Since the last week of 2014, Kraaijeveld has moved from Barendrecht to the former 'The Greenery' building in Maasland. With several locations at the commercial centre, the fruit and veg wholesale company was running out of space, but not anymore in Maasland, with a 20,000 m2 warehouse and an additional 2,500 m2 office space. The full team of over seventy staff members made the move to the Westland. A week ago on Saturday, the family day was held. Last week, FreshPlaza had a look.
Gertjan Kraaijeveld
"We had really run out of space in Barendrecht, so we were looking for a new location," says sales manager Jan Doorn. "Firstly, we had a preliminary discussion about a location at the new industrial park Nieuw-Reijerwaard, but this wasn't a realistic alternative. We often drove past this building in Maasland, and eventually contacted The Greenery. They wanted to sell the company, and we wanted to have it. We launched a bid, and so it all happened relatively quickly."
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"Of course you run into some surprises with a building that's been empty for three years, but all in all we didn't have any major setbacks. We removed all cold rooms and shelves, and organized the building entirely from scratch. When we bought the building early last year, we planned to move in the final week of the year, and we managed to do that. We are renting out 4,000 m2 to The Tomato Company, and we have an additional space of about 4,000 m2, which could be rented out as well."
Business from the Westland
"Of course the move to the Westland also has downsides. Our trucks to Germany take half an hour longer to get there, and all of our staff are also faced with a longer commute. Still, that didn't outweigh the facilities and space we were able to get with this building. In addition, we get a great deal of business from the Westland. Barendrecht has lost some of its importance in recent years. An increasingly large amount of imported fruit is already coming in through the Westland in recent years, which has meant a lot of companies have sprung up in this area."
Cafeteria with a view on the warehouse
At the moment, Kraaijeveld doesn't supply directly to retail. Whether that will be the case over the coming years, remains to be seen. "Perhaps we will have to wink a bit more at the supermarkets," Jan says. "We are growing bigger, and the continued availability of produce is actually growing smaller. A large part of the trade is programmed, while we are more active on the free market. That means working together more and better with growers and renowned suppliers at home and abroad. Cooperation and shortening the chain are important principles for us. Over the past year, we have clearly opted for the establishment of our own procurement team, and we have hired Robert van de Berg to fully focus on the procurement of greenhouse vegetables."
Warehouse
Where Kraaijeveld used to be mostly active on the German market, these days that share has been reduced to 30%. "The surrounding countries have been added. We used to export quite a bit to Russia, although this is certainly not our biggest market, but those volumes have gone down due to the import boycott. We are consciously trying to spread our sales better. For instance, since we started using this building, we have also established the overseas team, led by Maarten Smit. One of our specializations is taking care of mixed shipments. This building is excellently suited to that. We are not looking for the biggest volumes, but would rather offer added value through a high-quality way of working with specialized mix pallets."
