Vollcorner opens ninth organic supermarket in Munich

Party mood in the Solln district of Munich: a good 150 guests came to celebrate with Willi Pfaff and Birgit Neumann the launch of their ninth store. At the preview the day before the opening mid March 2011, husband and wife stood at the door and gave a warm welcome to every single guest as they arrived. As well as employees and friends, many suppliers attended the event. Among the guests were Thomas Greim (Dennree) and Karl-Ludwig Schweisfurth (from the organic organization Herrmannsdorfer Landwerkstätten), all there to have a look round the 320 m² store with its colourful walls. The opening of the ninth organic supermarket in Munich marks a personal success for the organic pioneer Willi Pfaff. (Picture: Willi Pfaff and Birgit Neumann with Karl-Ludwig Schweisfurth)
In his speech, Willi Pfaff (picture) thanked the tradesmen and shopfitters for their excellent work, despite considerable time pressure. The last store was launched only a month before in the west of Munich and now, with the store in Solln, they are covering a district in the south of the city. Set back from the main thoroughfare leading south to the foothills of the Alps, the store occupies a prime location.

“Things have got to change, that’s the message – this time from Fukushima,” said Karl Schweisfurth when he addressed the assembled guests. He is head of the Herrmannsdorfer Landwerkstätten in Glonn to the south-east of Munich. As a master butcher, he was standing behind the meat counter, because his company, operating as a shop-in-shop, supplies this second Vollcorner store with fresh meat and sausage. (Picture: Karl Schweisfurth handing Thomas Greim some raw ham to taste)

Until late at night – actually 4 o’clock in the morning – Willi Pfaff had worked on a video film of the renovation and building work, to which he had added lively music. So the guests on the launch evening, standing shoulder-to-shoulder between the 1.5 metre-high shelves, were shown in ten minutes how the rapid conversion was carried out.

The icing on the cake was the contribution by Holger Rautenberg from the firm Natur und Computer. He installed the checkouts and the accompanying software and is a personal friend of the owners. To loud applause, he presented an organic version of Monopoly that he had modified himself (pictures below). He had changed the names of streets on the board to well known street names in Munich where you can find an organic supermarket. Among them were ten streets with a Vollcorner store. All the playing cards were similarly modified.





Willi Pfaff opened his first store in the Neuhausen district of Munich in 1988. It was followed by two more stores in 1991 and 2000. The fourth was launched in 2001 in the Dom-Pedro-Straße, and on 10 March 2005 came the fourth Vollcorner store (220 m²) in the Schwabing district. The first store to be opened, that is run by Pfaff’s sister Sabine, moved to new premises in 2005 with 200 m², thus achieving organic supermarket size. Since 2008, it has been operating under the name Schmatz Naturkost am Glockenbach and now has 550 m² of retail space. In the middle of September 2007, the company opened its sixth store (580 m²) in the south of Munich near the underground station in Fürstenried. In February 2008, a store with 240 m² was launched in the east of the city, and in the summer of 2009 it was the turn of the seventh store in Nederlingerstraße. At the beginning of 2008, the Vollcorner organic chain celebrated its twentieth birthday in all its stores across Bavaria’s capital. (Picture: Willi Pfaff with son Leo on left)

The concept has proved to be the right one: local stores operated personally by the owners. They have a retail area measuring between 300 m² and 500 m² and stock clearly defined product ranges with 3,500 – 4,000 articles. On one afternoon every week, a trained cosmetician is available in each store to advise customers. (Picture: Gudrun Schweisfurth, the wife of Karl Schweisfurth, congratulates Willi Pfaff).

In its nine stores, Vollcorner has 162 full-time and part-time employees, including nine trainees. A team of 16 employees will be on hand to advise customers. It recorded a total turnover of 15 million euros last year, and the owners are hoping that the two new stores will generate a further 3.5 million euros. Their target in 2011 is an increase in turnover to approximately 20 million euros. All Vollcorner stores adopt the Dennree organic store concept. One of the focal points is “Organic for Every Day” with Dennree articles. (Picture: Georg Schweisfurth, a shareholder in Basic, and Thomas Greim from Dennree)

Tip: www.voll-corner.de

Launch	Address	Retail space
1991	Frundsbergstraße	70 m²
2000	Arnulfstraße	210 m²
2001	Dom-Pedro-Straße	250 m²
2005	Augustenstraße	220 m²
2007	Maxhofstraße	480 m²
2008	Warthestraße	240 m²
2009	Nederlingerstraße	200 m²
2011	Kazmairstraße	260 m²
2011	Wolfratshauserstraße	320 m²