Everybody knows the tins, the cookies and the sweet, irresistible taste. But there’s much more to the Maersk cookies than what meets the taste buds around December.

As early as February, Group Procurement in Mumbai begins collecting orders from across the world, the design for the year is considered and agreements are made with suppliers.

“You wouldn’t think that the process was that extensive when you get your hands on a tin of cookies, but in a way, that tin embodies the size and strengths of the Group. The tin is good marketing,” says Helle Overgaard. She heads promotional items and activities at Maersk Procurement.

An instant hit

The process heats up in early September. The sweet aroma of freshly baked cookies fills the bakery at Kelsen Cookies in Nørresnede, Denmark, as the blazing ovens churn out millions of cookies.

“Danish butter cookies are world famous, and the batch we make for Maersk is our best. We use the best raw materials and each cookie has its individual recipe, which is quite unique,” says the CEO at Kelsen Cookies, Brian Rønsholdt.

Other business units have joined in, and the cookies now come in Damco, APM Terminals, MCC and Maersk tins.

In late September, Kelsen Cookies delivers 700 pallets of cookies to Damco. These are spilt up, mixed with the 300 pallets of calendars, repackaged and distributed to offices around the world.

Last year, a total of 140,000 tins of cookies reached 120 destinations.

“The schedule is tight because we transport as much as possible by sea. So it is a focused job and we have to get it right because of the commercial value that the cookies and calendars have for the businesses,” says Kasper H. Nielsen, ware- house and distribution manager at Damco in Denmark.

In China, for instance, Damco, Maersk Line and MCC will each need cookies. Throw in a few thousand calendars and the containers, 28 this year, are ready to be shipped out.

For many customers, the cookies have become a tradition and many will even put in a polite enquiry if no tin has arrived when November draws to a close.

“One year, we were unable to send the cookies and we had to explain that we had had to cancel that year. Of course that only added to the joy when they came back the year after. It is an important tradition,” says Jørgen Harling, president at A.P. Moller — Maersk in Japan.

A total of 140,000 tins of cookies reached 120 destinations in 2013.

By Anders Rosendahl for the Maersk Post.