Customers prefer to grab a pizza from farther down

Source: V-Markt

Interview with Sylvester Greiter from V-Markt

Georg Jos. Kaes GmbH operates supermarkets in Southern Bavaria under the name of V-Markt, along with home improvement stores, fashion stores, gas stations and car washes. The head office of the owner-operated family business is in Mauerstetten near Kaufbeuren. In 2009, business volume was at 620 million Euros. In this interview Sylvester Greiter answers our questions about the frozen food segment. He is responsible for many areas, from logistics to purchasing petroleum all the way to press relations.


The V-Markt presents itself in Bavarian Swabia and in Upper Bavaria as a market place for fresh produce. What role does the frozen food selection play?

Our V-Markets are positioned as full line retailers. Therefore, the frozen food range of products is indispensable for us and a relevant pillar of sales. Moreover, steadily increasing sales volumes reveal that the frozen food area is and will remain a very important range of products for the future.


Do you also carry store brands in your frozen food selection? Who supplies these?

We do not have a V-Markt store brand in any of our product areas. However, we carry the store brand of the ZHG in our frozen foods line of products, which means our customers can find OMEGA products in our freezers.


Which national manufacturers are listed with you?

We have the industry standard manufacturers listed. More precisely those manufacturers are Iglo, Frosta, Schöller, Unilever, Coppenrath & Wiese, Agrarfrost, Wiesenhof, Wagner and Dr. Oetker.

Which marketing sales promotions of frozen food manufacturers do you participate in?

One of our main focal points in our V-Markets is to personally address our customers. Our personnel management puts a lot of effort in training in this specific area. The use of hostesses by manufacturers is very similar, which is why we like to use hostesses for our sales approach. We are successful in doing so particularly in more rural regions.


Manufacturers offer additional advertising material: displays, wobblers, special freezers. Which do you use?

As I have already mentioned, we prefer face-to-face contact and we also sporadically use additional special freezers.


Do you rely on freezers or open or closed chest freezers for your frozen food presentation? And why?

Initially, freezers and closed chest freezers present a sales barrier, yet in our stores the trend is toward closed chest freezers. We want to impart more confidence in the temperature to our customers, because with open chest freezers you always find that customers “prefer to grab a pizza from farther down.”


Do environmental aspects play a role in the choice of refrigeration units? Or is it mainly about lowering operational costs?

Both. Operational costs for closed chest freezers are lower than those of open chest freezers. The environment benefits from the energy savings, but the amount invested in closed chest freezers is significantly higher.


You are updating the markets in the region bit by bit. Do you also invest in Digital Signage, meaning large advertising screens?

In our V-Markt in Kaufbeuren we are currently gaining experience with screens in the checkout area. We have not decided yet on how far we will expand Digital Signage.


How will your frozen food selection develop in the next few years?

We assume that in the next few years, the frozen food area will continue its soaring development of previous years.


Interview by René Schellbach