Naturata Halle/Germany: changing people’s habits

Something new on the eastern front: at the beginning of June, Jürgen Tschentscher opened his second organic store – Naturata Halle - in the university town of Halle. In an attempt to replicate his successful concept in Magdeburg, the citizens of Halle now have the benefit of an extensive organic outlet with a bistro and a comprehensive product range. The store is managed by his co-owner, who has observed that the east of Germany is still the organic diaspora. The pair have a mission to change the eating and shopping habits of the people there.

The location in Halle is well chosen: trams stop across from the store, and the Paulus quarter and Kröllwitz are residential areas with considerable purchasing power. A site analysis by Dennree even showed that in Halle people’s willingness to buy organics is higher than average. They have had plenty of experience: there is a Dennree organic store in the Reileck district, a very busy location in the centre of town. Halle also has a Waldorf  kindergarten, Waldorf school, an art college and a university – all of them customer groups who regularly buy organics. The fact that a big fitness studio has its premises in the same building (picture) is similarly a source of potential customers.

The main road to the north carries a lot of traffic. Despite this, the former Rewe premises stood empty for quite some time before Jürgen Tschentscher, while searching for a suitable location, discovered them and came to an agreement with the lessors to convert a part of the building and to lease it to him. Near the rear entrance to the store there are about 30 covered parking spaces on two levels for customers. Both entrances have been designed to be friendly and inviting, like the store itself with its good 500 m² of retail space. (Picture: View of the bistro near the front entrance)

After thorough renovation by the landlord came the design phase, that was carried out by the company Der Holzhof: wide aisles and a bistro with 20 seats that, together with service counters for bakery goods, cheese and meat (picture on left), takes up a lot of space near the entrance. On the other side, you see the fruit and vegetable displays in a separate chilled room (picture below on left). Passing the service counters for cosmetics and fine foods to the left of the entrance, you come to 12 metres of chilled cabinets with energy saving doors (picture below on right) and the drinks section. In between are the shelves for dry goods and 9 metres of freezers. The product range is appealing, and there is a wide variety of goods. You don’t find an excessive number of Dennree brands, despite the fact that the store belongs to the partnership association, that stipulates that at least 70 % of stock is supplied by Dennree as the main wholesaler. Nevertheless, the Naturata range enjoys a healthy presence and is represented in many of the product groups. Apart from goods from these suppliers, oils, tea herbs, speciality mustards, bakery goods, eggs and some seasonal fruit and vegetables are sourced direct from local suppliers.

Even with a product range that is appealing and a presentation that is excellent, an organic store in the east of Germany in no way runs itself, despite the lack of any real competition in Halle (270,000 inhabitants). “What we have to confront here are quite low appreciation of organics, low brand recognition and people quite sceptical about the products, plus the fact that they are very price-sensitive,” says Jürgen Tschentscher. “The flip side is that we’re faced with far less competition, the rent is favourable and we’re already seeing an average spend per customer of 16 to 18 euros.” But that doesn’t happen on its own: 100,000 flyers were distributed to launch the store, and every two weeks 28,000 leaflets detailing products and offers land in the letter boxes in selected districts of Halle. The store is open 12 hours a day, including Saturdays. With six employees, that’s a challenge, and there is to be an increase in staff. (Picture: All chilled facilities have energy-saving doors)

“We want to change people’s eating and shopping habits,” is how Tschentscher describes the objective that they hope to achieve with their range consisting of 5,000 items, attractive products and a lot of fresh foods. Based on its experience with the Magdeburg store, Dennree compiled the product range for the Halle store according to the principle: offering a good array of products creates demand. Another key to success is customer orientation and friendliness. Tschentscher, who hails from Oldenburg, has been in Sachsen-Anhalt since 1997. In 2001, he launched a 100 m² shop in Magdeburg  where, six years later, he opened the Naturata organic store (320 m²). (Picture: The air-conditioned fruit and vegetable section)

Fabian Otto (on the right in the picture) trained in specialist sales in the health food sector. He gained experience in various health food stores and also trained in marketing before he started working for Jürgen Tschentscher in the store in Magdeburg. When the store in Halle was launched nearly two years later, he became a shareholder with a 30 % stake in the company, and now he manages the store. He wants to use the relatively quiet summer months to train his staff and make sure things run smoothly. His employees come from the conventional trade and, although they are interested in organics, they have to get to know the products. Many people here still lack the basic ecological awareness that people now take for granted practically everywhere in the west of Germany.

Tschentscher and Otto have invested around 320,000 euros in the store, the fittings and the stock. They are confident they can achieve the planned daily turnover of 2,500 euros, which translates into 900,000 euros annually. “We’re approaching it cautiously and not putting ourselves under financial pressure,” says Tschentscher. “We can rely on Dennree as our partner and we’re very happy with the way we’re working together. They monitor carefully what we’re doing and, if they don’t understand a particular order, they get back to us straightaway.” (Picture: Well designed cosmetics department).

At the same time, Tschentscher (picture) is trying another field of activity - with Naturata-Gemeinsam Handeln e.V., an association of store operators who work together to examine the whole value added chain and to make it fair. Jürgen Tschentscher regularly takes part in the round table discussions of the currently 25 Naturata stores (based on Rudolf Steiner’s idea of the threefold social order). Apart from Naturata Luxemburg, he is the only Dennree customer in the area and is sometimes looked at rather critically for that reason. Tschentscher is, however, convinced that the two things go together: “Both are important – Dennree for our business success and Naturata for our philosophy and the background.”