'A client used to have to call ten or twelve
suppliers to order all his fresh products.
Today, one phone call to a fresh food center
is enough. This is unique in The Netherlands.'
Grootverbruik Ahold
(GVA) continued to devel
op the four specialized
groups established in
1988, i.e., Institutional,
Restaurant, Catering, Fresh
Food and Non-Food. Part
of this development was
the formation of a national
network of five regional
fresh food centers.
This enables the GVA
(I to r) Wim Scholtes (Restaurant/Catering),
Mark van Stekelenburg, Jan Kelderman (Fresh Food)
and Frans Rikkers (Institutional)
become as important in
many households as tele
vision and telephone.
And, as the number of
home computers increas
es, the importance of tele-
shopping will grow.
Jurriaan Jurg
Institutional Food Supply-
stand at the Horecava
trade fair
companies Kok-Ede,
Albert Heijn Grootver
bruik, HIC, Instel and
Evers Horeca Totaal to
deliver a full assortment of
fresh food (meat, fish, pro
duce and dairy products)
in one drop, six days a
week, throughout The
Netherlands. GVA Man
aging Director Mark van
Stekelenburg: 'A client
used to have to call ten or
twelve suppliers to order
all his fresn products.
Today, one phone call to
a GVA fresh food center is
enough. This is unique in
The Netherlands.
The five centers obtain
meat and vegetables
chiefly from their own pro
cessing companies
this means that they have
full control over product
quality.
According to Mark van
Stekelenburg perishables
will become increasingly
important to GVA. 'In
recent years we have
acquired a number of
companies which have
considerably strengthened
our position in this sector.
We have put down a
solid foundation and we
intend to build our future
on it. In three years 'time
we want to be considered
the fresh food specialist in
the institutional sales mar
ket. Fresh food is going to
be the cutting edge!'
Early in 1990 the empha
sis on freshness was evi
dent in GVA's exhibit at
the Horecava trade fair in
Amsterdam. There GVA
presented itself for the
second consecutive year
as a specialist in fresh
food supply. At the stand
shared with subsidiaries
Kok-Ede, Albert Heijn
Grootverbruik, HIC and
Instel, the Fresh Food
group was both literally
and figuratively the center
of attraction.
The end of September
saw the introduction of the
A'tel project in Amstel
veen. A cross section of
households were given
home computers which
among other functions can
be used to order goods
from James Telesuper.
According to James'
Managing Director Jurri
aan Jurg, his company, 'a
laboratory within Ahold,
participated in the experi
ment in order to obtain a
better insight into consum
er behavior. Jurg: 'I
expect the computer to
