Landgard continued to develop positively in the 2020 financial year, achieving organic year-on-year sales growth. According to the preliminary figures for fiscal 2020, the growers' cooperative increased its sales at Group level by 2.8 percent year on year to EUR 2.069 billion. Despite higher costs for the implementation of comprehensive hygiene concepts and the execution of necessary restructuring measures, positive earnings before taxes (EBT) of EUR 6.5 million were achieved. The adjusted operating result (EBITDA) even increased by ten percent compared to the previous year. The final figures will be presented at the Annual General Meeting in June 2021.
Fruit & Vegetables Division The Landgard Fruit & Vegetables Division supplied retailers with fresh produce from member farms throughout 2020 without any major adverse effects from the Corona pandemic. One prerequisite for this was the solution found in April 2020 to allow foreign seasonal workers to re-enter Germany in fixed numbers and in compliance with strict hygiene requirements. This largely prevented crop failures in the 2020 growing year.
The Landgard Management Board: Karl Voges, Carsten Bönig and Dirk Bader
Further developments & changes in regional companies
The operating business in Landgard's Fruit & Vegetables division in 2020 was primarily characterized by further structural developments and changes in the regional companies.
The development of Landgard West Obst & Gemüse LLC was very pleasing in 2020. On the customer side, another regional warehouse was acquired from a major food retailer. Deliveries to the warehouse will start with the beginning of the outdoor season in Germany. For this purpose, an extensive assortment with many new programs from the fruit and vegetable range of the Landgard member companies was defined. The positive development in sales is flanked by the ongoing site modernization in Bornheim-Roisdorf and the associated further development of structures and processes at Landgard West Obst & Gemüse.
Important individual measures at the Bornheim-Roisdorf site include optimized packing services, investment in modern packing machines, and shortened transport routes between incoming goods, cooling chambers, packing machines, and outgoing goods. In addition, a new, modern hall is currently being built at the site for processing.
Emergence of Landgard Süd Obst & Gemüse
As part of the further strategic expansion of the southern region and the bundling of competencies, Landgard Obst & Gemüse LLC Kehl and Magli & Noel LLC were merged under company law and brought together under the new name Landgard Süd Obst & Gemüse LLC as of July 2020. "By merging the regional structures in the South region, Landgard can make even better use of its proximity to customers and growers from its existing locations in Kehl, Munich and Karlsruhe, bundle services and increase efficiency."
"Under the umbrella of Landgard Süd Obst & Gemüse, we will be able to provide our customers with even more targeted and individualized support," says Karl Voges, Executive Vice President of the Fruit & Vegetables division. With the new Landgard Süd Obst & Gemüse, Landgard has had a strong regional company in all four regions since July 2020. In the West, East and North regions, the regional structures had already been merged in previous years.
Sourcing expanded
Following a start-up phase, the Rade/Neu Wulmstorf fruit and vegetable site in the north has been operating profitably since fiscal 2020. "To achieve this, we worked very intensively on the site and put all processes to the test. We have improved efficiency, reduced costs, optimized the product range and significantly expanded sourcing - with success," says Karl Voges. The positive development in Rade is to be flanked by an intensified exchange with the producers in the northern fruit and vegetable region.
Landgard Ost Obst & Gemüse moved at the end of 2020 and continues to expand its operations in Halle (Saale) in Saxony-Anhalt. "From Halle, we will continue to offer growers* and customers established services such as regional member support and packing services, including an extensive quality inspection system. Logistics services, such as cross-docking will be further optimized and expanded," Karl Voges explains.
Sale of the Berbersdorf site
In addition to the new central location in Halle, Landgard will continue to supply customers in the eastern region with fresh produce in the usual way via the cash markets at the Chemnitz and Leipzig locations. The previous fruit and vegetable location in Berbersdorf was sold on December 31, 2020. Due to changes in the allocations and the supply of regional products, the expectations associated with the establishment of the Berbersdorf site in intralogistic terms have not been met. Landgard has therefore relocated the complete range of services for producers and customers to the logistically more suitable site in Halle, which offers optimal conditions for the strongly developing service sector.
Cross-divisional service
In the future, the service sector will play an increasingly important role at Landgard across all divisions and will be specifically developed as a third pillar alongside the marketing of flowers and plants as well as fruit and vegetables. One example of this is the value-added services developed by Fresh Logistics System LLC (FLS), the Landgard Group's expert for sensitive, temperature-controlled transport.
As a goods supplier and service provider for the entire process chain, Landgard and FLS will develop solutions from a single source and merge previously separate information flows into a uniform management process. The advantages of these value-added services for customers are primarily the reduction in the number of contact persons and integrated procurement, supply and process control from a single source. The services can be individually adapted to the specific requirements of the customers.
For more information: www.landgard.de