The young company PS Europe recently established itself at a new location in the Kapellen, Belgium. Owner Line van Hoecke and her partner Michael Littlechild have been, with a few employees, active in the niche-markets lettuce specialities and special vegetables. Line: "We are kind of a translation bureau from grower to packing. We understand both parties and are able to deliver the message in the correct way." Line started her career in the fruit and vegetable world in 1996 at Agridor. Up to 2004 she was active for the English company The Holus Bureau. That company specialized in the import of onions from New Zealand. After 2004 Line worked independently under the flag of PS Europe and did her own thing. "We continued with three main activities: lettuce specialities, special vegetables and also partly consultancy and machine-support. The last one we quickly got rid of."
"At the start it took a lot of effort from me to begin." We had no history, nothing. All I had was my name and contacts from The Holus Bureau. From a well-running company with a good financial basis I all of a sudden stepped into my own company. We were new, but luckily we have received a lot of goodwill and trust from the people we started with. This is, therefore, the moment to say 'thank you' to these people for the assistance I received. To do what one says is always of essential importance and in that way a reputation is built."
Packers
PS Europe supply their products mainly to packers and have consciously chosen not to do any packing themselves. "We would then be in the way of our own clients, therefore we do not do this. One would then be its own competitor. We are between the grower and the packer. The biggest challenge in this market is looking for reliable partners. It is always better to work together than to work against each other. Our growers are especially in Italy and Spain. Packers we supply are mainly in England, France, the Netherlands and Poland. In the last country we started two years ago with selling locally. That is going well and if all remains going well we will look for some more fixed programs next year, now at the start there is a little more day-trade. It is really a very interesting market... Polish people... require class I products."
Fixed programs
"Almost everything runs on fixed programs. In addition to the contracts a small part also goes to free trade. One meets a grower, who has surplus and the client, who needs a little extra. Then we are on our own with these quantities. Nevertheless the share of the free market is getting smaller all the time. Growers want more and more fixed arrangements and no longer growing on a speculative basis, they are no longer prepared for that any more. The possibility of 'no sale' is large. As a company we know what we are doing and have built a position of trust over the last few years. As a go-between one is not well-known, but often one knows most about the market. We have a good view of the complete European market and it is not easy to form an opinion like that. The weather, the problems, the surpluses, just to name a few. Many companies have a lot of staff and often these are not busy with a summary of the market situation and the hot topics of this moment. We have a small and close team and carefully keep track of everything. We know what will happen in the lettuce market during the next four weeks. Last week we received quite a number of telephone calls from companies wanting to know the market situation for the coming weeks. The supermarkets expect the shelves to be full of lettuce shortly and everybody wonders where that will come from. We do not know what the weather will do, but other things can be known well in time."
Spreading of risk
"There are certainly special moments in the lettuce trade. About a year after I started PS Europe we for the first time imported from outside the EU. That was terribly exciting. Via friends we contacted a supplier in Kenya. All went well, except the cargo arrived rather limp. Luckily a bit of water did the trick. Then it was really an emergency solution, it is not that then we were a permanent buyer from that country. We have been there, but we have chosen to divide our strength within Europe and our growers are in various countries. We make sure that an order we receive is given to various growers. In this way the risk is spread and we can assure sufficient supply just about always. In principle the grower supplies the client directly in order to guarantee freshness. This is of course fantastic, but sometimes causes logistic problems, because it may become pricey. To transport via groupage is more expensive than full loads. But there are clients, who are prepared to pay this."
Line and her husband mention, that the company is not concentrating on volumes. "We work in niche-markets and with knowledge including our wide range of friends, customers and suppliers we can do a lot more than supply products only. Also we find it of much interest to view new trends in various countries and to supply our clients with that information. We are part of the thought process by sharing these things and also look for growers, who want to grow certain products. Questions of clients may well be very specific: once an airline required rocket, which had to have a certain size exactly, There is always a grower somewhere, who is interested in an order like that."
Niche
At the start we mainly supplied the regular lettuce varieties. Later on the mixes arrived and it became a niche-game more and more. Products such as mustard leave, misuma, paksoi came along and are still there. Also more and more mixes are supplied to-day and we arrange every year what to grow. The demand from clients also becomes more specific, we see an increase in volume in the decrease of semi-manufactureds, such as peeled beetroot and carrot. Increasing products are beetroot and parsnips. "We started with parsnips with 1 pallet every two weeks and that is already now 5/6 pallets weekly. It is nice to see that there is growth in certain products. We had the same with ginger. At the beginning we doubted whether to do this, but it has become very successful. One has to know exactly what the clients want and then supply it in that way."
For more information:
Line van Hoecke
Produce Services Europe BVBA
5, Vinkenlei
2950 Kapellen - Belgium
Tel +32 (0)3 666.96.70
Fax +32 (0)3 666.96.75
[email protected]
www.pseurope.be
Line van Hoecke
Produce Services Europe BVBA
5, Vinkenlei
2950 Kapellen - Belgium
Tel +32 (0)3 666.96.70
Fax +32 (0)3 666.96.75
[email protected]
www.pseurope.be
