With a focus on the German-speaking food service, Sous Fresh from Venlo has been in the corner where the blows fell in recent months. "We now have a turnover of around 70% with our food service customers," says commercial director Roy Peters. "I also do not expect this share to rise much this year, as I do not see the measures eased immediately."
"Fortunately, we were able to partly compensate for our loss of turnover in other channels. Our roots as a total supplier in the wholesale channel certainly contributed to this. Growers of typical catering products did not have that option. For many of those growers and specific food service suppliers, the consequences are still very significant. We have a warehouse, trucks and article numbers and can therefore basically supply everyone ", Roy counts his blessings.
Roy Peters
Focus on gastronomy
"Our focus will not change. It is gastronomy and that is where our strength lies. This is also why we have such a wide range. We have deployed that strength to grow in other markets and that has partially succeeded," continues Roy. "We have not started to sell other products, but we have certainly leaned more on the basic range in the first few weeks. For specialties such as cresses and exotics there was either no demand or no supply."
"Those products have pulled up in the past month. Personally, I found that after the opening of the catering industry, the start-up was still very slow. After that, you could see that it was picking up a little every week, but it has only really been the last month that it has picked up again. The current 70% share in the food service was also what we predicted in May. However, I do not expect that we will return to 100% this year. "
"For that reason, we also looked closely at our cost structure. Fortunately, we did not have to lay off permanent staff, but we were able to avoid renewing some temporary contracts. I am very proud of our team and how flexible and resilient they have been. "
Broadening horizons
"I am happy with how we got through this period. We switched quickly and are still a healthy company. Cutting costs and looking for new turnover certainly contributed to that. It took some entrepreneurship to get things done. Everything we have done in recent years in innovation and market development has focused on gastronomy. Now we had to broaden our horizons and see where there were opportunities elsewhere. "
For more information:
Roy Peters
Sous Fresh 
Venrayseweg 122a
5928 RH Venlo
Tel: 0031 (0) 77 32 30 235
r.peters@sousfresh.com
www.sousfresh.com