Ökoring celebrates 15th anniversary

In the middle of May 2008, the wholefood wholesaler Ökoring, that has its headquarters in Mammendorf 40 km west of Munich, celebrated its 15th anniversary with a big party and its own well attended trade fair. The aim in 1993 when the company was founded was to improve the supply of fresh foods in southern Bavaria. In the meantime, the company has grown strongly and, as well as supplying wholefood stores, has specialised in supplying large-scale customers too. Thus, Bio-Hotels and many others are among its important trading partners.

Picture: A customer congratulates Ökoring managers on its anniversary

“We started in 1993 with a dozen employees,” reminisces Robert Dax who together with Thomas Börkey-Biermann was a founder of Ökoring. Dax already had a long eco- biography in those days through his involvement, since the end of the 70s, in the Naturland Association in Gräfelfing near Munich. At the fair on 17 and 18 May, he welcomed the guests as follows: “We are gathered here in the Fürstenfeld monastery whose history goes back 750 years. Today, Ökoring goes back 15 years. So, if you place your orders today, you’ll get a 15 % discount.” (Picture from left to right: Robert Dax, Karin Romeder, Thomas Börkey-Biermann, Christoph Weigl)

Ökoring now employs 70 people and has 14 lorries supplying 300 specialist wholefood stores, organic supermarkets, farm shops, box schemes, and organic bakers and butchers in Bavaria. But supplies are also sent all over Germany to canteens, hotels, caterers and Bio-Hotels. Among the customers in gastronomy are guest houses like Asam-Schlössl, Buxs and Kranz in Munich, hotels like Holiday Inn in Nuremberg, Bio-Hotels like Seehotel in Zeulenroda in Thüringen and Der Alte Wirt in Grünwald. Among the caterers supplied by Ökoring are Gastromenü Ulm, Kindermenü König in Munich and Tischlein-Deck-Dich in Gießen. The company also regularly supplies the famous eco-festival Tollwood, that is held twice a year in Munich, with organic food.

(Picture: Ökoring paper bags promoting the “Unser Ökoland” regional concept)

Karin Romeder, who is responsible for marketing and sales, explains the company strategy: “We regard advising our clients as particularly important.” This applies to gastronomy in particular, because there are many questions of detail that have to be dealt with when converting to organic. This was the reason why the catering specialist Rainer Röhl from Averdis was invited to the celebration to chair the panel discussion “Certification in the Catering Sector”. This was an exciting event where three speakers explained their different concepts. In the restaurant that she has rented since 1993, Birgit Netzle, the proprietor of Assam-Schlössl, provides both conventional food and an organic menu with seven or eight organic dishes. She had her restaurant certified organic in July 2007. Her conclusion was: “It was simpler than I thought it would be at first.” Torsten Blüher represented a well known fashionable restaurant in Munich. Apart from a few exceptions, there was scarcely any mention of organic ingredients, even though about 20-25 % of the food bought in was organic. He did not think certification was a practical option. Thomas Richter, the chairman of Bio-Hotels, represented the purists - he advocated the 100% organic approach that the 60 establishments in his marketing group were practising successfully.
(Picture: Birgit Netzle from Assam-Schlössl and Rainer Röhl from Averdis)

About 650 visitors came to Fürstenfeldbruck, 20 km west of Munich, to visit the Ökoring fair. More than a hundred exhibitors set up their stands in a huge converted barn (picture) belonging to the former Cistercian Fürstenfeld monastery or in a tent next door. Many regional exhibitors like the Demeter market garden Obergrashof on the northern outskirts of Munich, the Bioland market garden Hecker, the juice company Perger, the organic butcher Landfrau and the dairy Scheitz in Andechs were all represented.

Among the manufacturers of fine foods were Bio Verde, Sonnentor and Vallée-Verte. Organix 4 U presented a range of manufacturers’ original fine food brands (picture on left). And, of course, you couldn’t miss the traditional firms like Barnhouse, Demeter Felderzeugnisse and Rabenhorst/Flemming.

Importers of exotic fruit from the third world like Kipepeo introduced themselves too. Sigfried Hermann offered fresh and dried pineapple and thick little (apple) bananas of particularly high quality (picture on right below).

The variety of products that Ökoring sells to the specialist trade has rocketed in the last decade and a half. The 400 articles at the beginning have grown 20-fold to 8000. Annual turnover has risen to 25 million Euros and the growth rate, at 10 %, is around the industry’s average.

A decisive turning point in Ökoring’s development was the move in 1999 from its premises in Allach in north Munich (800 m²) to Mammendorf near Fürstenfeldbruck. Storage space had been a limiting factor – now the company site measures 5000 m², and they are already thinking about further expansion.

(Picture: a bus took visitors from Fürstenfeldbruck to the Ökoring headquarters in nearby Mammendorf)

The extensive product range includes not only white, green and red fresh foods but also natural cosmetics, washing powders and cleaning materials, wines and other drinks, and a wide assortment of dry goods. The emphasis is on marketing products from 165 regional manufacturers (picture on right: a local vegetable producer), but the company also sells, of course, many goods from other countries within and outside Europe.

To make optimal use of its limited space, in 2006 Ökoring invested in five Megamat lifts that have greatly improved the storage logistics. Four of these automatic lifts operate in the dry goods storage area, one in the refrigerated section. Each Megamat can store up to 70 t on 42 shelves to a height of 9 m on a floor space measuring 4 x 3 m. After putting in the products code, at the press of a button the goods arrive in seconds. They are at the right height to take away. Megamat deals mainly with articles that are not heavy and are not needed so often (B-goods). “We don’t keep heavy boxes of juice or cartons of rice here – we store them in the normal high stacks,” explains co-manager Christoph Weigl. Since April 2007, 40-year old Mr Weigl has been a member of Ökoring’s management, after co-founder Volker Römer left the company.
(Picture: the visitors showed great interest in the new warehouse technology)

While visitors toured the so-called command centre (picture), a round tower-like building that accommodates the administration and is linked to the warehouse, Robert Dax was keen to point out that the new Online Shop was proving to be very successful. “There is already huge demand,” he was delighted to report. He said the advantage was that up-to-date prices were available every day on the internet. Nevertheless, during the group visit, one customer said she would like a clearer overall picture of what was on offer online, and Mr Dax replied that deficiencies in the software would soon be remedied. He also pointed out that the internet was a good way of placing orders when the offices were closed. Closing time had been brought forward to 16.00, but orders could now be placed from 7.30 in the morning.

The first of two interesting trade-fair days concluded on Saturday evening with a brief address, an excellent buffet (picture) and a lively party for more than 500 guests in a lovely hall in the former Cistercian monastery.

By the end of 2008 Ökoring aims to improve its communication of the regionality concept and is going to award “Unser Ökoland” recognition to 50 regional partners within 100 km around Munich.

Tip: www.oekoring.com