Füllhorn opens another Denn’s bio in Pforzheim

On 7 April 2011, the Füllhorn Group opened its third Denn’s bio store in Pforzheim (nearly 200,000 inhabitants) that lies between Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. After the second Denn’s Biomarkt in the shopping centre G19 in the middle of town was closed at the beginning of October 2009 because of too few customers, the company is now risking another opening. This new store (560 m²) is conveniently located on the B10 in the shopping and commercial district of Wilferdinger Höhe. Whereas the previous store was in a downtown shopping centre, this new venture is two kilometers to the west of the railway station and the city centre and has plenty of parking spaces directly in front of the store. The new launch coincided with the opening of Denn’s sixty-fifth organic supermarket in Schweinfurt.

The first Denn’s Biomarkt in Pforzheim, a joint project by Dennree and Füllhorn, was opened in September 2005 in the Brötzingen district, since when it has regularly produced good results. For 2011, Wolfgang Mayer – the founder and managing director of Füllhorn Biomarkt GmbH & Co. KG – is expecting to maintain the level of turnover of this store. Füllhorn operates seven stores in the region round Karlsruhe and Heidelberg, plus three stores run jointly with Dennree. The wholesaler Dennree (based in Töpen in northern Bavaria) owns a 75 % share of the Pforzheim company, to which the store opened in nearby Mühlacker in 2009 also belongs. (Picture: Dejan Susic from Knetwerk helping to create a relaxed atmosphere)

The new venture by Füllhorn and Dennree in Wilferdinger Höhe has the advantage of a bistro that serves midday meals. Of particular importance is also the fresh food range – a wide selection of fruit and vegetables, cheese, dairy products and fresh meat – all self-service. You find natural cosmetics, drugstore products and natural textiles too. This new store has created 19 jobs (including four temporary staff).

At the launch there was plenty of opportunity to taste products and play a wheel of fortune with an organic quiz. For the winner, the prize was a bulging shopping basket (picture on left above). These launch events lasted three days, with tastings of products by Zwergenwiese, Rapunzel, Gepa, Lebensbaum, Weleda, AlmaWin, Andechser, the coffee roaster Pforzheimer Kaffeerösterei, plus wine tasting. Gepa was there with two stands, one for chocolate and the other for coffee. The company had hired the independent entrepreneurs Matthias and Sabine Fischer from Café Siesta to serve free speciality coffee by Naturland (picture).

Despite nationwide sourcing of goods by Dennree, Wolfgang Mayer ensures that as many as possible come from regional suppliers. Bread and bakery goods are supplied by the organic bakeries Schaefer, Toifl, Wüst and Bonnet. Two producers supply eggs and cheese and three others supply vegetables – some direct and some via the specialist fresh food wholesaler Handelskontor Willmann. “Regional goods account for between 20 and 30 % of our turnover,” says store manager Katrin Käser. Noodles (Albgold), coffee (Pforzheimer Kaffeerösterei), juices (Beutelsbacher) and cereals (Spielberger) are all products supplied by regional companies, although some go via the Dennree headquarters in Töpen. “I’m seeing clear evidence of change, because Denns regard regionality as increasingly important,” comments Käser. (Picture: Shop assistant in the bakery department: “I really want to sell organics.”)

Katrin Käser (32 years old and at Füllhorn/Denns in Pforzheim for the last four years) is very happy with the first day, when about 800 customers came in, looked around, tasted and bought. She thinks it’s the bistro that attracts most customers into the store. “Thousands of people work in commercial zone Wilferdinger Höhe and there’s nowhwere they can get a good midday meal,” says Mayer. And with about 50,000 cars driving along the main road every day, he wants to tap into this source of customers as well. “A way of telling drivers all about us would be an advertising hoarding.” That’s what is planned but there have been problems of coordination with neighbouring shops. (Picture: Store manager Katrin Käser and Wolfgang Mayer)

“When the number of customers is more than 300, we’re in the black,” explains Mayer, whose manager in the first Biomarkt store in Pforzheim discovered this new location. Negotiations with the landlord and the banks dragged on for two long years, because the owner of a car dealership had gone bankrupt. Now, however, it’s all smiles for Mayer and his store manager, who was previously the second-in-command at another store in Pforzheim.

Planning and fitting out with shelving by the company Assmann was all carried out by Dennree’s Department for Planning and Business Expansion, and it was financed by internal loans from other Füllhorn stores. “We had to spend a great deal on renovation, because there was virtually nothing we could take over from the previous tenant. We had to instal new floor coverings, sanitation facilities, ceilings, lighting, walls and a glass façade, and the area outside had to be re-designed too. But this meant our rent was pitched at a reasonable level.”

Tip: www.fuellhorn-naturmarkt.de, www.denns-biomarkt.de