The wholesale world is not always spoken of in the best of light. But markets are places of many and diverse activities, which is just one of the reasons that they are able to retain their relevance in today's competitive commercial world.

Actually, to remain competitive, wholesalers need to expand their activities, or to “add a string to their bow” as the saying goes in France as well as the UK. Two recent examples show how it is done in Rungis.

Delta Prim has operated as a traditional wholesale company in the market since its inception in 1969. As the years went by, its premises expanded to neighbouring stands in the hall, as the company following the ambitious expansion policy of its owner. Delta Prim recently bought its neighbour Femenia, a company specialised in banana ripening and, despite having no previous experience in this aspect of the trade, decided to carry this function forward.

For Delta Prim, the choice was straightforward: the clientele are the same, there is no competition with existing products, it offered the chance to learn different technologies, and it was a ready-made opportunity to add bananas to its portfolio. Furthermore, as the impending alterations to banana regulations will certainly change the industry in France, small, traditional ripening companies could play a very important part in the game.

There is some similarity in the second example. The Blampin Group has bought Gaston Bidault a well-established Rungis firm specialising in garlic and potatoes. For Blampin this was its time to expand a range that principally focused on imported fruit. But, as its management pointed out, there is more depth to the development than that.

It is founded on the will of Blampin to go back to the roots of the company created a century ago in southern of France: to reinvent itself as true wholesale-distributor operation.

That is not to say that the company has any intention of giving up its profitable importing side, but it at least shows that wholesale is not the second-class trade some would like it to paint it as.

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