Another double-digit rise in turnover for Alnatura

On 30 September Alnatura came to the end of the financial year 2009/2010 having once again achieved a double-digit rise in turnover. The organic company in Bickenbach in Hessen registered a turnover of 399 million euros, which is an increase of 11% compared with the previous year. This was announced today by the founder and sole executive shareholder Götz Rehn at the annual press conference in Frankfurt am Main. This means that Alnatura is continuing to grow at a faster rate than the total organic market’s predicted 4 % for the current year. “We’re very pleased with our positive figures. They reflect our popularity with consumers and are an incentive for us to keep on working to satisfy our real employers – the customers,” was Rehn’s comment on the pleasing results. (Picture: Alnatura in Berlin)
With 59 SuperNaturMärkten (stores) at the end of 2010, Alnatura is still the market leader among the organic supermarket chains. In 2010, nine new stores were opened and added to the network, principally in Berlin, Cologne and Munich. Ingolstadt and Bonn are new locations for Alnatura stores and Baden-Württemberg is the federal state with the most stores – 18 – followed by Hessen with 13, Bavaria and Berlin, each with six and Nordrhein-Westfalen with four. During 2010 a second store was opened in Wiesbaden in Hessen, and a fifth store is planned for Frankfurt next year. (Picture: Alnatura Frankfurt)

As a result of the expansion in the number of stores, Alnatura added 100 people to its workforce in the last financial year, and the company now employs 1,350 people, including 113 apprentices. This makes it one of the biggest employers in the organic industry. The organic sector as a whole is important for the creation of jobs and, according to PresseForum BioBranche, in spite of the economic crisis the number of employees rose by 5.7 % to around 180,000 (survey period from the end of 2007 to the end of 2009).

Together with Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Darmstadt, Alnatura launched a groundbreaking pilot project this year to create in the long term a specific job qualification for the organic industry. The qualification (‘Zusatzqualifikation Naturkosthandel’) is a nationally recognised award and can only be obtained after a two-year practical in the organic specialist trade. In October 2010, six people passed the first exams.

The product range of Alnatura has been further expanded over the last financial year. With 60 new articles, the range now consists of 1000 products that are sold in more than 3,000 stores of various trade partners. They include almost 1,200 dm-drugstores in Germany and the dm-stores in Austria and several countries in central and south-east Europe. They also supply the tegut stores in Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen and Northern Bavaria, Budni stores in the Hamburg region, the Hit stores of the Dohle Group, the Globus department stores and Cactus in Luxembourg.

Over the year, Alnatura has been one of the three most sustainable companies in Germany. To be awarded the German Sustainability Prize, the jury stipulates that companies have to “combine economic success with social responsibility and care for the environment in an exemplary way”. This year, 560 firms have competed for the prize, and the winners will be announced on 26 November in Düsseldorf. (Picture: Alnatura-founder and sole executive shareholder Götz Rehn)

The launch of the distribution centre in Lorsch in the south of Hessen and centralized logistics represent a new phase in the company’s history. The new distribution of goods means that many food miles can be saved, and the growing number of Alnatura’s own stores and those of its partners are supplied more efficiently and in a more environmentally friendly way. After almost a year of building work, the distribution centre, that covers an area of 20,800 m² and can accommodate 17,000 pallets, was finished and became operational in March 2010.

 The warehouse and office building have been designed to incorporate ecological features: larch wood from the local Odenwald has been used; there is a photovoltaic array on the distribution centre’s roof; an air-water heat pump has been installed for heating or cooling, and there is also a geothermal system for the adjoining office building. The rest of the energy supply is exclusively hydro-electricity, and this means that running the distribution centre is climate-neutral.

2,900 organic products are delivered from Lorsch to Alnatura’s stores, to the warehouses of partner companies and to four regional organic wholesale partners. Alnatura stores continue to receive fresh food products from regional farmers, bakeries and regional wholesalers.

The Alnatura distribution centre, in which 110 new jobs were created, is located close to the A67 motorway and not far from the A5, so that it has direct access to the national transport network.