Wholesaler Solhjulet: the sun chariot as popular image

“Even in Iceland, where there are only a few wholefood stores and one organic baker, they like to get their supplies from us,” says Sven Jensen from the wholefood wholesaler Solhjulet that is located 40 km north-east of Aarhus. The company name means sun chariot and, recalling a time in Danish history, it creates an authentic image based on a stone-age drawing.

Picture: Behind the facade of an ancient dairy is a big, modern high-stack warehouse

“Every day we are on our way to our big cities – Copenhagen, Aalborg, Fredicia and Aarhus – because that’s the only way you can do it with fresh products,” explains Sven Jensen (55) who is responsible for large-scale customers and exports at Solhjulet. Five company-owned lorries (picture) that collect produce from farmers and deliver supplies to all points of the compass are constantly on the road in the Jutland peninsular that has a border with Germany. Solhjulet has an agreement with a local logistics company so that the island Seeland can receive supplies.

Every week the organics company Solhjulet, that was founded in 1972, supplies 500 customers in the specialist wholefood trade, various box and delivery services, catering companies and the retail food trade. Annual turnover has grown by 10-20% a year, and in 2007 total turnover was a little more than a third of the turnover of the market leader Urtekram.

The company headquarters are in Bjerringbro that lies half an hour by car north west of Aarhus. Solhjulet stocks a comprehensive range of 2000 articles, with about half of all products being fresh foods. There is a clear concentration on fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products. “Take cheese as an example – we stock 125 different sorts of cheese,” says Mr Jensen. When you go through the various refrigerated storage facilities (picture), you get the impression everywhere of super-fresh vegetables. “We really do prefer regional produce whenever it is available.”

On the whole, Mr Jensen is happy with the supplies that come from organic market gardens in Denmark. He explains that quite a few have greenhouses to extend the growing season. “In the case of milk, we collaborate with Thise Dairy in the north of Denmark and with the company Naturmælk.” He does regret, however, that not more farmers are venturing into bio-dynamic agriculture and becoming Demeter certified.

Up to now, there has been an absence of meat and sausage products in Solhjulet’s range of goods, even though the company does not see itself as vegetarian. “Maybe we will go in that direction one day because people do keep on asking us about it, especially the large-scale customers.” But the decision is still to be made.

The origin of the Danish wholesaler is a market garden that was founded by Niels Ebbe quite close to the company’s present location. Because he couldn’t grow everything himself, and demand was rising at the beginning of the 1970s, he developed into a wholesaler over the years by buying in produce from other producers. A few years later, Mr Ebbe, who is now 60 years old, gave up farming himself and in 1989 acquired a closed-down dairy – ideal for a wholesale business concentrating on fresh food. The old building dating from 1898 was renovated and later expanded in two stages by the addition of a large warehouse (XXX m²). To coordinate production and sales, the company still works today on crop planning with 20 large farms. It gets its supplies from around 50 farms in total. Solhjulet is organised as a small joint-stock company in family ownership.

The Solhjulet team showed a great deal of commitment in setting up an organic agriculture project in Uganda. It was proposed by the Danish Ministry of Overseas Development that was looking for someone to run a project financed by the State. “Originally, we only wanted to sell the surplus from the project, but since sales have been so successful production is now geared to special demand as well”, explains Jensen.

Now fresh pineapples, mangoes, papaya and apple bananas produced by African Organic/Amfri Farms are flown in regularly in order to secure jobs and incomes in Uganda. Dried fruits are sent to Denmark by sea. On the difficult question of high energy-consuming air transport, Mr Jensen says: “We let our customers decide what to buy.” However, customers have to take the trouble to enquire if they want to know how the goods reached Denmark. (Picture below: Sven Jensen holding up a large pack of dried bananas)

A new addition to Solhjulet’s product range is coffee from Uganda. The family-run business African Organic, a Demeter farm, collaborates with 120 small farmers in the region and is recognised as a Fairtrade enterprise. Other products from Uganda are frozen pineapple, mango, passion fruits and apple bananas for industrial processing. There are also spices – vanilla powder and ginger powder, cardamom, lemongrass and chilli. Solhjulet also buys in sugar, lemon juice, nuts and grain from various countries. Working together with Thise Dairy, “Thise Yogurt with Fruit from Uganda” is produced. A fairly small proportion of Solhjulet’s product range is exported to neighbouring Norway and Sweden, and to Iceland, the Netherlands and Ireland.

Solhjulet product range also includes various imported brands, such as Voelkel, Lebensbaum, Öma and more than 100 other organic manufacturers, resulting in a permanent stock of pasta, oils, beer, wine, grain, pulses, bread, cake, tofu, eggs, jams, vinegars, coffee, chocolate and much more.

As well as supplying large-scale customers, who are playing an increasingly important role in the Danish organic market, Solhjulet also delivers not just grain and flour but also semi-baked products, crisp bread and rolls to around 50 bakeries. Sven Jensen explains that customers order by phone, fax or via their webshop.

With the exception of some Superbrugsen stores and Superbest stores, the conventional trade is not supplied direct but via the conventional wholesaler Supergros. This fresh food wholesaler in any case delivers daily to most of the retail chains’ outlets. Another important customer is the popular delivery service Aaristiderne to the north of Copenhagen. Every week this company delivers organic goods to 24,000 households. (Picture on right: Looking into Solhjulet’s warehouse)

Tip:
www.solhjulet.dk