With around 8,000 products, online supermarket Oda will start its test phase in Berlin on January 23, thus opening its first branch in Germany. By the time of the official launch in February, Oda's assortment will have grown to over 9,000 items, and in the following months to up to 12,000. In the first test phase, specifically in the fruit and vegetable section, around 240 fresh items and just under 100 frozen goods will be offered, category manager Carlos Álvaro Benito tells us.
"The organic share in the total assortment is about 11 percent. However, in the fruit and vegetable section, we try to reach 25-30 percent." Apart from organic fresh produce, which the company sources from fruit and vegetable specialists and others, all product groups in the organic segment are supplied by Bio Company.
Carlos Álvaro Benito
Before taking up his position at Oda, Álvaro already worked for well-known food retail chains and a fruit and vegetable agency. "Through contacts with large German producer organizations and cooperatives, as well as individual producers themselves, we can offer, for example, potatoes, onions, apples, asparagus and fruit vegetables from the region, as well as products from Spain and Italy." He also receives goods from wholesalers and the Bünting Group.
For goods from overseas, he can fall back on suppliers who import the products directly. The focus, however, is on regional goods in season, similar to competitors, he said. "It's important to us to support regional producers and thus also keep the supply chains as short as possible. At the beginning, we are focusing on the Berlin location. In the second step, we want to supply medium-sized cities within a 2 to 2.5-hour drive from Berlin."
Great potential in online food retailing
The German market offers great potential in the e-food sector, he said, as it is still highly underdeveloped in this country. "Over the past nine years, we have risen to become the market leader in the online food retail category in Norway thanks to our sophisticated logistics system. Our suppliers show a lot of trust in us and also see the potential to attract new customers through Oda."
The main competitor in the German market is brick-and-mortar retail, he said. "Basically, a large proportion of Berliners do their grocery shopping in stationary stores, and a whopping 67 percent across Germany do their shopping exclusively in stationary supermarkets. To convince more people to shop online, we want to make weekly shopping easier than ever before. We want to give our customers the opportunity to do all their weekly shopping with us."
Serious competition for stationary supermarkets
"We will offer a wide range of products in all price segments in Germany. Our prices will largely be based on supermarket levels. Overall, we are structuring our prices in the German market in such a way that stationary supermarkets and food delivery services will have to regard us as serious competition," Alvaro said.
"Of course, that's not always easy in the current economic climate: if our suppliers raise their prices, we have to take that into account in our pricing as well. As an online supermarket, however, we have distinct advantages over traditional grocers in this regard. As there are no costs for store rents or energy costs for operating stationary stores, we can always offer attractive prices. Thanks to our industry-leading logistics and our centralized logistics model, we are very efficient in picking and delivery. We pass these cost savings on to our customers in the form of favorable prices and low delivery charges." Constant communication with suppliers is needed here, he said.
15,400 sqm logistics center, 7,600 sqm photovoltaics
In Ragow-Mittenwalde, a 15,400 sqm logistics center could supply the entire Berlin urban area. "This enables us to meet the demand of up to 50 regular supermarkets while being equipped to conserve resources. A 7,600-square-meter photovoltaic system is installed on the roof surface, which can cover up to 50 percent of the energy requirements from the building complex. To further reduce the CO2 footprint, we use (deep) cooling warehouses with a heat recovery system in the halls. The increased energy prices and costs naturally have an impact on our business. However, we believe that with our efficient logistics, we are well positioned to weather the current situation." The logistics center will also have space for up to 800 employees in the future.
Image credits: Oda Germany GmbH.
For more information:
Carlos Álvaro Benito
Oda Germany GmbH
Zeughofstraße 1
10997 Berlin
E-Mail: de-commercial@oda.com
www.oda.de