Passion
Quality, Respect

Our Company

Our Company

We see ourselves as a link between the retail trade and production. Our customers comprise food and grocery retailers, specialist retailers and wholesalers as well as large-scale consumers (services).

We focus on quality

With our partners and established trade contacts worldwide, we have our own external production resources to supply you with the best fruit and vegetables.

At our company, we are committed to quality, sustainability, compliance and social responsibility. The latest technologies, a fully developed distribution network and skilled employees specialised in sales, ripening, storage, logistics and quality management mean we can be ever mindful of our products, the environment and our customers.

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Our mission

Delivering high-quality, fresh fruit and vegetables every day is at the heart of everything we do.

Maximum satisfaction

Our organisation and processes are fully geared towards providing our customers with maximum satisfaction: tailored solutions based on an open, sincere and, above all, reliable partnership.

Quality

Our top priority is not only to meet our own quality standards and those of our customers, but also to exceed them wherever possible.

Reliability

Reliability in all things is a principle we live by because we regard it as the cornerstone of all relationships with our partners.

Sustainability

Planning ahead. Foreseeing the consequences of your own actions. Treating resources with the care they deserve. Never stop questioning your decisions.

Freshness

Freshness is not something we take for granted. Freshness is more than just fresh produce. Freshness is our way of doing things. We love fruit!

Openness to technology

We adopt an open and flexible attitude towards new technologies and innovations. We are always ready to explore different technological approaches, regardless of whether they were developed internally or acquired externally. For us, openness to technology means the willingness to continuously scrutinise and improve existing processes, products or services by integrating new technologies that have the potential to offer growth, increased efficiency or competitive advantages. This is because companies that value openness to technology are agile, adaptable and utilise opportunities from a broad spectrum of technological advances to achieve their goals.

“The fresh fruit and vegetable business is an exciting one. At vanWylick, we provide our customers with direct access to the production of everything from imported fruit to regional vegetables.

Our customers benefit from highly professional and efficient solutions because we provide a direct and secure source of fruit and vegetables from a single supplier.”

Jens Allerding, Commercial Director

The Way of Freshness

We see it as our mission to provide people with natural, healthy and great-tasting produce. And it is our goal to ensure that value is created in a sustainable way:

The best products combined with the highest level of safety for our customers. An attractive and secure workplace for our employees. A sound, long-term profitable investment for our shareholders.

We act economically, ecologically and socially.

That is why we take our role as a responsible member of society seriously and base our actions on economic, ecological and social considerations – so that we can remain successful in the future.

History

Over 100 years of passion

At the beginning of the last century, the Dutch merchant Piet van Wylick moved to Germany to set up a wholesale fruit and vegetable business.

1937

Foundation

“Fruchtimport P. van Wylick GmbH” is founded under German management in Dusseldorf.

1945

Reconstruction

Reconstruction following the war, import business with Spain for the first time, development of banana ripening facilities.

1967

New management

Rolf Allerding takes over the management of the company. Turnover amounts to around DM 55 million (28 million euros) with 20 branches and other locations.

1972

Tobsine

“Tobsine” – the premium Spanish citrus fruit brand is launched.

1990

New locations

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, new branches are opened in Dresden, Leipzig and Magdeburg.

2001

Acquisition

J. A. Kahl GmbH & Co., Munich is acquired.

2003

Managing Directors

Dirk Allerding (Commercial), Jens Allerding (Sales) and Peter Malsbender (Finance) are appointed managing directors.

2004

New identity

New corporate identity, company name is changed to Fruchtimport vanWylick GmbH (vanWylick), together with the claim, “Frische die ankommt – The way of freshness”. International Featured Standard (IFS) certification in all operations and implementation of a central quality management system.

2010

Fruiton

A 52 percent stake is acquired in Fruiton GmbH.

2011

Fyffes

The Dutch family that founded the company withdraws as shareholders. Fyffes, Ireland and Gemüsering, Stuttgart become new strategic shareholders with their own production; each holds a one-third stake in the company, together with the Allerding family (Agraria Beteiligungs GmbH). A new hub is opened in Dresden for the exclusive supply of Kaufland Eastern Europe.

2015

Capespan

Capespan Group’s stake in vanWylick means it can successfully complete its strategy of supplying its core products from a single source, starting with production and ending with delivery to its customers. The four shareholders, Fyffes, Gemüsering, the Allerding family and Capespan Group, now each hold a 25 percent share of the company.

2016

Munich branch

vanWylick’s acquisition of GmbH is now complete. In November the Munich branch moves into its newly built premises in Olching. This marks the start of the company's modernisation drive to ensure the highest energy and quality standards for the best produce.

2017

Dresden branch

Ground is broken for the new ripening, service and distribution centre in Cologne-Niehl. Renovation and modernisation work on Eastern Europe distribution and service centre in Dresden is completed.

2018

Cologne branch

Bundling of the Cologne, Essen and Düsseldorf branches at the newly built location in Cologne-Niehl.

2019

Stuttgart and Pratteln branch

Strengthening the core competence bananas with the acquisition of the ripening plants in Stuttgart and Pratteln, Switzerland, from Gemüsering.

2020

Hamburg branch

By taking over the shares of Gemüsering and Capespan, Fyffes becomes majority shareholder. The Allerding family remains the operating partner with a 26% share. With the acquisition of a ripening and distribution centre in Hamburg, vanWylick closes the gap in the north and finally becomes a national ripener and service provider for fresh fruit and vegetables for the German food retail sector. A total ripening capacity of more than 230,000 cartons of bananas and 40,000 cartons of exotics per week is now available.

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The vanWylick team

The vanWylick team is made up of young and experienced staff members from many different countries.

German, English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Polish, Greek and Dutch are the languages spoken by our employees in their daily work; this ensures that contacts can be made and maintained in all four corners of the world.

Our company culture

Appreciation, respect, openness and support for all employees have always been part of the culture at our company. The management attaches great importance to a working environment characterised by partnership and straightforward feedback.

Our team

The Management

Jens Allerding

Commercial Director

“The fresh fruit and vegetable business is an exciting one.
At vanWylick, we grant our customers direct access to the production of everything from imported fruit to regional vegetables.

Our customers benefit from highly professional and efficient solutions because we provide a direct and secure source of fruit and vegetables from a single supplier. This is all the more important because the fruit and vegetable department in a retail outlet is not only the one with the highest turnover, but also the one with the most strategic importance.”

Dirk Allerding

Managing Director

“Fruit and vegetables are not only tasty, natural products, but also contribute to a healthy lifestyle and personal well-being.

The potential of our market is exceptional because people in Germany currently only consume around 50 percent of the generally recommended amount of fruit and vegetables.”

Till Bornhausen

Head of Finance

“Safeguarding workflow processes at a medium-sized business such as vanWylick is a major challenge.

Our employees rely on them and this is essential in our marginal cost business involving fresh produce so that they can make the right decisions. To achieve this, we need our IT systems to provide up-to-date figures, which we can guarantee through continuous optimisation.”

Thomas Endres

Head of Service Providing & Vertrieb

“Supplying our customers with the best quality fresh produce every day is what drives us and motivates us.

Our industry calls for speed, innovation and flexibility at every level. Swift decisions are required on a daily basis, and this can only be achieved successfully if you have a flat hierarchy, so freedom to act and take the initiative are what we consider to be some of the most important aspects at vanWylick.”