A workshop in Tyrol

Peter Koidl built his first grain mills in 1985, under licence. Seven years later he had his own brand, Penningberger Kornmuehlen, and in 2002 that became KoMo. His son Marcel started at the company in 2013 as a general labourer and has run it since 2015.

The production statement is unusually flat for this category, so we will just quote it: KoMo's grain mills, flakers and mixers are produced one hundred per cent in Austria, in their own workshop in Tyrol. About seventy of roughly three hundred staff work in production. The registered company is a German GmbH in Munich, which is worth knowing if you like the paperwork to match the story, but the mills are made in Itter.

Why the housing is wood

A KoMo mill is a wooden box with a motor in it, and the wood is not decoration. It is PEFC certified, from sustainably managed forest, and it damps the noise and the vibration that a steel housing would hand straight back to your counter.

Every mill is tested by hand before it leaves, in what KoMo describes as more than seventy steps. The confidence that follows from that is in the warranty: twelve years on the electric grain mills in private use, three years on the flakers.

Mill, flake, or both

Three kinds of machine, and the names tell you which is which.

A Fidibus is a grain mill. They go from the compact Fidibus 21 through Classic and Medium to the XL and XL Plus, with the Magic as the small one and the Jumbo for commercial volume. The PK 1 is the original Penningberger design, still in the range.

A flaker rolls oats and other grain flat rather than grinding it. Flocino and Flicfloc are the hand versions, Flocman the electric one.

A Duett or a Fidifloc is both in one housing, mill on one side and flaker on the other. Duett 100 and 200, Fidifloc 21 and Fidifloc Medium.

Alongside them the hand grinder with its optional motor drive, and an electric flour sifter for anyone who wants a lighter loaf out of a wholegrain mill.