About KOCA - DAS MAGAZIN FÜR KONDITOREI & CAFÉ

KOCA - DAS MAGAZIN FÜR KONDITOREI & CAFÉ

KOCA, Das Magazin für Konditorei and Café, is Germany's leading trade magazine for confectioners and café operators, published ten times a year in Stuttgart by the Matthaes Verlag. Now in its 77th volume, the magazine covers all important areas of the sweet craft, from patisserie, chocolaterie and confectionery to ice-cream parlours and the coffee business in all its facets. Reaching around 3,500 specialist confectionery businesses in Germany, KOCA combines emotional storytelling with specialist knowledge, serving the managers and decision-makers of the Konditorenhandwerk with recipes, business concepts, international trends and practical guidance. The brand extends beyond print through the KOCA Summit industry event, a newsletter, the KOCA Marktplatz classifieds and an extensive online recipe database.

Overview

KOCA describes itself as Germany's leading specialist magazine for Konditoren and Cafébetreiber, the confectioners and café operators who form the sweet craft. Its readership consists of the senior management and decision-makers of the confectionery trade: owners and managers of Konditoreien, Confiserien, Patisserien, Chocolaterien, Tortenmanufakturen, Eiscafés and bakery-cafés. Around 69 percent of the paying KOCA subscribers work directly in the sweet craft, a concentration that makes the magazine the central medium of its industry.

The editorial programme covers all relevant fields of artisanal confectionery: pastry and cake artistry, pralines and chocolate, desserts, ice cream, and the coffee sector with all its facets and their implementation in practice. International trends are presented in the "Seitenblicke" section, giving readers a window on developments abroad. The magazine appears ten times a year in German, with a distributed circulation of 1,970 copies, and its media data documents a reach into essentially all of the approximately 3,500 specialist confectionery businesses in Germany.

The publisher is the Matthaes Verlag of Stuttgart, a specialist publisher for the bakery and confectionery trades whose portfolio includes the Allgemeine BäckerZeitung (ABZ) and back.intern. The editor-in-chief is Arnulf Ramcke, with Florentine Hübscher as the responsible editor. The brand's digital home is koca.abzonline.de, complemented by the koca.de domain, and the magazine's events, newsletters and marketplaces extend its reach into the industry's daily business.

History

The lineage of KOCA reaches back to 1948, when the magazine's predecessor began publication in the early years of the Federal Republic. The 77th volume appeared in 2024, making the title one of the longest-running specialist publications for the German confectionery craft. For decades the magazine appeared under the title "Konditorei and Café", documenting the development of the German Konditorenhandwerk through the economic miracle, the professionalisation of the craft and the rise of café culture.

In the course of its history the magazine was rebranded as KOCA, with the full title "KOCA, Das Magazin für Konditorei and Café" preserving the descriptive heritage of the old name. The rebranding modernised the title's appearance while maintaining the continuity of its volume count, its readership and its editorial mission. The Matthaes Verlag, itself a traditional Stuttgart publishing house for the food crafts, invested in the brand's development as the central medium for confectioners.

In recent years KOCA has expanded beyond the printed magazine into a multi-channel brand. The KOCA Summit was established as the industry's meeting point, bringing together confectioners, suppliers and experts for exchange and inspiration. The KOCA Newsletter delivers industry news digitally, the KOCA Marktplatz provides a classifieds platform for the trade, and the newFOODeconomy format addresses the economic transformation of the food crafts. The online recipe database has grown into a valued working tool for professionals. Through these extensions, KOCA has evolved from a print magazine into the service platform of the German confectionery trade.

Content and Sections

The content of KOCA is organised around the working reality of the confectionery craft. Recipe features present creations from leading Konditoren, from classic tortes and pralines to contemporary desserts, with detailed formulations for professional production. Business concept articles profile successful operations, from young founders to established houses, analysing their positioning, their product ranges and their economics. The coffee section addresses the beverage that has become central to the café business, covering bean selection, preparation methods, equipment and the integration of coffee specialities into the confectionery offering.

The "Seitenblicke" section reports on international trends, from the patisseries of Paris to the chocolate culture of Belgium and Switzerland, giving German readers orientation on developments abroad. Industry news covers supplier innovations, trade fairs such as the SIGEP in Rimini and the INTERNORGA in Hamburg, competitions including the World Chocolate Masters, and the activities of the trade associations. Portraits and interviews introduce personalities of the craft, and the magazine's photography, exemplified by contributors such as Thomas Fedra, gives the title its distinctive visual quality.

Special publications and supplements address focused topics, from ice cream to Christmas business, and the Themen- and Terminplan published in the media data shows the editorial calendar built around the industry's seasonal rhythm, with dedicated issues for the INTERNORGA and GELATISSIMO trade fairs. Training and junior-staff topics, from apprenticeship to master craftsman qualification, reflect the craft's concern for its next generation, while reports on the German Craft Skills competitions celebrate the excellence of young Konditoren. The combination of emotional presentation and specialist knowledge, as the media data puts it, defines the magazine's editorial identity.

Publisher and Organization

KOCA, Das Magazin für Konditorei and Café, is published by the Matthaes Verlag GmbH of Stuttgart, the specialist publisher for the bakery and confectionery trades. The publishing house also publishes the Allgemeine BäckerZeitung (ABZ) and back.intern, giving KOCA a strong position within a coherent portfolio for the food crafts. The editor-in-chief is Arnulf Ramcke, and the responsible editor is Florentine Hübscher.

The magazine appears ten times a year in German, with a distributed circulation of 1,970 copies, reaching around 3,500 specialist confectionery businesses across Germany. The target group is defined as the senior management and decision-makers of the Konditorenhandwerk. The magazine's events include the KOCA Summit, and its digital products comprise the KOCA Newsletter, the KOCA Marktplatz classifieds and the online recipe database. Advertising and media sales are handled through the Matthaes Verlag's sales organisation, with the media data published via abzonline.de.

Digital Presence

The digital home of KOCA is koca.abzonline.de, the magazine's online portal within the Matthaes Verlag's abzonline.de network, complemented by the koca.de domain. The portal presents current issues with article previews, galleries from industry events including the KOCA Summit and the Konditoren Summit, and an extensive recipe database covering creations from San Sebastian cheesecake to caramel chocolate cream torte. Readers can subscribe to the free KOCA industry newsletter, which delivers branch news digitally between the print issues.

The brand is active on the social platforms where the confectionery community communicates, with the media data documenting more than 12,000 followers across Facebook and Instagram for the ABZ and KOCA brands combined, and tens of thousands of monthly page views across the publisher's portals. Video impressions from the KOCA Summit and the trade fairs give the digital presence a visual dimension, while the galleries document the industry's gatherings for those who could not attend. For suppliers to the confectionery trade, from raw-material producers and equipment manufacturers to coffee roasters and shopfitters, the combination of the print magazine, the online portal, the newsletter and the KOCA Summit offers a targeted platform reaching the decision-makers of Germany's sweet craft. The KOCA Marktplatz adds a classifieds dimension, making the digital presence a working tool for the industry's daily business.