After an absence of five years, Gebr. Gentile AG last Monday once again moved into a stall on the Zurich wholesale market. The company will continue to focus supplying major customers on the new trading floor. By integrating the sales stall into the flow of goods at Näfels headquarters, the full-range trader and major supplier is in a position to better guarantee so-called just-in-time logistics and thus guarantee daily freshness, according to managing director Renato Häfliger.
Due to a restructuring, Häfliger decided -shortly after coming into office in 2012- to sell the company’s stall. But the option of returning to the wholesale marketplace was always in the foreground. “After the expansion of the company, today we see ourselves as a full-range provider with logistics as our core competence. The next logical step is now to get more involved in the pick-up business again, which is why we have again applied for open sales areas. With the approximately 240 m2 sales area we are able to cover not only the supply but also the availability and demand peaks directly in the hypermarket.”
Platform Solutions
Like other wholesale marketers at home and abroad, the Zurich dealers also have a wide range of domestic and European goods, and of course exotics. Although the product range of Gebr. Gentile AG also contains about 200 seasonal products at any time, the managing director believes in the distinctive service of his company. “We distinguish ourselves through our close-knit logistics, integrating the sales stall into our flow of goods from our headquarters. This results in us having completely fresh goods every evening, and selling these products over the next several days. As a result, we can respond very quickly to customer requirements and score points through freshness. Currently there is a phase change from imported goods to Swiss goods and all sorts of lettuces and of course asparagus are now topical.”
Like other wholesale marketers at home and abroad, the Zurich dealers also have a wide range of domestic and European goods, and of course exotics. Although the product range of Gebr. Gentile AG also contains about 200 seasonal products at any time, the managing director believes in the distinctive service of his company. “We distinguish ourselves through our close-knit logistics, integrating the sales stall into our flow of goods from our headquarters. This results in us having completely fresh goods every evening, and selling these products over the next several days. As a result, we can respond very quickly to customer requirements and score points through freshness. Currently there is a phase change from imported goods to Swiss goods and all sorts of lettuces and of course asparagus are now topical.”
Customer-specific platform solutions and reliable logistics are the main pillars of modern market trading, according to Häfliger. Because the pure trading business is no longer value-adding and will continue to consolidate. "It is all the more important to know your own USPs (Unique Selling Points, red.) and added value and to communicate them to the outside world. That's why we have developed logistical solutions so that a full range -including specialties and complementary products- can be ordered daily from us, with the products only a few hours later arriving at our customers. This way all disposition and procurement risks are completely outsourced to us and our customers can maintain a much smaller stock. Furthermore, our customers can put their customers' order time closer to the time of our delivery so that they themselves can add value.”
Gebr. Gentile AG is an independent, owner-managed company that has been successfully active in the wholesale and import of vegetables and fruits for more than 50 years. The core competence of the AG is in the planning, realization and maintenance of customer-specific platforms as a full-range supplier (including procurement, quality management, logistics). From the central logistics company in Näfels, the AG daily delivers fresh products to major distributors, middlemen and independent retailers in German-speaking parts of Switzerland and in Ticino. The subsidiary Bettio Glarona Gastro AG covers the entire gastronomy segment as well.
For more information:
Gebr. Gentile AG
Renato Häfliger
Schwärzistrasse 3, 8752 Näfels
+ 41 (0)55 618 58 58 (Zentrale)
+ 41 (0)55 618 58 08 (Fax)
