Alnatura’s 16 % growth – 5 % more than last year

The financial year 2010/2011 has gone down as another record year in the history of Alnatura. 16 % growth translates into a rise in turnover from 399 million euros to 464 million (8 % on a like-for-like basis). The company opened twelve new stores. The figures and more facts about the financial year were announced by the founder of Alnatura, Götz Rehn, at the annual press conference on 2 November in Frankfurt. Rehn gave details of the new “Store Concept 3.0”, the re-designing of his Super Natur stores, and emphasized the gains in terms of sustainability. Alnatura was nominated for the German Sustainability Prize that was awarded on 4 November. (Picture: The founder of Alnatura, Götz Rehn, delighted with the positive development of his company)
The increase in turnover in the last financial year – 1 October 2010 to 30 September 2011 – came to 16 %. With its own stores and by supplying Alnatura brand articles to 3,200 partners (2011) (among others, dm, Tegut, Global, Hit and Budni), growth increased by 5 % compared with the previous year (like-for-like sales increased by 8 %). Rehn is confident there is further potential for double-digit growth in the coming years, but he stressed that he was not setting any growth targets. (Picture: Net development of turnover in millions of euros)

With its twelve new stores, Alnatura increased its network from 53 to 65. One store was closed in Kassel. The main location for expansion was Munich and the surrounding area where five new outlets were created, making a total of 11 in Bavaria. This concentration of the network in big cities was on the company agenda this year: Frankfurt gained a fifth store (picture) and Wiesbaden acquired a second. Other targets for expansion were Freiburg (three), Heidelberg (two), Bonn (one), Hamburg (four) and Berlin (seven). Alnatura now has a presence in 38 towns across the whole country. By the end of the year, stores will be opened in Hanover and Grenzach-Wyhlen, near the border with Switzerland. Rehn was insistent: “We’re far from being aggressive competition”. He pointed out that the market share of organics was still less than five percent, a situation that meant there was huge potential. “We’re well prepared for the future, and we’re going to put more emphasis on dialogue with our customers, because the customers are our employers,” is how Rehn put it. Alnatura has added 300 employees to its workforce, and it now employs 1,660 people. (Picture: A record twelve Super Natur stores have been launched)

Alnatura has been doing a lot to communicate with customers: since as recently as May 2010 Alnatura has been on Facebook, where the company now has 18,000 fans and, in its own estimation, is in the lead in the organic industry. They came late to Facebook but were now using it intensively, said Rehn. On Twitter the company currently has 1,300 followers. “We regard Web 2.0 as important communication media.” He went on to say that the high level of interest was confirmed by 3,700 downloads of the Alnatura Bio-App in the first week after its launch in October 2011. The concept had been developed mainly in collaboration with customers and was being constantly improved. Another innovation in the last financial year was a customer evaluation function on the Alnatura website, where 84 % of 1,020 Alnatura products were ranked “good” or “very good”. (Picture: Social media – this relatively new approach is very popular with customers)

For almost three years the company has been working on “Store Concept 3.0”. They say their aim is, among other things, to save materials and energy and to optimize both the functionality and aesthetics of the stores. They feel this has have achieved quite well: with the new design they have saved, for example,
50 % of materials on the bread and cheese counters, and the same applies to the wine department. Doors on the chilled shelves have proved their worth, saving 15 % of the electricity used in each store. The re-designed cosmetics and toiletries department is saving 8,500 kwH per store and year. All in all, electricity consumption has been reduced from 240,000 kwH (2009) to 200,000 kwH in 2011, with the future target set at 180,000. For Rehn, it shows what can be done “ In all aspects of the business, we want to shift more and more from quantitative to qualitative growth and therefore to save resources.” (Picture: Doors on the chilled shelves are readily accepted by customers and they are not a hindrance when shopping)

On the issue of achieving sustainability, Rehn commented: “ When measured against what is needed, Alnatura is basically only a tiny initiative striving for more sustainability. Organic agriculture, what Alnatura has to offer and the initiatives of Alnatura and the organic industry as a whole are levers to raise the level of sustainability in our society. Unfortunately, this is not sufficiently recognised and appreciated.” Rehn and Manon Haccius, who presented the figures for the development of organic agriculture in Germany, called for significantly more commitment by the state in promoting organic agriculture. He said it was high time we defined and implemented sustainable ways of producing our food in the future. For the third time in a row, Alnatura has been nominated for the German Sustainability Prize. This prize, for which 670 firms competed, was awarded on 4 November in Düsseldorf. (Picture: the Store Concept 3.0 promotes sustainability)

Among the many initiatives in his company, Rehn drew particular attention to the successful “Experience Variety” campaign. In April and May 2011, over 100,000 people signed the petition against genetic engineering in agriculture. This led to a hearing of the petitioner, Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, before the petition committee and a discussion about, among other things, a ban on GM plants in the EU. According to Manon Haccius, only 12 petitions reached the necessary number of votes to trigger a hearing, although about 15,000 to 20,000 petition applications are submitted every year. Another long-term initiative of Alnatura is organic seed: since 2003, packets of seeds have been sold, and every year a donation is made to the seed fund of the Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft, a foundation for the promotion of organic and sustainable agriculture, and to the Mellifera Association, that promotes bee-friendly apiculture. During the last financial year, 170,000 seed packets were sold. 36,000 euros went to the seed fund and 30,000 euros to Mellifera. The company’s agricultural project in Peru received a donation of 36,000 euros – from the sale of every pack of Peruvian coffee 40 cents go to Terre des Hommes. (Picture on right: Continuing development of new products under the Alnatura brand and special editions. In 2011 there were 50)