Dutch Branch
"Our relationship with Vitaal Europe has enabled us to penetrate the UK market by utilising their extensive customer base and excellent logistical services.
Through them we are able to get our products delivered fresh, every day, to any destination in the UK. They have a widespread customer base and a team keen on promoting our products.
For us, Vitaal are a perfect working solution for getting our products onto the international market."
Miranda, Henk & Daniëlle Overkleeft
Biostar
Dutch Branch
The Approach
In 2004 we decided to take the plunge and we established a small trans-shipping and procurement operation in Poeldijk near Rotterdam and called it Vitaal. Most of the Dutch product we handled was exported to the UK which was and still is a valuable market for Holland. We have moved twice since 2004 – both times because we needed larger premises. We are now settled back in Poeldijk in a suite of offices overlooking a 6,000m2 packhouse and cold-storage facility.
Vitaal became a large and increasingly important part of the Nationwide group. Ian Thornhill had run the Dutch operation for us from the Southport office since its inception. As the number of staff and size of the business grew it soon became clear that ideally he would need to be based in Holland. Ian moved over to Holland with his family in 2007. Vitaal continued to concentrate on protected crops. The staff are all specialists in tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers and the area they are based, the Westland, has one of the highest concentrations of greenhouse crops in the world.
Vitaal had grown to a level beyond expectations but we felt as though we should be doing more in outdoor crops and export beyond UK. In January 2009 we opened an office in Emmen in the north of the Netherlands to concentrate mainly on outdoor crops and expand sales into Europe & Scandinavia.