This week, Fresh2You’s main trade will be moved to the new building at the trade centre in Barendrecht, the Netherlands. The importer, exporter, wholesaler and cash&carry was founded about three years ago, and is already moving to a new building of as much as 5,000 square metres of cold store and another 500 square metres of office space. AGF.nl was given a look behind the scenes by Evert van Oers and Corné Roks.
Corne Roks and Evert van Oers
“Compared to other trade centres, Barendrecht has hardly any Cash&Carry trade left. We moved into that gap, and that worked out well for us. It turned out Barendrecht had a major need for it. A lot of market vendors from the Randstad, but further inland in the Netherlands as well, come to buy their trade here. We were personally surprised by how large this clientele still is. We open at five in the morning, so they don’t need their own storage. We work with high-quality shipping agents, but we also manage to sell a good bit of Class II,” says Corné Roks.
At the new location, the cash&carry customers can be supplied even better. Just behind the entrance, where the actions are presented, there are three cash&carry cells with temperature regimes of 12, 8 and 2 degrees Celsius. “This way, we can supply fruit, but also greenhouse vegetables and bananas, under ideal circumstances. Elsewhere in the cooling, we use so-called push back settings, and the pallets can be stacked three high.”
Please click here for the photo report.
“An advantage of the new building is that you can set it up as you want it,” says Evert van Oers. “Considering the growth we’re experiencing, we’ve chosen to build the entire plot of one hectare. Construction went well. Bias Architecten had a good design right away. Vrolijk was our main contractor, Prohuis was our construction supervisor, Nijssen took care of the cooling technique, Barth the installation technique, and our racks come from Jungheinrich. A lot of details were considered in the new building. For example, the commercial department has a view of the warehouse, the cash&carry customers can stay dry when loading their purchases under the awning, and the new building has a lift and a disabled toilet.”
“We looked into whether BREEAM certification was an option, but we decided not to go for that in the end, because the investment compared to the number of square metres was unbalanced. We are becoming GPR certified for the sustainable construction. The building was constructed as sustainably as possible, including an ammonia/CO2 cooling, and we’re using residual heat of the cooling to heat up the offices,” Evert explains.
Besides the cash&carry trade, Fresh2You also plays an important role as a wholesaler. “It’s remarkable that a lot of people didn’t notice this lot at first. We made a conscious decision to establish ourselves on the existing trade site. We’re getting a lot of synergy from the site, because a lot of mutual trade occurs. Nieuw-Reijerwaard was another option, but here we’re immediately connected to existing infrastructure, and we’re at a refurbished site,” Evert continues.
Fresh2You’s team; Toon Coertjens, Remko Oirbans and Martijn Valerius not pictured.
“Quite a number of suppliers for European retail have their own production. These volumes never quite meet demand. When these companies can’t sell their trade, we’d like to sell it for them,” says Corné Roks. “We really distinguish ourselves because of our old-fashioned service, the kind of service of about 15 years ago. Customers are always welcome for a chat and a cup of coffee. On the other hand, we know our customers so well, when orders are placed via the phone, they can load their trade within ten minutes.”
The majority of Fresh2You’s trade consists of bananas, citrus and vegetables. The wholesaler supplies practically a complete range, and they want to expand even more in the new building. Fresh2You primarily imports from Southern Europe. For instance, the wholesaler created a furore with their own citrus brands Brixfruit and Famisa, among other products. Export takes place within Europe; Germany, the UK and Scandinavia being their most important sales markets. According to Corné, Fresh2You has hardly any seasonal peaks. “Naturally it tends to be a bit quieter during the holidays, but when you have trade, you’ll have customers!”
Please click here for the photo report.
For more information:
Corne Roks
Fresh2You
Transportweg 19
2991 LV Barendrecht, the Netherlands
T +31 (0)85 485 83 21
[email protected]
www.fresh2you.nl
