherever freshness, emotion, and sales potential matter, our cookies deliver real added value.
“Our cookie is not just a snack on the side”
Munich Startup: But that’s been around forever!
Bastian Fisser: Yes, there are cookies. And then there’s The Bitery. What didn’t exist before we started: a premium brand with authentic recipes, inspiring storytelling, modern design, and uncompromising quality – ready-to-bake. Not frozen, but chilled. Not an industrial cookie, but a cookie that tastes like it’s homemade – fresh from the oven, with an emotional aroma, soft center, and wow factor. Our cookie is not just a snack on the side. It’s a product with heart, craftsmanship, and conviction. That’s exactly what was missing.
Munich Startup: What’s your founding story?
Bastian Fisser: The Bitery started as a food blog – full of ideas, flavor, and dreams. We wanted to rethink good food – with clarity, style, and a sense for what people really love.
In 2023, we went all in on one bet: the cookie. We restructured the entire company, reduced our product portfolio, and focused all our energy on one product. And apparently we hit the bullseye – today we deliver millions of cookies per year, are active in six countries, and continue to expand steadily. The cookie is our vehicle – but it’s really about much more: inspiring people, redefining indulgence, making real quality sexy again.
Conservative structures in food service
Munich Startup: What have been your biggest challenges so far?
Bastian Fisser: We’re not a corporation, not a streamlined structure. We’re a young, passionate team that has fought for its place in the market with creativity, instinct, and courage. The biggest challenge: establishing an innovative, chilled product in German food retail. Convincing purchasing managers, winning shelf space, keeping production scalable while not losing sight of our standards.
On top of that, there’s food service: conservative structures dominate there. We had to get a lot of things rolling ourselves – today we’re in talks with almost all the major food service players and showing how much potential there is in what seems like a simple product.
Munich Startup: Where do you want to be in one year, where in five years?
Bastian Fisser: In one year: The Bitery is the cookie brand in Europe. Physically experiential, digitally present, emotionally rooted. Our products are available in schools, canteens, hotels, gas stations, restaurants – everywhere people love cookies.
In five years: global presence. New product lines around sweet bakery. A brand that stands for the new confectionery segment: uncompromising in quality, modern in design, economical for partners, and maximally loved by customers. We don’t just want to play the game – we want to change the game.
“Munich is not a hype location”
Munich Startup: How have you experienced the startup location Munich so far?
Bastian Fisser: Munich is not a hype location. It’s a place that values quality, has depth, and fosters real reliability. For our product – which is not a gimmick, but has real impact – Munich is ideal.
Additionally, the scene has become much more open. People meet at eye level. And we’re pleased that we’re being recognized here as a food startup – not just because of our products, but because of the clarity and consistency with which we drive them forward.
Munich Startup: Outsource or do it yourself?
Bastian Fisser: We’re radical in our attitude: everything that concerns the product and the brand, we do ourselves. Development, storytelling, brand presence, recipes – that stays with us.
At the same time, we’re pragmatic enough to collaborate with experienced partners in specific areas. We control, we set the direction, we lead – but we also trust. Our network is now strong – and that helps us grow quickly without losing our soul.
