Germany: vegan supermarket chain Veganz – declaration of insolvency

In December, the supermarket chain Veganz reported its self-administered insolvency.  As the Lebensmittelzeitung (LZ) states, its network of stores is going to be radically slimmed down. According to Spiegel online, outlets in Munich and Frankfurt/Main had already closed and another four of its current nine stores will follow suit.

“Our other companies are not affected by this step,” explained the founder of Veganz Jan Bredack to LZ. “We're abandoning loss-makers and are concentrating on our brand business in wholesale and gastronomy.”

As a wholesaler, Veganz supplies, according to LZ, all the big retail food chains like Metro and Famila and the drugstore chain dm. The much greater availability of its own products has obviously contributed to the company cannibalising itself. “The model of the vegan supermarket has become outdated because of the the increasing offer of vegan products in the trade,” Bredack explained.

Quarrel with Edeka

The parent company Veganz GmbH posted sales of 24 million euros in 2015. For 2016 it initially forecast revenue of 80 million but later adjusted its prognosis down to 56 million euros.

LZ writes that contributing to this development may well have been the fact that its cooperation with Edeka  did not go as well as it hoped . Bredack is accusing the partner of not paying bills of around 2.5 million euros and he is threatening court action. However, they are said to be discussing the issue.