“Think fresh, deliver fresh.” This is the motto of Apimex Fruchthandel GmbH from Munich. The import- and wholesale company primarily supplies major customers such as supermarkets and the European processing industry. “When one, as a trader, works together with the larger companies, from the start one needs to adjust to suit their wishes and requirements,” Marco Di Maggio, CEO of Apimex, explains. “We have adjusted to be able to respond flexibly and to take the wishes of our customers into account.”
To Germany and Europe
Apimex counts as an import and export expert for fresh market produce and raw industry goods. From their headquarters in Munich they service their customers throughout Germany and in European countries.”Beside our German customers, among others we service Scandinavia and also Italy with our products,” says Di Maggio. “Although we are based in the hypermarket, we are active throughout Germany and across the borders. We do not even see 60% of our products. They go straight from the producers to the customers.”
Contract farming in a wide variety of production countries
Work on a basis of trust with the suppliers. “We work together with our partners and producers very closely and openly,” the CEO reports. “We run contract farming in a wide variety of production countries. Among others, we have pointed peppers, gherkins, sour cherries, plums and apricots being grown in countries such as Morocco, Hungary, Bosnia, Turkey and Macedonia.”
Beside their headquarters in Munich, Apimex Fruchthandel GmbH owns two more sister firms in Austria and Hungary. “We work together very closely with our two locations in Austria and Hungary,” Marco Di Maggio explains. “Nevertheless, these firms both operate completely independently, but are extremely important to our service and to be able to optimally respond to the wishes of our customers”.
Strategic advantage
Because of the market dominance of the large supermarkets, business has changed a lot for many wholesale market companies over the last few years. Di Maggio describes the situation: “While many wholesale market companies need to reorient themselves, our business has barely changed over the last few years. We have had the advantage that we have been working together with major customers from the beginning. It is because of this strategy that our business has grown in the last couple of years.”
Growth through major customers
For the future, the Apimex CEO predicts that “all companies that work together with the supermarket chains will grow further in the coming years”. Around 85 percent of German food retail trade is dominated by the four large German supermarket chains Edeka, Rewe, Aldi and the Schwarz-Gruppe with Lidl and Kaufland. “When one works together with the likes of those, one inevitably has to grow,” says Di Maggio. “When, as an importer or trader, you do not do this, you will end up losing everything.”
