Varekamp Coldstores is gearing up for a busy period as they move to a new, climate-controlled facility at the Honderdland business park in the Dutch village of Maasdijk. Along with this transition, a new management team is set to take over. 'Mister Varekamp,' Willem Nowee, has stepped back from daily operations but will continue to advise the new team after a well-deserved holiday. "So he is not out of sight and certainly not out of mind," says commercial manager Pascal Kouwenhoven.
Strategic account manager Stefan Boer and warehouse manager Daniël in 't Veld, both with a decade of experience at Varekamp Coldstores, are ready to take over operations. Starting in week 21, the new facility in Maasdijk will begin receiving its first pallets, followed by the arrival of containers in week 24. The move to the new location will be carried out in phases, organized by customer and product. During June and July, operations will temporarily run from both the new site and the current location. However, the Poeldijk cold store is scheduled to be vacated by mid-July.
Meanwhile, the office workstations are already set up, and the cold rooms and installations are ready for use. "So, from January to May, we have transitioned from a shell building to a fully equipped cold store. We have met every Thursday with all parties involved in the new construction, and I can say on behalf of these parties that the whole process went smoothly without too many problems," says Daniël, who forms the bridge between the customer service department and the warehouse staff.
Varekamp Coldstores is also transitioning to a new ERP system in the new building, namely the GreenCommerce package from Jem-ID, a package that has long been used within Europe Retail Packing. "In recent months, we have met weekly to discuss our needs to arrive at the most ideal IT system. We have done a lot of shadow testing, so I am confident that this will work out well."
The new building covers a total area of 6,000 square meters and includes 14 cold stores with a capacity of at least 4,000 pallet positions, along with twelve docks. The facility can cool down to -3 degrees Celsius and features specialized cells for drying ginger.
Another activity that Varekamp Coldstores will undertake in the new building is packaging work, such as repacking, flow packing, and netting. "Where previously the products went to the location of Europe Retail Packing, we can now package on our own site, which is a great logistical advantage," says Pascal. "This allows us to further expand our activities as a service provider from when the fruit arrives here in the port to delivery to retail."
"We see that customers are increasingly placing their trust in us as a service provider," agrees Stefan. "Many customers face the same staff shortages and are happy to have specialists handle everything they can do externally, so they can focus on trading. We see more and more large customers wanting a total package, and we can serve them from A to Z with the combination of Varekamp and ERP."
For the new team, a busy period awaits. "We are still fully engaged with grapes and hard fruit, the overseas citrus season has yet to fully start, and this week, the last flower bulbs are leaving the building," says Stefan. "The move marks another milestone after the takeover of Varekamp by ERP to better meet customer needs from a new building with a favorable geographical location and all possible facilities at its disposal. This fits perfectly with the plan to better unburden the customer."
For more information:
Pascal Kouwenhoven
Europe Retail Packing/ Varekamp Coldstores
Tel. +31 (0) 174 412 790
Mob: 06-20657831
[email protected]
www.varekampcoldstores.com