"Netherlands: "We define ourselves with real fresh meals"

Koen Sonneveldt, Barend de Bruijn and Rene Groenen of Maître André

"Our biggest branch is that of the cool fresh meals. It is especially our Dutch and Surinamese meals that we've built up on the Dutch retail market. It's more difficult across the border, with different tastes and cultures. Holland is one of the leaders in Europe in the area of ready made meals. Over the border there is a virgin area, where we hope to grow over the years," says Koen. "Ready made meals are an integrated part of the current consumer's modern lifestyle and this convenience trend has found its way to Maître André's products. Unfortunately another trend in the last few years is that everything has to be cheap."

Fruit and vegetable products are an important part of Maîre André's assortment. The sourcing takes place mainly at the vegetable processors, but they also work with frozen vegetables. "We define ourselves by supplying real fresh meals every day. Many meals on the shelves are pasteurised. This is at the expense of the flavour, but also of the appearance. You don't want a pack with a puddle of water in it," says Maître André's director. The companies main items in the winter are the stews with, e.g., red cabbage and spinach, the meal salads and the so called three compartment meals.




The salad toppings have also been winning ground at Maître André in recent years. "We have bought a number of packaging machines which means we can produce large volumes. We get the nuts from the Dutch importers," says Koen. "We continue to extend our assortment. Product development is really our company's focus. Since taking up use of our building we have had our own testing kitchen. This way we can continually focus on developing new concepts," concludes Koen.

For more information:
Koen Sonneveldt
Maître André
Tel: +31 0187601185
Email: [email protected]
www.maitreandre.nl