Veganz: love life the vegan way

So far the development of the Veganz stores, with the roll-out running according to plan, has been better than expected. The first Veganz (250 m²) was launched in July 2011 in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, and the second followed in January 2013 in Frankfurt-Bornheim (200 m²). Two months later Bredack opened a store at Warschauer Straße 33 in Berlin Friedrichshain that covered over 700 m² on two levels. You find food and a bistro on the ground floor, and on the floor above (both measuring about 350 m²) they are creating a vegan restaurant that will be run by the vegan chef Björn Moschinski. The vegan shoe shop Avesu - already a part of the Veganz pilot store in Schivelbeiner Straße - will also be located here. (Picture: Jan Bredack and vegan chef Björn Moschinski will work together in the future)
 

The project Veganz Wien, planned by Jan Bredack in cooperation with the Viennese organic supermarket pioneer Stefan Maran, is regrettably turning out differently than Bredack intended. The launch was scheduled for May, but now Maran is going to launch his own vegan supermarket called Maran Vegan. So Bredack is concentrating his energy on the opening in Hamburg on 28.6.2013, but he’s staying on the ball as far as Vienna is concerned. His agenda for 2013 includes Leipzig, Munich and Prague. Veganz CZ s.r.o. in Prague was founded at the beginning of June. The message on Facebook states: "We’re delighted to be opening our first store here in the very near future." (Picture on right: Jan Bredack at the checkout: if necessary, the entrepreneur himself lends a hand)
 

From 2014 Bredack wants expansion to take place mainly abroad: London, Warsaw, Zürich and Rome are the cities on his wish-list, but at the same time there will be further stores in Germany, for example a 1,200 m² Veganz in the green centre of Essen. If everything goes according to plan, Germany will again be the focus of expansion in 2015, with the march of Veganz reaching Stuttgart, Freiburg, Karlsruhe, Hanover, Cologne and Nuremberg.
 

Bredack is accustomed to taking on big projects. If you meet the 41-year-old today, casually dressed in jeans, Veganz polo shirt and five-finger shoes, it’s difficult to imagine that this man, at the age of 30, was a top executive at Daimler and that he set up the first Mercedes factory in Russia. His rapid rise was followed by a burn-out phase, conversion to vegan nutrition and a totally new lifestyle. From 2009 the idea of setting up an outlet for vegan food took shape. (Picture on left: A new green life: Jan Bredack has converted totally to vegan food)
 
While he was doing his day job, the planning, the worldwide search for products, partners, suitable premises and finance took quite a long time. In 2011, he left Daimler and a few months later he opened the first Veganz. Today, Bredack gives talks about his career as an entrepreneur, and he attracts a good deal of media attention. The Piper publishing house will bring out a book about him in the near future. The ex-manager is the epitome of enterprise, although his activities are watched with suspicion by some in the vegan community. However, he is convinced: “With our concept, we’ve made people more aware of the vegetarian trend.” (Picture: Veganz in Warschauer Straße - a big offer in a small space)

“A lot of people believe in the Veganz business model,” says Bredack, and he is pleased that he has been able to raise the capital of €15m - €16m required for expansion. 60 % of Veganz Holding is the funds of investors, banks, local government and risk capital and 40 % is equity capital. To finance expansion, the holding company has a 50 % share in the companies to be founded in the different locations, and it provides the premises, the goods management system and is responsible for centralized purchasing and accounting. The individual entrepreneur who manages a Veganz store is responsible for operating the business and for personnel. (Picture: Good location - Veganz Berlin 2, near the Warschauer Brücke, in the trendy Friedrichshain district)
 

The Veganz concept is founded on several principles: “We attract customers with a huge offer – more than 6,000 products ranging from food, cosmetics, detergents and cleaning materials to animal food. Everything is plant-based. That’s something our customers can rely on, and that’s what makes us into the unique selling point.” Bredack values qualified full-time staff, and he circumvents the wholesale stage. “I want to remain independent of wholesalers as much as I possibly can. That’s why we buy direct from about 200 firms in 30 countries.” (Picture: The cosmetics range too is 100 % vegan. Bredack says the proportion of organics in the stock is 90 %)

The goods come from, for example, the USA and even from Australia. He has a company employee working in the United States, where Bredack finds new ideas for his Veganz concept.
“We’re permanently scouting for products, and we keep finding new brands for our customers. They can buy around 60 % of goods only in our stores, and many items produced by innovative, small manufacturers premiere at Veganz Europe.” In his product range, Bredack’s figure for the proportion of organics, including non-EU certified goods, is 90 %. He says that some smaller manufacturers are not yet certified organic. Moreover, Fairtrade is an important issue for him. (Picture: Customers are also attracted by the gastronomic offer that is provided by local shop-in-shop cooperation partners)
 

Regarding fresh green food, German brand manufacturers and logistics, Veganz works with Naturkost Elkershausen and Naturkost Erfurt. For the gastronomic offer in the stores, Veganz collaborates in Berlin with Goodies and in Frankfurt with Sesamo. Other partners, when there is enough space, are the vegan shoe shop Avesu and DearGoods, a vegan concept store. Bredack regards it as his mission to open the eyes of more and more people to plant-based nutrition and the vegan lifestyle. Veganz will launch a new homepage, probably at the end of July, which will be at least bilingual. (Picture: As in the first Veganz store, Avesu and DearGoods will continue – wherever space allows – to be set up within the vegan supermarkets)