The fire at Nature’s Pride’s De Lier headquarters broke out on December 28, 2006, at around 10.30pm, Harris recalls. “The fire came as a complete surprise to us. The exact cause is still unknown, but it seems to have started from outside the building.” Fortunately the staff had left for the day so no personal injuries occurred. However, all of the company’s facilities were destroyed, save only the server and a few pumptrucks, she says.
With its entire inventory lost, Nature’s Pride had to start again from scratch, but miraculously, this was achieved with minimal fuss. “We were lucky to have lots of neighbours and other suppliers around us that supported us in the first days after the fire,” Harris explains. “We were up and running at 90 per cent capacity by January 2 and only missed one working day - December 29. The first week was full of challenges and emotion, but I think we surprised everyone including ourselves with the quick turnaround and ability to have a full comeback within a few days.
“Our advantage was that we import most products on a daily to weekly basis and had everything in stock within five to six days. We were also lucky to have so much support. Van Geest International and Quality Produce International (QPI) were able to supply warehouse space the next day and have offered us the opportunity to stay there until our new building is finished. We rented ripening rooms from Van der Waal in Rotterdam and were ripening within 24 hours of the fire.”
Harris says the response to the company’s crisis was fantastic, enabling staff to focus on getting back on its feet straightaway, despite obvious disappointments. “We are grateful to all our customers, growers and others that supported us when we needed it,” she continues.“Yes, we were insured, and one always loses somewhat financially in such a situation, but the loss is minimal. I think our biggest loss was the fact that we are a young company and everything was relatively new, so we were happy with what we had. Lots of things had a personal value and they are not replaceable.”
Nature’s Pride was established in 2001 as an importer and distributor of exotic and off- season fruit, vegetables and berries, supplying supermarkets, distributors, wholesalers, and catering in most European countries. “We also supply exporters in Holland that deliver to importers in 40 countries outside of Europe,” Harris adds. “It is a great niche market for us.” A sister company Nature’s Pack was introduced in 2005 with a core business of ripening mangoes, avocados and papayas.
The fire occurred during a period of redevelopment for the company, which is still underway. “Nature’s Pride started plans for building new and improved premises in 2005,” says Harris. “This was supposed to be finished last November, but has been delayed by approximately four months. The delay was caused by complications with delivery of the cement pillars in the beginning phase of construction.Now the building is scheduled to be finished at the end of February and we hope to move during the second weekend of March.
“The new building has 12,000 square metres of warehouse and office space and is built on two floors. There are 10 coldstores, six ripeners, a forced air cooler, two order pick squares, 18 dock shelters, etc. It has been custom-built to service Nature’s Pride for ripening, packaging, order picking, cooling, etc.” The new premises are located in Maasdijk in the Dutch growing region of Westland, which is approximately 15km from the port of Rotterdam.”
With the new site approaching completion, all eyes are fixed firmly on new horizons, Harris says.“Nature’s Pack will be able to ripen up to 35,000 cartons at the new premises. The company is developing several sorts of packaging and buying new packing lines, with our focus very much on optimal packaging of exotics and off-season produce.
“We intend to introduce a fresh herb line in small packaging. The idea is to pack at the time of ordering for same-day delivery, offering customers a choice of two sizes of packaging - 20 grammes and 50g. We will introduce the new line after we have moved in the spring.”
According to Harris, the company is seeing strong growth within its pre-packed exotics and ready-to-eat lines. “Our focus is on servicing our customers that appreciate a better eating quality exotic,” she claims. “We try to have daily arrivals on our core lines to offer our customers the freshest produce.Our strength is with our growers, whom we know personally. We often have contact with them on a daily basis. Our closest growers know our customers and we have an open door policy between the customer and the grower.”
In the meantime, Nature’s Pride is turning its attention to forging new ties at this year’s Fruit Logistica, where it will be exhibiting for the third time. “We plan to give tastings of our ready-to-eat lines and other exotics. We have eight growers exhibiting with us and we look forward to lots of interaction with them and our customers. Come and visit us at stand C 21 in Hall 3.2.”
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