Bio Company: 100 million euros in its 15th anniversary year

“We’re pleased to see that it’s the stores we’ve launched in the last few years that are still delivering high double-digit growth,” says Georg Kaiser. In the middle of October, the 35th store opened in Charlottenburg.  In Berlin they now have 28 stores, four in Brandenburg  (Potsdam and Glienicke), two in Dresden (Saxony) and one in Hamburg. In 2013, the Berlin market as a whole developed very positively Dominating the first quarter of 2014 is the renovation of old stores, with the main emphasis on investment in new energy-saving cooling and air-conditioning technology. (Picture: Bio Company - Georg Kaiser looking optimistically to the future)
 
More new openings are planned for the rest of the year: in the spring, the first new stores for 2014 will be launched in Berlin-Kleinmachnow and in Potsdam, followed later by one in Kreuzberg, and at the end of the year or early in 2015 Zehlendorf will see a new store. Expansion is taking place in Hamburg too, where a second Bio Company store (400 m² including a baker’s shop) will open in the Rindermarkt- a market hall in St. Pauli and a centre with market flair catering for the locality. After an initially difficult search for premises, Bio Company has now got a name in the property scene: “A number of Bio Company stores are on the way – we want to position ourselves in Hamburg as the fourth organic supermarket chain alongside Alnatura, Erdkorn and Denn´s,” says Kaiser. The average size of the stores is currently ca. 500 m². (Picture: Bio Company’s first store in Hamburg)

Kaiser sees no end to the possibilities in Berlin: “We keep getting emails from consumers in parts of the city where they want us to open a store. I see plenty of opportunities for expansion in the next two to three years.” But he’s realistic too: “We’re fully aware that there are constraints. The time will come when the dynamic growth will slow down,” the Manager Director points out. There are currently still quite a lot of districts that are inadequately supplied with organics. So it’s a matter of providing Berliners with the opportunity to buy organic food. Kaiser adds that, in the meantime, the business has a sufficiently solid foundation to weather a situation where a less attractive location turns out to be a failure. “Sometimes, experiments don’t work out. We’re then at liberty to operate the emergency brake and close, although this has not happened in the last four years.” (Picture: New opening in 2013 in Berlin Wilmersdorf )

Bio Company doesn’t have a big business expansion department. “We operate with a very lean, efficient administration.” The wider management team consists of six people: Hubert Bopp and Georg Kaiser have a top executive in charge of each of the divisions Expansion and Store Management, Buying and Sales, Training and Personnel, and Marketing. “So we’re very well staffed – the team is stable and feels at home here.” Kaiser describes his strategy by saying he likes to give people freedom, which can sometimes result in mistakes being made but nearly always produces positive outcomes. (Picture: Managing Director duo Georg Kaiser and Hubert Bopp)
 

As far as fitting out their stores is concerned, since 2008 the so-called concept 3.0 has proved its worth, with sustainable solutions everywhere (for example, shop furniture made from local timber). Last year, the energy concept was upgraded to an optimum, where the stores need no heating at all on account of sophisticated heat retrieval and improvements to the level of insulation, and the air conditioning is operated with practically no input of primary energy. “Heating costs have gone down to just about nil, and electricity consumption has been further reduced too,” says a delighted Georg Kaiser. Energy-saving measures are being gradually retro-fitted in the older stores. (Picture: Bio Company fruit and vegetable department in Rheinstraße)

Regionality is one of the indicators of excellence used by Bio Company: 46 direct partner companies in the environs of Berlin supply Bio Company direct or via the wholesaler Terra. “We’re really proud of having built up this regional network together with Terra – by means of many discussions and by purchasing guarantees,” explains Kaiser. He says that there have been positive developments in production and also in processing in recent years. He gives as an example the two hectares of glass houses in Pretschen, that supply local cucumbers and tomatoes, and the dairy Lobetaler. He admits that the marketing of regional goods that are sometimes more expensive is not straightforward. “We explain it to our customers in the customer magazine and at tastings.” (Picture: Regional themes are regularly dealt with in the customer magazine)

The takeover of the insolvent organic manufacturer Velten was a sensible investment in Bio Company’s commitment to regionality. With the newly founded organic manufacturer Havelland, they were in the black after just three months. Kaiser had long had the idea, based on Ebl in Franconia, of their own meat and sausage production with animals from the region. After bringing in new staff and investing in machinery, they were able to get the company back on its feet. Without a doubt, there is demand: three-quarters of the products are sold over the sausage and meat counters of Bio Company stores, and the rest goes to the canteens of the Bundestag, to Sarah-Wiener restaurants and school catering. (Picture: Manager of the Biomanufaktur Havelland, that is now a regional business belonging to Bio Company)
 

The idea is that everyone should be able to afford shopping at Bio Company. “Our prices mustn’t be too different from those of our competitors – we don’t want the image of a discounter, but neither do we want that a chemist’s shop,” says Kaiser. Their own brands account for 5 % - 6 % of turnover, but the established organic brands on Bio Company’s shelves have been growing disproportionately for years. “We rely on authentic manufacturers’ brands, and we do a lot for them in our marketing. You could say that we have educated our customers to buy brands. We have been successful in changing  our image from an inexpensive outlet in the early years to a value-for-money house of brands." In terms of competition, Kaiser sees Alnatura, LPG and Denn´s as more or less equally strong. (Picture: Bio Company’s own brand means inexpensive items in many product groups)

In the running of the company, staff are at the centre of all operations. Two members of staff with a fixed budget are charged with training and further training of employees and everything associated with this task. “Training is a major issue for us,” says  Kaiser. Of the 1,025 employees, about 70 % work full time and a good 100 are being trained, and of these about 85 % are offered permanent jobs. The company made a name for itself in 2010 when the Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Berlin awarded it the distinction of “Best Training Company”. “Our efforts in this direction are appreciated, and applicants are always telling us that we are an employer with a future that chimes with their own values.”  The qualification in wholefoods, recognised by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and created in cooperation with the vocational training organization Forum Berufsbildung, is one of the success stories that gives Kaiser great pleasure. Wages are regularly adjusted upwards, and qualification for the job and long service in the company are reflected in what his employees earn. The first workers’ council has been formed, and Kaiser says the way in which they have started working together is very good and has a high level of trust. (Picture: Bio Company values well trained employees)
 

Kaiser’s comment on his activities outside the company: “BNN is almost as important for me as Bio Company and I’m really glad that, after the joining forces with other branches of the wholefood industry, we’re moving ahead so well and so successfully. For me, it would have been a personal failure if it hadn’t succeeded.“  He says that coming together and all following the same path calls for a certain style of communication and openness to overcome rifts in the past. “It creates more and more new potential, I’m convinced of that.” For Kaiser, priority issues are quality assurance, the issue of hybrids, a sustainability monitor for the retail trade and strengthening political lobbying.