This year, Enes Groenten en Fruit in Venlo is celebrating its 20th anniversary. From next year, the Turkish-Dutch entrepreneurs will have been in their new premises for 10 years. "We are living proof that the cash-and-carry business is still alive and kicking," laughs Huseyin Culdur.
Although Enes has become increasingly active in exports in recent years, including to Scandinavia, the company has made the choice to focus more and more on cash-and-carry. "That makes payment behaviour a lot more manageable than with export customers," Huseyin observes. Three weeks back, the cash-and-carry wholesaler decided to also open its doors to customers on Saturdays, between 7am and 11am, for the first time. "That was a wish of many customers from the hospitality and retail sector and it appears to meet a need. On the last few Saturdays, we had a good turnover right away."
Turkish sugar apricots are sold under house brand Finike.
Enes' 20th year is not the best year in terms of turnover. "Inflation is cutting in and we see that people are keeping their hand on their purse strings. This is quite a difference from last year. Customers who normally bought a pallet of merchandise now take a few boxes. But everyone has to deal with this, so there is no point in complaining," Huseyin says. "The weather has also not really cooperated this spring, both in terms of sales and quality of produce."
Spanish papayas.
Meanwhile, the summer fruit season is in full swing. "Turkey and Spain are our biggest suppliers, but we also sell Belgian strawberries and cherries," says the produce trader. "From Turkey, we get a fresh supply every Monday and Thursday. Besides the usual summer fruit like cherries, sugar apricots, peaches and nectarines, we also started with purple tarragon fruit from Turkey last year. Surely we sell a few pallets of that every week. Chinese customers in particular love it."
Huseyin shows off the purple tarragon fruit from Turkey.
German market trade still forms the basis of the clientele, these account for around 70-80% of sales. When they come to buy their trade, they see all product and price information in the warehouse on the electronic shelf labels above the trade. "This works perfectly, price changes are thus immediately visible and the information is not limited to prices, but the labels also mention stock and country of origin if required. We plan to sell this system to our customers as well."
With the Turkey-Netherlands quarter-final ahead of us, a question about the match is of course unavoidable. "I have both nationalities, so we always win," laughs Huseyin, who incidentally predicts a victory for the Dutch team.
For more information:
Enes
Venrayseweg 124
5928 RH Venlo
Tel: 077-3961190
[email protected]
www.enesbv.nl