Successful regional chain Naturgut in Stuttgart

Niko Tsiris and Volker Hummel, who currently operate six stores in the Stuttgart region, intend to continue the expansion of their organic supermarket chain by launching one new store every year. In their opinion, organic supermarkets have not yet reached saturation point in the Stuttgart area. The last one that was opened in the Sillenbuch district with 480 m² of retail space has made a good start, and after just a few months it has become Naturgut’s supermarket number two in terms of turnover. The well fitted-out, attractive store is located in the main street directly opposite the underground station and has underground car parking too. Of the specialist organic stores in the Stuttgart region, Naturgut has the highest turnover. (Picture Niko Tsiris, Alexander Herrmann, Volker Hummel)
Sillenbuch is a quiet residential suburb of Stuttgart with detached houses and villas, a Waldorf school and an Augustinum home for senior citizens. There is a high level of purchasing power, and many of the younger and older residents have discovered the new organic market. Co-owner Niko Tsiris, the Managing Director of Naturgut GmbH, and his head of marketing and personnel, Volker Hummel, are over the moon. They have been planning for years to open a store in Sillenbuch, and it has finally come to fruition in a former delicatessen store. “In just a short time it has proved to be very successful,” reports a happy Mr Tsiris. The launch took place on 14 June 2008 after the shop fitters, the firm Shoptrend in Munich, had finished getting the store ready on schedule and to everyone’s satisfaction. “We used to fit out our stores with used furniture and shelving,” says Mr Tsiris, who is responsible for controlling, expansion and sales. “However, with increasingly demanding customers, that is hardly acceptable any more,” adds Volker Hummel, who has been involved in the business for a year now.

The competitive situation in Stuttgart and the surrounding region, that has a population of 3.5 million, is clear: two Alnatura stores, one Basic store, six Erdi stores and six stores belonging to Naturgut. Thus, there are 15 stores in total with 6145 m² of retail space at their disposal. In addition to these stores, there are numerous small wholefood shops. So what the specialist trade provides in this area is really very good. There are more organic supermarkets in the towns round Stuttgart, like Tübingen, Reutlingen and Ludwigsburg. Around 2500 customers shop in Naturgut’s stores every day, and this volume means that this regional chain will achieve a turnover of 10 million euros in 2008. Depending on the particular store, the average spend per visit is between 10 and 18 euros.

The beginnings of the Naturgut organic chain go back 14 years to premises with 40 m² of retail space. “In those days we fetched three crates of goods in a Mini-Cooper from the Dennree warehouse near Stuttgart so that we could get a 3 % discount,” reminisces Niko Tsiris, who was one of the founders of the store. Six years later, this store was closed after a 180 m² store in Degerloch had made a good start the year before. The first really big organic supermarket with 600 m² was opened in the BSE year 2001 – as many will recall, an organic boom year par excellence. From 2004, and practically every year, a new store has been launched.

Regular marketing has helped to raise customer awareness of the chain. As a chain promoting the organic market concept, more and more flyers were distributed to households, and today the figure is almost 100,000 a month. However, Hummel and Tsiris are planning to target potential customers more precisely in future.

“Although there are customers who travel some distance to shop with us, we are essentially local stores,” explains Niko Tsiris. “So we regard it as very important to provide car parking at all our stores so people can do a big shop with us.” With the company expanding at such a rate – adjusted for store area, growth of over 10% is anticipated in 2008 - the question of personnel is particularly important. “We have been doing the training ourselves for over ten years, and just about all our trainees get a job with us,” says Tsiris, emphasising the advantage of training his own staff. Having taken on seven trainees this year, the company currently has 12, plus one BA student. He explained that they were always on the look-out for suitable trainees, and the company offered very good prospects at all levels up to store management. The company now employs a total of 135 people working in the six stores and in administration. Regular training sessions mean that staff are well informed and deal with customers in a friendly way – something that the management takes very seriously. A special feature: one member of staff is responsible for training her colleagues on the subject of food supplements and allergies. The stores stock a wide range of products in these categories, and this means that the staff have enough information to answer customers’ questions.

Most of the goods come from Dennree, with about a quarter being provided by regional suppliers, five local bakeries, a number of organic gardeners, and the companies Willmann and Claus-Pural.
Something else you don’t see every day: several shelves of mainly stainless steel household products manufactured by the Firm Fackelmann. The comprehensive range sells very well.

The new store in Sillenbuch, that has been completely renovated by the landlord, has been given a green floor that gets far less dirty than, for example, the yellow floors you see in Basic’s stores. A light-coloured suspended ceiling has been installed. You see pictures on the walls to create an emotional appeal: themes like ‘Favourite organic’ – a child is doing a handstand, and five children are eating ice-cream under ‘This is the taste of organic’. The advertising slogan of Naturgut is ‘Everything should be organic – that’s logical!’ And to prove this point there are regular active and passive tasting sessions.

Whereas the number of articles in the smaller store in Degerloch is only 3500, in Sillenbuch the number is 5500. Naturgut is always carrying out customer surveys to identify any deficiencies and to find solutions. A comments box to the left of the entrance also gives customers the chance to register any complaints. The company website is going to be developed soon to make it interactive, so that questions and ideas from customers can be accessed. Customer service also includes the delivery service that has just been launched in Sillenbuch and Degerloch. The store card has proved to be a great success with customers, and more than 17,000 of them use it to get a 3 % discount every time they shop.

In the Sillenbuch store there is a café with six tables, each seating four people. The menu is going to be gradually expanded to include lunches to supplement the mainly coffee and cakes served so far.

Naturgut values its connection with the region. Although the majority of products are procured from Dennree, goods also come direct from about a dozen suppliers of among other things bakery goods, fruit, vegetables and wine. The attractive wine department stocks 80 different wines. The cheese counter has over 100 kinds of cheese – many of them bearing a sticker stating that they are locally sourced products. Marketing manager Volker Hummel says that they are going to make big improvements to the labelling of regional products and food for allergy sufferers and the ‘permanently low price’ products.

Something else that will enhance the connection with the region is visits to organic farms and processing firms. “Already this year we have taken a coachload of 50 employees to visit a farm, and next year we are going to make this available to our customers too,” Mr Hummel is pleased to report.


Naturgut in figures

1994	First store in Stuttgart	40 m²
1999	Store in Degerloch	180 m²
2001	Store at Hölderlinplatz	600 m²
2004	Store in the Gablenberg district	380 m²
2005	Store in Esslingen	380 m²
2006	Store in Waiblingen	330 m²
2008	Store in Sillenbuch	480 m²

Tip:
www.naturgut.net