The Greenery recovers after restructuring
Carrying out the necessary changes has allowed a lean core company to emerge. Opting to pursue a retail strategy was a credible decision, which has generated growth potential.
Results
In 2014, the group's net turnover fell from EUR 1.3 to EUR 1.1 billion, a fall that can be attributed mainly to the departure of several growers in late 2013. The net result for 2014 was EUR 1.2 million. Adjusted for one-off effects, the company's operational costs dropped by EUR 28, a sharp decline compared to the previous year. 2014 was characterised by an early season with high volumes throughout Europe. The resulting high price pressure dampened the commercial result,
particularly in the first six months. After Russia imposed a trade embargo on vegetables and fruit in August 2014, the resulting high volumes remaining on the European market had a dampening effect on prices.
Retail strategy of chain collaboration and cost control
In 2014, the company saw growth in direct turnover of 13% to retail partners in the Netherlands. Stricter procedures were applied to minimise decay and steps were taken to achieve a high degree of standardisation at the three distribution centres. As a result, the number of inter-site shipments could be reduced by 30%. Thanks to these measures, the reliability of delivery to retail customers increased to 99%. By using more of the sorting and packaging capacity at qualified grower locations, 2% more volume was shipped directly from the growers to the customers' distribution
centres.
2015 forecast
The Greenery will focus on the Netherlands, Germany and the UK in the European retail market and would like to achieve further growth in these markets by intensifying supply chain cooperation with retailers. Since losing sales opportunities in Russia, the company has aimed to expand sales into new markets, including China. This got off to a good start in 2014 when the company delivered 247,000 pears there. The Greenery expects that the available product volume of its members will remain stable compared to 2014.
Click here to download a PDF of the annual report of The Greenery B.V. / Coöperatie Coforta U.A.