With the reconstruction of the market, the wholesale is going to be made fit for the future. Mayor Tomas Geisel promises: "Our goal is to work closely together with the traders and secure the market place for the future."
The old Düsseldorf wholesale market on the Ulmenstraße 275
The day-to-day business should continue
"This means that the old market halls will be demolished, and then rebuilt again," he continues, “And then Halls 12, 13 and 14 will be pulled down. All the traders who use those halls, including our company Berger & Tolls, will have to move to empty halls in the wholesales market.” The normal, day-to-day trading business should continue.
On the 80-year-old wholesale market there are around 170 traders. The place is 165,000 square meters in size and per year they trade around 300,000 tons of fruit and vegetables for round about 500 million Euro.
To make the new project a success a task-force has been created together with the city, states Tolls. “At the moment we are busy with planning discussions with city officials. The first meeting will be in January. Then we will discuss how the new wholesale market will look.”
Spokesperson Roland Tolls from the company Berger & Tolls
New ways
The new construction means a customer focused, faster and more attractive Düsseldorf wholesale market. “The old system of the wholesale market doesn’t meet the modern requirements anymore,” says the wholesale trader, “That is why we will find new ways in future. The new wholesale market should attract our customers and we want to compete with other centers.”
A possibility for the future could be an “interactive order system.” Roland Tolls explains: “A new order system plays a part in our considerations. ‘Time is money’ and our customers should get their products as fast as possible. They could, for instance order their products online beforehand. The goods are then picked by us and upon entering the wholesale market the customer will be assigned an area where his ordered goods are waiting.” This is only one of the many ideas for the new Düsseldorf wholesale market.
Food and catering
Furthermore the wholesale market should expand. “It should attract new traders. Meat, fish or beverages, it doesn’t matter, in the future we want to offer the customers everything related to food and catering,” says Roland Tolls.
“The city of Düsseldorf is very interested in the success of the project and would like the collaboration with the wholesale market to be a success," Tolls continues to explain, “We are looking at all the costs for the new build and who pays for the plans. It is possible that the Wholesale Market Collective Düsseldorf finances the build of the new center.” In the coming months more specific plans will follow.
Großmarktgilde Düsseldorf (Wholesale Market Collective)
Verband der Düsseldorfer Großmarkthändler und Erzeuger eV
Ulmenstraße 275, 40468 Düsseldorf
Phone: +49 (0) 211 4719 -0
[email protected]
www.grossmarktgilde.de
Roland Tolls
Berger & Tolls GmbH & Co. KG
Eickener Straße 40, 41366 Schwalmtal
Phone: +49 (0) 2163-576928-0
[email protected]
www.bergerundtolls-fruechte.de
