Germany: 20 years SuperBioMarkt, 40 years organic culture

In 1973, the Makrohaus - one of the first wholefood stores in Germany - opened in Münster and laid the foundation for what are today the specialist trade and the organic sector. This was where Michael Radau entered the retail wholefood trade 31 years ago – and 11 years later he launched his first SuperBioMarkt store. The company, with Radau as the driving force and managing partner, celebrates its fortieth birthday this year. SuperBioMarkt AG has 18 stores and is today the biggest organic retailer in Nordrhein-Westfalen. In this anniversary year, the values of the company and of the sector are in the spotlight. (Picture: Michael Radau has over 30 years of experience in the wholefood trade)

“We’ve thought about it a lot and came to the conclusion that we don’t want to celebrate our anniversary with the usual price reduction hype,”  Michael Radau explains. He says that they are much keener on making this special birthday an opportunity to look at the wider context. “Our intention is to showcase the values of the sector. We want to demonstrate what the actors in the organic industry and the specialist trade stand for, to make our motives transparent and to illustrate the different approach with examples.” (Picture: The focus of the anniversary will be on values - From the heart. Naturally. Consistent)

Radau sees good reason for using the anniversary year for a values campaign in the fact that in the last two years the public image of organic has taken some knocks. “The image of the industry has suffered. Too often we’ve seen concentration on cases of minimal standards and compromise in order to offer organics at a lower price,” he maintains. He emphasises his standpoint: “That’s not our approach. It’s not a question of always functioning perfectly, but we want to make it clear that cheap organics are not an option for us as specialist retailers and that we sell to our customers organic products with integrity and transparency.” (Picture: Ecological, fair, fresh, healthy .... SuperBioMarkt communicates its values on the Bio-to-go stand)
 

Radau stresses that the aim of the expansion plans of SuperBioMarkt AG is not simply to extend the network of stores as quickly as possible. The medium-term strategy is consolidation and moderate expansion. In May, they launched their eighteenth SuperBioMarkt store in Essen. In  2012, the company raised its turnover by 9 % to approximately €38.6m, and in 2013 turnover will exceed €40m. (Picture: A company E-car is a symbol of their sustainability approach)
 

Radau has many issues on his to-do list for the next few years, with quality assurance and transparency as top priorities. Online trading is another theme where he sees an urgent need for retailers to catch up. “We’ve got to look for intelligent solutions that are both profitable and sustainable. These include services like online ordering, collection and delivery.”  Radau sees experimenting with catering in a similar light. (Picture: Bio-To-Go is well received in the  Münster Arkaden shopping centre)
 

Regarding cosmetics, Radau is constantly on the lookout for improvements: the concept quality store, that he developed together with Benigna Lutz (now in the management of Biogarten), has resulted in stable growth in turnover of natural cosmetics that is significantly higher than the average turnover in the specialist trade. Another service for customers is the natural cosmetics studio Natur-elle in the basement of the Münster Arkaden. (Picture:Cosmeticians specialising in natural cosmetics are on hand in the natural cosmetics studio Natur-elle to pamper their customers)

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