Vita Nova-Reformhaus Mayr sets new standards

The new specialist store in a suburb of Munich is an exciting experience and not only for the health food sector - for the organic sector in general the third health food store of Michael Mayr is a revelation in how zeitgeist, organic consumption and wellbeing can all coalesce. Mayr, who represents the third generation to run the store in Planegg, a municipality in the south-west of the Bavarian capital, knows the location intimately. In1989 his mother opened a health food store there, and this is what gave him the confidence to acquire 800 m² of retail space. In keeping with the zeitgeist, the purely vegetarian organic restaurant – located together with a show kitchen on the first floor – offers meals of first-class quality. (Picture: Michael Mayr in front of his flagship store in Planegg)
A factor that makes the huge investment in setting up such a lavishly designed store somewhat easier is the knowledge that Planegg and its surroundings belong to one of the most prosperous areas in the Munich region, which brings with it the hope that this will help to achieve rapid amortization. You wouldn’t suspect the store covered as much as 800 m², because the retail area is divided up into numerous rooms, and into this space are fitted a wide range of wholefood and health food products, an extensive cosmetics department, a day spa with cosmetics cubicles (picture), a gifts and accessories department and a restaurant (called Restaurant Zeitgeist).
You’ll find everything you want – with one exception. “I advocate eating as little meat as possible or renouncing meat completely,” says Mayr, and you don’t doubt that’s the credo of the wiry 38-year-old with alert eyes. And he adds: “I send customers who ask for organic meat over to the organic supermarket.” His standpoint is no doubt the result of the long association of the Mayr family with the health food philosophy: in 1957 Michael Mayr’s grandmother opened her first health food shop in Munich. In January 1998 his mother handed over the store in Planegg to him after she had sold the shop in Munich a few years before. As a child, Michael was present in his grandmother’s shop, where he learned lots of useful things. However, only when he was an adult was he allowed to operate the till.

He opened health food stores in the Pasing and Neuaubing districts of Munich in 2000. Before launching this third store in Planegg, he looked for ideas at for example Bio-Lüske with its cookery studio in Berlin, and at Whole Foods in London. He’s also glad he had lots of discussions and information gathering with the association of health food store owners Vita Nova that greatly strengthened his resolve. “It wouldn’t have been possible without Vita Nova,” Mayr surmises, and he praises the financial commitment of colleagues in granting him a grant. This made it easier for him to decide to switch from his old 120 m² premises in Planegg (10,000 inhabitants) to the new location (800 m²) just 200 metres away.

He has been very happy with the corner position of the store, that he has occupied since 6 October 2011. He rented three floors in a prime location about 200 m from a city rail stop. He points out that customers come to the store from quite a wide area, and the result is that after just a few months he is pleased to find turnover exceeding his expectations. A furniture store, that previously occupied the whole building, is now located in the top two storeys, with both businesses using the same stairs. (Picture: Vegetable department)

One reason for the pleasing level of turnover is the high proportion of natural cosmetics in the total sales – a share of 26 %, which is not really surprising in view of the concentration on giving advice and the attractive design in the entrance area and the display windows. As the owner of a Reformhaus store, he is naturally especially keen to stock the classic Reform brands Börlind, Heliotrop, Alsitan and Arya Laya, but of course you find Weleda, Dr. Hauschka, Lavera, Logona and Ocean Kosmetik as well. (Picture: View of the cosmetics department)

Customer retention is another important issue for Mayr. This is why he relies on the Vita Nova loyalty card, that can be used by all the members in the network. The approximately 3,000 customers who have a card from Reformhaus Mayr are given a little token of appreciation once a month, and also a discount of 5 euros when they reach a spend of 500 euros. Michael Mayr is also very pleased with his shop fitters, the firm der petzinger in Zorneding near Munich. For example, two big flat screens were built into the cosmetics department (in the middle of the picture showing bottles of wine) and opposite the entrance. On the screens you see a continuous series of pictures of the shop.

In the olive oil bar there are over 30 different olive oils to choose from, and some of them can be tasted by customers. “I got the idea from BioFach, where there was a bar like this one, and set it up in my store,” says Mayr proudly. In the gift boutique (picture) you find crockery, Bodum containers, tea towels, serviettes and attractive gift cards. This little eco-store offers a total of 9000 articles – all in the store’s eight rooms. And this doesn’t include the three treatment rooms of the day spa in the basement. Behind this multiplicity is someone with a wealth of experience: after training in retail sales, and while taking business studies courses at the University of Cologne, Michael Mayr gained work experience in 24 health food stores. Now he employs 45 people, of whom 20 work in his store in Planegg.

The cheese department on the first floor is also very impressive (picture). The customer suddenly finds himself in front of big chilled cabinets with glass doors, some of which contain huge blocks of cheese. An employee is on hand to provide expert advice and sell the cheese. The restaurant leads into the wine department (picture below on right) where you feel you could be in a wine store. Between the restaurant and the wine department are tables inviting you to sit down and sample the wines. And this is what people do: Reformhaus Mayr offers wine and cheese tasting for corporate events, anniversaries and all manner of parties.
The day spa too can be booked by the day. Mayr himself organizes one or two evenings a month when he invites, for example, a wine grower. These events are very popular and are usually fully booked by around 50 people wanting to attend. If more people are expected than the restaurant can accommodate, they use a separate room, as for example on the occasion of a talk on detoxification by Peter Jentschura or a lecture on genetic engineering by the Munich Environmental Institute, that received a cheque for donations of 2,000 euros.

Another example of customer care: on the evening before the launch of the store, 230 regular customers were invited to an event with champagne and nibbles in the Zeitgeist Restaurant, so that they could be shown the store first-hand. Customers who came over the next few days were doubtless no less impressed. To draw attention to the new store in Planegg last October, 33 large-scale posters were displayed on the city railway advertising the fact that there was a 10 % discount on all purchases for 10 days. Flyers were also distributed via the daily postal service.

The Zeitgeist Restaurant, that has organic certification, can seat 44 people, and the 50 – 90 lunches served every day could certainly be increased. Once a month, an evening event is held when guests can enjoy a full-course meal for 59 euros. On these occasions, the chef and his team pull out all the stops and produce a treat for the palate of the guests. On the menu during the day are four or five salads and starters, three soups and five to seven main courses, plus three or four desserts. The offer is typical of a restaurant and is considerably more than in the bistros you now commonly find in organic supermarkets. The price of a salad is 3 – 8.90 euros; a main course costs between 8.90 and 14.90 euros. The outstanding kitchen run by a chef (picture on right) with almost 20 years experience offers, therefore, both lower and higher priced fare.

The two wholesalers who supply Reformhaus Mayr and give it their full support are Claus-Pural in Baden-Baden and Bodan in Überlingen on Lake Constance.

Reformhaus Mayr stores

Location	Opening	Retail area
Pasing	2000	170 m²
Neuaubing	2000	110 m²
Planegg	1989, relocation 2011	800 m²

Tip: http://www.reformhaus-mayr.de