André Heijl was brought up with a passion for the fresh produce sector. For years, his mother Rina handled promotional activities for brands such as Jaffa, Carmel Agrexco, Unifruco, Cape, Outspan and Florida Citrus, so even as a young boy he was taken to the wholesale markets in Leidschendam, Amsterdam and Rotterdam to deliver promotional material.
After a career in South Africa and the Middle East, the AGF'er landed back in the Netherlands, where he and his wife Nulifar founded Anrin Logistics, specialising in the transport and handling of fruit and vegetables. The company name refers to André and Nulifar's names and is at once an ode to his mother Rina.
"Through my mother, who passed away four years ago, I knew many people in the sector, producers, importers as well as wholesalers, shipping companies and supermarkets, but I wanted to learn more from the production side. That's when I left for South Africa, where the former director of Capespan took me under his wing. That's how I learnt a lot about grape growing, among other things. Eventually, I lived in South Africa for 15 years. Among other things, I worked there for eight years for Afrifresh. That's how I learned to find a home for the whole basket the farm produces. From premium markets like Japan and the UK to European destinations and the Middle East."
When André was asked by one of his customers to come to the Middle East, he made the move to the UAE. "A wonderful time, we were getting about 2,500 containers of fruit a year, ranging from bananas from Ecuador, citrus, grapes from several continents, limes from Taiwan. I worked less on sales then, but much more on the logistics process. Incidentally, that was also very interesting commercially. Thanks to our volume, we were able to make such agreements with shipping companies that the discount on freight rates on the containers actually became our earning model."
In the UAE, André met his wife, who was dedicated to carrying out quality checks for companies outside the Middle East. "The moment an Arab made a claim, we were asked to prepare an objective report. In those years, we made a lot of QC reports on grapes, citrus, berries, carrots, persimmons, onions and mangoes."
At some point, the Netherlands started calling again. Day trading no longer attracted André so much, but he did not turn down an offer from Opticool. "There, I learned a lot about shipping and customs formalities. For me, that was a new branch of sport, because I always outsourced those technical aspects of freight forwarding. I really liked it, the work was less stressful than daily sales, while you could really unburden the customer."
André then worked for Agromerchants and Total Exotics, then came a project where he supervised the transition to a new integrated ERP package. When that integration was completed, he and his wife Nulifar decided to take on the challenge of self-employment, starting from the auction grounds in Bleiswijk. "My wife focuses on quality controls, and we are the ears and eyes of Russian customers in particular who buy for re-export in Europe. My line of work is to get the paperwork in order. Many people don't want to do that work and get a headache just thinking about it, but I enjoy the challenge of biting into it. And with success, because in recent years I have only once had a truck stuck at the border."
André and his wife Nulifar.
"Often, the trucks will arrive in the morning, we take care of the handling, and then they can be on their way to Russia in the evening. Regularly, customers will throw all kinds of things over the fence and if you can then solve that, it's rewarding work. From my experience, I can empathise well with customers to ensure the journey from farm to fork with reliable and consistent logistics. Our customers keep us well busy, but the period from October to April, that's when we really have to pop. The summer months are relatively quiet. Fortunately, we do still have some side activities, including providing transport and customs clearance of horticultural supplies for Dutch horticultural supplier Royal Brinkman, among others."
"Initially, we were still working with Excel, but it was time to look for a suitable ERP package. I found that in Caswell, which I still knew from the past. Although the developers have since retired, I was keen to use it again, because the package does exactly what it is supposed to do. We manage all our activities from stock administration to customs clearance and financial administration in this system, which makes me very satisfied. From next month, our team will be further expanded by two people," Andre says. Asked about plans for the next five years, he replied that he would like to have his own warehouse and facilities at his disposal by then. "I hope we will then exclusively handle their entire package, customs, including storage and transhipment, labelling, sorting and netting, for 10 to 15 customers from Eastern Europe. We are basically a one-stop shop for our clients."
For more information:
André Heijl
Anrin Logistics
Klappolder 191
2665 MP Bleiswijk
[email protected]
www.anrinlog.com