During the night of May 1 to 2, the first goods were scheduled and delivered at Fruchthaus Hulsberg's new location in Ganderkesee. The heart of the new facilities is the Freshcut production, where the latest plant technology is used to produce, among other things, sliced salads, onions and mushrooms for the catering industry and social institutions. Although the facilities will only be finalized in stages over the coming months, owner Engin Denizyilmaz and sales representative Patrick Wohlers have already given us a tour of the hall.
From left to right: owner Engin Denizyilmaz, sales representative Patrick Wohlers and deputy plant manager Joschka Gronau. In total, the company now has a good 2,000m2 of hall space (including 800m2 of freshcut production) and 600m2 of office space.
25 years ago, the then retail store with additional catering service acquired a location at the local wholesale market in Bremen. From this base a flourishing wholesale company with its own Freshcut production emerged. But in recent years, the business increasingly reached its capacity limits. "The old location was simply no longer fit for the future for us: with the new location, we not only have considerably more capacity at our disposal, but the optimal location with good autobahn access also enables us to expand our delivery area in a staggered manner. The aim is to extend our radius to Wilhelmshaven in the future," says Wohlers, describing the company's ambitious growth plans.
Besides the relocation, the fleet of vehicles and the number of employees were also further increased. The new building was also supported by the state of Lower Saxony, as jobs are created in the district.
The increasing shortage of personnel in the catering industry is clearly playing into the demand for ready-to-cook fruit and vegetables. Accordingly, however, the requirement profile for fresh-cut articles is also changing, which is why Fruchthaus Hulsberg has invested in machinery and state-of-the-art plant technology. Among other things, the production hall now features washing and cutting lines for lettuce, which will soon be able to process up to 60 bags of lettuce/minute by machine, Denizyilmaz says. Certain items are nevertheless mainly cut by hand.
View of the dry goods warehouse at Fruchthaus Hulsberg: In addition to ultra-fresh convenience goods, the company also offers a wide range of additional products, consisting of dry goods, MoPro and much more.
Within a few years, the aim is to achieve a volume increase of 30 percent; ten percent has already become a fact with the move, and a further 20 percent is to follow in the future. "We are still in the invention phase," says Wohlers. How the freshcut market will develop in the coming years is difficult to assess at the moment, he says. "According to the legislation, the range of organic for schools and daycare centers will expand rapidly in the coming years. Delicatessen salads and fruit for bakeries and confectioners are also interesting growth markets. The greatest potential, however, is evident among large caterers."
Even the past pandemic years have not influenced the growth strategy at all. "For the most part, we as well as our customers have come through the crisis well. Overall, we are back at pre-Corona levels and have even seen a slight increase compared to fiscal 2019," Wohlers explains.
Further information:
Engin Denizyilmaz
Fruchthaus Hulsberg
Zur Eisenhütte 4
27777 Ganderkesee
Tel.: 04222 / 80734-0
info@fruchthaus-hulsberg.de
www.fruchthaus-hulsberg.de