Portugal: specialist organic stores entering the market

The first organic supermarket to be founded in Lisbon was the Biocoop store (see our earlier report). The business was created in 1993 and today has expanded to a retail area of 600 m². The operational base of the consumer cooperative is a membership of 3,000. However, in the last six years a further five specialist organic stores (200-400 m²) have been opened. Brio has four locations and is planning to expand countrywide. But the store that is running best of all is the organic supermarket Miosótis, that is operated by Ângelo Rocha. With one opening a year on average, the number of health food stores belonging to the Celeiro chain is increasing.

In Lisbon you now find six specialist organic stores or organic supermarkets, but they are not all doing equally well. Thanks to low margins and an excellent fresh food offer, Miosótis has by far the highest turnover, despite a somewhat concealed location in the San Sebastiao district to the north of the city centre. The original shop (200 m²) was opened in 2007 in a different location, and in 2009 it moved to the present premises (400 m²) in Rua Marquês Sà da Bandeira. Integrated into the organic supermarket is an organic butcher’s that every week sells the equivalent of two cows, eight to ten lambs and two pigs. At lunch time, the bistro is packed full – there’s enough room for up to 20 guests sitting at the tables to enjoy coffee and cake, a salad or a midday meal. (Picture: Bistro counter)
 

Ângelo Rocha is very keen on supporting local producers. He gives a number of examples where he has helped to motivate conventional artisan producers to convert some of their products to organic – chilli sauce (picture), tuna fish in organic oil or various spices. However, he is most pleased with the success of the fish project that he initiated: guidelines were drawn up that stipulate that only small boats can be used for fishing and there must be no more than five fishermen on board. The project was launched two years ago with six fishermen, but now the number has risen to 30. Every week Rocha now sells a good 1,000 packs of fish – supplied fresh every day. His offer consists of about 20 different sorts of fish at prices between 4 and 19 euros a kilo.
 

Rocha supplies six restaurants with organic products, including deliveries three times a week to the Café Buenos Aires in old part of Lisbon. Carminda Barros is delighted she can get fruit, vegetables, olive oil and fresh cheese in organic quality. She uses predominantly organic products in this charming restaurant. However, conventional beef comes from Argentina to preserve the connection with the name of the restaurant. A total of 24 kitchens and canteens buy produce from Rocha with a 10 % discount, and they include three kindergartens, one of which is a Waldorf kindergarten.
 

Once a week, the Miosótis organic store takes delivery of four big industrial-size pallets (1.20 x 1.50 m) carrying about 500 articles from the wholesaler Naturkost West. Without any other importers involved, Rocha places his orders by email on Mondays. On Thursdays the delivery lorry arrives and unloads the goods that have come direct from Duisburg. Frozen food comes once a month. Of the 6,500 articles stocked by Rocha, 1,200 are sourced in this way. This means that the goods, for example the brand Green, can be sold at similar prices to those in Germany. “It was real problem,” Rocha explains, “when last year the value added tax on food in Portugal was raised from 6 % to 23 %.” He was obliged to adjust his prices accordingly in order to maintain his already slender margins. (Picture on left: Organic wine shelf at Miosótis)
 

Brio is a company with four organic supermarkets that had intended to roll out a chain of 40 – 50 stores across Portugal within ten years. Because turnover developed far too slowly, this plan was radically revised downwards but a fifth store is now planned for 2013. The first store was opened in 2008 ( 250 m²). When the two original founders ran into financial trouble, they were obliged to sell the specialist wholefood store, and the purchaser was the investment firm Edge-Capital, that invests in property. Today the managing director of Brio is António Alvelos (42). He joined the firm in the middle of 2010, and he too made a small investment of business capital. “Despite the difficult state of the economy, we’re gaining 500 new customers month after month,” Alvelos is delighted to report (picture). This figure is corroborated by new loyalty cards, that give a 1 % discount, and to date 15,000 of these cards have been issued.
 

In the Brio store in Estoril, a bistro has been installed as a shop-in-shop in the entrance area, but so far it has had only about 20 customers a day. Brio regards fresh food as extremely important: from outside you can see a large fruit and vegetable department through the big windows.  A good offer of fresh meat, that is supplied by three organic farmers, is available at the meat counter (picture) and in a chilled cabinet. The attractively fitted-out specialist stores each stock around 3,000 different packaged products. Alvelos explains that the proportion of imported goods in the stock is 60 %, but in terms of turnover they constitute only 50 %. The suppliers abroad include Dennree, Rapunzel, Biotropic and Sodasan, to name but a few. In contrast to the other specialist organic stores, Brio is open for eight hours on Sundays. The Brio team consists of 32 employees, all very young but, as managing director Alvelos points out, many of them have a background in the specialist trade.
 

The first Reformhaus – health food store - in Portugal opened in 1974 under the name Celeiro (previously: Celeiro Dieta, see our earlier report). Celeiro is now a chain with 26 health food stores between the capital and Porto. In 2007 the chain consisted of 21 stores and two restaurants. Now, four vegetarian self-service restaurants, that are integrated into high-footfall Celeiro stores, offer a variety of dishes mainly at midday. The Lisbon region has 19 Celeiro stores, and the other seven are located in the north and the centre of the country. In 17 of the stores you find little snack corners. In most Celeiro stores the offer includes natural remedies, massage and cosmetic treatments plus relevant books and literature. (Picture: Celeiro in Lisbon opposite the department store El Corte Ingles in San Sebastiao)

Table: specialist organic stores in Lisbon

Tips:
 

www.biomiosotis.com

www.brio.pt

www.biocoop.pt

www.celeiro-dieta.pt