At the wholesale market in Duisburg, Germany, the Reuter business family have been a phenomenon for years. Managing director Jörn Reuter has dedicated his time completely to potatoes, garlic and onions during the last years. Two years ago, he and is colleague Mr Pleines started up their business together and currently they supply many customers in the Ruhr area from two locations. Their secret: wholesale trade in the traditional sense.
Despite his busy schedule, Volker Reuter pours a cup of hot coffee for his visitors at 8 in the morning. The sympathetic businessman speaks as you would expect from a busy person: quick and by using animated hand gestures. When he talks about his weekly sales, it is understandable that he is in a rush. "We market between 30 and 40 pallets of potatoes every week at the moment and, in addition to that, 40 pallets of onions."
Volker Reuter proudly shows his Annabelle-potatoes
Assortment
His customers are mainly weekly wholesale market traders and the catering industry in the Ruhr area. The main assortment of the business comes down to potatoes and onions. Reuter: "We sell about 10 varieties of potatoes. These can be divided into three categories: solid-boiling, semi-boiling and crumbly. We also offer white cabbage, which especially Turkish customers eat a lot of."
The current storage in the potato business is anything but perfect, according to Reuter and his colleagues. "The prices are very low at the moment and the quality is mediocre as well." Reuter thinks that the German market is already oversupplied with regional potatoes and onions. "We have so many potato fields in Germany. It is already enough."
The regions of origin of their own potatoes are the Luneburg Heath and the fields in the Palatinate. Altough he also imports products from Italy, France and Cyprus, the German consumer prefers German potatoes. "People would rather pay one euro more for good German potatoes. Otherwise, the wholesale market is not profitable for many customers. They would rather go to Venlo in the Netherlands. That is a real threat for our wholesale market business."
The front of the potato stores
Was this threat also the reason that Reuter and Pleines started working together? Reuter: "No, it is more so that we weren't really competitors." Currently, another location, aside from the wholesale market in Duisburg, in Gelsenkirchen. Everyday, seven vehicles are on the road. "In Gelsenkirchen, the products are stored and packed in bags of 5 or 10 kilos."
Despite the challenges that his business is facing, Reuter wants to hear nothing about other changes. "Besides some seasonal products such as Halloween pumpkins, we absolutely want to stick to potatoes." He thinks that his customers can appreciate his traditional business. "They order only by phone. We have also considered using the internet, but that has not been done yet."
More information:
Reuter & HEKA GmbH
Auf der Höhe 10 (Großmarkt)
47059 Duisburg
Tel.: 0203 311136
volker@kartoffeln-zwiebeln.de