Dutch company Best Fresh Group, which incorporates some of the fresh produce industry’s leading names including soft-fruit specialist Fruit World and vegetable supplier Valstar Holland, says a new supply model based around newly incorporated subsidiary ABC Logistics has enabled it to grow its business in the UK, despite buyers in the market placing increased emphasis on direct lines of procurement and cost reduction.

According to Kees Valstar, one of the company’s senior directors, establishing the new operation has put the group in a position to keep product flowing through its packhouses as it has adapted its service provision to growers and customers accordingly. “The major products in the Dutch season are going directly from A to B logistics-wise,” he explains. “They’re not here in our packhouse any more. Cost savings and larger orders lead to a situation where you’re better sending the driver to the grower and going directly to the customer.”

Before the turn of the millennium, trucks at the group’s Poeldijk-based facility in the Westland near Rotterdam would generally be filled with one product and call on four or five different customers in the UK. Nowadays, it is far more common for drivers to pick up from four or five growers in the Netherlands and then proceed direct to one UK customer’s distribution centre. “So, it’s a challenge to get our packhouse filled again,” Valstar admits.

So, where once there would have been row upon row of pallets containing the best of Dutch produce, the 22,000 sq m packhouse as well as two others in Venlo and Zwaagdijk, are now filled with imported fruit and vegetables from places as far afield as South America, South Africa and China, with ABC Logistics acting as an independent service provider facilitating delivery of such items to buyers across Europe.

Boy Stuijzand, managing director at ABC Logistics, believes fresh produce companies have had to adjust their business model dramatically in order to survive. “Owning real estate will present new challenges in future,” he contends. “We have to make a choice – are we a trading company with logistics-based supply to retailers, or do you get rid of everything you don’t need to make yourself as flexible as possible in an industry in which you are strong?”

Having reportedly achieved a 40 per cent increase in turnover last year, Stuijzand says he expects to generate more growth in 2013 as retailers and wholesalers are wishing to consolidate orders, clear goods and arrange transportation in the Westland. “Our ultimate aim for this year is to handle 150,000 outgoing pallets,” he adds.

The company recently began working with Hannon Transport, based in Northern Ireland, to move imported product from Poeldijk into the UK and Ireland. Hannon is currently setting up a new office at the facility itself, where it is expected to bring in around six to seven staff from 1 March. As a result, closer collaboration is expected to see the volume of product flowing direct to British and Irish customers rise over the coming year. —