Lennart Middelburg will have been working for Vegetables Market Place in Poeldijk, the Netherlands, for ten years on 1 May. “Time flies, and every day is different. Last year in April, we started with our own shed in Poeldijk. This was experienced as very positive by our customers, suppliers and growers. A lot of trade has already passed through our shed. To us, it was ideal to store slightly larger stocks, because we can store products in three different cold stores. Early this year, we became BRC-certified and we’re very proud of this, because it also sends a good sign to customers.”
Petra Stolze and Gert Middelburg
“Midway through last year, Cristina Vlug Otálvaro started in our sales department. She continued expanding the import from Spain, Perpignan, Morocco, Italy, France, Egypt and the UK, so we now receive fresh products from Europe for the right price every day. This was noticed by our customers, as we always exported a lot to the UK and Ireland, but in recent months, we also sent our products to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania every day, after we expanded our sales team by hiring Martin Djakov. But we now also sell domestically every day, at first just a few packages to companies at the site, but nowadays, more and more companies manage to find us.”
Cristina Vlug and Marta Iwaniec
Last month, Marta Iwaniec started in the Sales / Purchasing department as well. “Last year, we imported a lot of bell peppers and tomatoes from Poland, and our customers found good uses for these products. Sometimes I used Google Translate to app with a Polish grower, and that took a lot of time. We also wanted to expand our assortment from Poland, we now import napa cabbage from Poland, for example, and more products will be added to this. Marta will take care of sales to Poland and Eastern Europe. A broad range of fruit and vegetables is still sent there,” Lennart says.
“We also hired Joost van Dijk last month, and he works in our Purchasing department as well. The communication between our buyers and customers is very important because we started doing an increasingly extensive range and because each customer has different specifications. This way, we receive the right products for our customers regarding their wishes. Ireland, for example, wants light tomatoes, while Scandinavia wants red ones. In the end, you’re still talking about a tomato, but it makes all the difference for these two markets. He’ll also look for as high a quality as possible, straight from the source,” Lennart continues.
“We’re now in the middle of the Dutch season. More and more customers are switching to Dutch product, but because some products are still in a bit of a production slump during the first few weeks, we’re still loading volumes from Almeria as well. This week, demand for bell peppers is good, for example, and as a result, customers still prefer Spanish product. Besides all of the vegetables we carry, we grew considerably in fruit, citrus, exotics, potatoes, onions and herbs,” Lennart says. According to the trader, the mixed pallets are still the best job. “When I walk along the mixed pallets and see a high-quality and varied mixed range, it always makes me feel good. I therefore won’t rule out another expansion of the best quality in our range in the future!”
Lennart Middelburg and Martin Djakov
For more information:
Lennart Middelburg
Vegetables Market Place
ABC Westland 427
2685 DE Poeldijk, the Netherlands
Tel: +31 174 52 71 30
Mob: +31 622 50 98 17
[email protected]
www.vmpbv.nl
