The rebuilding of Claus-Pural has begun

People were in deep shock when, on the night of 8 February 2010, the storage facility in the new building belonging to the wholefood and health food wholesaler Claus-Pural in Baden-Baden was totally destroyed by fire. But the horror of that night was soon replaced by determination, because it quickly became clear that everything would have to be rebuilt. The clean-up has taken nearly two months, because the debris had to be sorted on site and disposed of separately. However, they now have building permission, and it will not be long before work begins. (Picture: The administration wing and the office of Ulrike Claus were ready for occupation again just before Easter)
“All our customers are receiving their deliveries again after the fire. We are once more in a position to guarantee the availability of goods, and the quality of our supply service is getting better by the day,” says Ulrike Claus, who is pleased with what they have achieved in just a few weeks. With skilful organisation by employees and management plus a dose of good luck, they had most problems under control remarkably quickly. And we have to remember just how recent was that traumatic event at the beginning of February.

“What alerted me to the fire were the lorry tyres bursting around 10.30 in the evening,” explains Ulrike Claus, who lives in the area of town where the company has its premises. “It was just like war,” the forty-five-year-old reminisces. But what then followed was more like a nightmare. “Within 20 minutes the fire was raging across the roof,” recalls the head of the company Heinz Claus, resigned to the situation.

In the end, 360 fire-fighters from 41 stations were tackling the blaze, but those in charge of operations soon came to the conclusion that they could only keep it under control and let it burn out. “For me a whole world collapsed,” says Claus, thinking back to that night. And it all started with a lorry that had gone up in flames by the time the first people turned up to see what was happening.

But this worst-case scenario for Claus-Pural rapidly became the incentive for employees and customers alike to put the terrible event behind them and get on with life. The employees in the administration wing of the old building, that housed Puraliment (the department dealing with the French market), were all squashed in together. At the moment, three or four are using one desk. Files are piled on the floor, computers are all over the place, and finding a way through is sometimes a challenge. But, despite everything, the mood is up-beat, and their determination to persevere is intact. (Picture on left: Working shoulder to shoulder)

Then three things happened that were a stroke of luck in their misfortune. On the very next day after the fire, they found a vacant 8,000 m² warehouse just 5 kilometres from Baden-Baden Sandweier (picture) and they rented it. Since the insolvency administrator in the case of Vitalia in Weyarn was trying to sell the equipment of the wholesaler Ökonova, they were able to buy high-stack shelving, forklift trucks and digital commissioning devices, etc., at knock-down prices. A few days after the fire, all these things were loaded onto a lorry and taken from Bavaria to Baden-Baden. So the rented warehouse became operational in no time at all, even though commissioning is still not working optimally. But the new warehouse has about twice as much space as they had before, and the only thing they don’t yet have is a DSL connection. (Pictures on right and left: Warehouse rented until August)

The only problem now was sourcing their goods. Whereas supplies to France were not affected, there was considerable impact on the German market. Although the availability of goods in the week after the fire was reduced by 30 %, because all the stock in their storage facility was destroyed, the company was still able to supply customers from its warehouse in Gilching near Munich. A year ago, Claus-Pural took over the health food wholesaler Richter. As Heinz Claus pointed out: “We were so pleased to be able to send some deliveries from there that would normally have come from Baden-Baden.” The Gilching warehouse has an area of 2,000 m² and a fleet of eight lorries. They are in the process of buying two new lorries, one of which will be a double decker. At the beginning of March, three weeks after the catastrophe, goods availability was back to 98 %. (Picture on left: Ulrike Claus with her father Heinz Claus)

Currently, turnover has largely stabilised, which is mainly down to great solidarity on the part of the retail trade. In the words of Heinz Claus: “We are profoundly grateful to all our suppliers and customers.” He said that they received many phone calls and emails in the days following the fire, and this had given him the strength to carry on. After being thoroughly cleaned, the administration wing was operational again in the middle of April. Apart from a layer of soot, a strong smell of burning and a few broken windows, it was largely undamaged. The start of work to rebuild the warehouse is imminent. “If everything goes well, it’ll be up and running again in August,” Ulrike Claus is delighted to report. Anyway, the emergency warehouse has been rented until the end of August. (Picture: Still checking what to keep and what to dispose of)