Sharing is the new having: In April 2025, Tchibo launched “Tchibo mietbar”, our own sharing community for securely renting and hiring out items. Employees have the opportunity to rent various items offered by colleagues via a community platform. Our partner is fainin, a start-up from Hamburg that offers a service solution for sharing within companies. fainin has already been successfully validated by over 10,000 users, for example at universities.

Saving resources and networking together: Tchibo mietbar not only promotes the conscious use of resources, but also contributes to community building. True to the motto “Sharing is caring”, it creates cross-departmental connections between colleagues. Because our corporate culture thrives on togetherness - whether over lunch, at the coffee bar or through Tchibo mietbar.

In 2018, we were the first major retailer to launch Tchibo Share, a rental service for baby and children's clothing, in cooperation with the start-up Kilenda. The idea behind Tchibo Share was to reuse products for as long as possible in order to conserve resources: Moving away from a throwaway society towards a society focused on sustainability with economic viability. Our starting point was baby and children's clothing, as it is well known that this is only used for short periods of time while the children are still growing. In close dialog with our customers, we gradually expanded the range in the following year: from baby and children's clothing to women's clothing, sports & hobbies and coffee machines. In December 2020, Tchibo Share was discontinued for economic reasons. However, the end of Tchibo Share does not mean the end of alternative business models for Tchibo. We are continuing to look for new concepts for sustainable consumption and second-hand concepts for various products. Based on the findings of Tchibo Share, a “Second Hand Restart” was launched in 2023 with the resale platform Sellpy, among others.

In the area of textiles, we set up our own store for used Tchibo clothing in good condition on the Sellpy platform in 2023. In this way, we are helping to ensure that unworn clothing does not gather dust in the wardrobe or even get thrown away, but instead enable the textiles to be put to good further use. At the beginning of February 2024, we then started to offer selected returns that we can no longer sell as new via Sellpy, in addition to items from the Tchibo Share rental service, which was discontinued in 2020.

It doesn't always have to be new: In June 2025, Tchibo is launching the one-year pilot project "Tchibo Refurbished" to buy back used coffee machines. As part of this test project, we will buy and sell used fully automatic machines, valid for all first-generation Tchibo Esperto Caffè models. The machines are professionally reconditioned, refurbished, completely cleaned and in perfect technical condition. They are thus given a second life and can be purchased at a lower price than the original price. Buying used means buying sustainably!

Tchibo is working with circular solutions startup koorvi to develop the integration of take-back and recommerce processes. koorvi offers a software solution that allows brands to take back, refurbish and resell their products - completely digitally and at scale.

During a 13-month test period between June 2023 and July 2024, 26,000 reusable mailing bags were sent out for randomly selected online orders within Germany. The bags consisted of 70% recycled materials and could be returned by customers to our shops or folded up and placed in letterboxes. The bags then found their way back to the online dispatch warehouse and could be reused for the next order after processing. The total of 26,000 bags were used for 81,000 orders. This meant that the bags completed an average of three rotations. However, individual bags also travelled up to six times!

The pilot project has now ended. What happens next? In a long-term project, we would like to work together with other mail order companies and other stakeholders on an industry solution. Tchibo is committed to bringing together various brands and online retailers in a joint industry approach for reusable mailing bags. The advantages: Returns would be even easier for our customers as the process would be standardised across all packaging and shops ("return anywhere"). The pilot project also provides valuable insights for the further development of e-commerce packaging, including with regard to regulations such as the "Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive" (PPWR).