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A force to reckon with in wholesale catering

It all started in the Lower Rhine region with margarine and fats. No, we are not talking about the sculptor Joseph Beuys and his abstract art (which often featured felt blankets and fat), we are talking about the beginnings of a wholesale catering business in Weeze, western Germany. The name CHEFS CULINAR is relatively new and was freely created in 2013. Using its new visual image, the business, which is not only active throughout Germany but also serves the neighbouring countries, aims to set itself up on an international footing. The "chefs" are the professionals in the kitchen and the terms "culinar" was invented to reflect all aspects of cuisine and cooking, flavours and the freshness of good food. Their silver-painted lorries with the blue lettering look classically sophisticated on the outside and, on the inside, feature a three-chamber construction to store deep-frozen items, fresh meat and foods, dry goods, fresh fruit, vegetables and lettuces as part of an ingenious logistical system based on decades of experience. Strictly speaking, the enterprise has existed for 95 years, but under a different name and using a different business concept.
 
CHEFS CULINAR in Weeze was originally founded in 1923 in Goch. Josef Moll and his uncle, Emil Peters, jointly founded a company named JOMO. The original idea was to supply large-scale kitchens, such as those in hospitals and old people's homes, with margarine and various kinds of fat for cooking. The idea was a success and the range of products soon expanded to include butter, cheese and coffee. Well into the 1970s, the blue-yellow lorries used by JOMO were a common sight here. When the company premises became too cramped, it was decided to relocate from Goch to Weeze in 1972. In the same year, two entrepreneurs in the Schleswig-Holstein region of north Germany jointly founded the first CITTI market in Kiel. Fourteen years later, in 1986, JOMO and CITTI decided to merge their activities for the hotel and catering trade and communal catering. In the field of communal catering, they set up a common procurement base. In 1997, Ringel, originally a specialist provider of deep-frozen foods in south Germany, joined the group as a subsidiary. The unit with the largest annual turnover after Bavaria is the "West" distribution centre of CHEFS CULINAR. The holding is owned by three families, two located in north Germany and one in the Lower Rhine region. Dr Christian Moll, who is joint Managing Director with Hans-Gerd Janssen in Weeze, is a great-nephew of the company founder. At Weeze, the fact that CHEFS CULINAR is an owner-managed family concern is a matter of pride. In the field of wholesale catering and communal catering delivery, this enterprise is the market leader.
 
There may be other suppliers offering a full service in the catering field but CHEFS CULINAR aims to be both different from and better than the competition. Overnight deliveries are made in full and on time, whether it's just teabags and toothpicks or 250 litres of washing-up liquid – the warehouse facility in Weeze stocks over 20,000 products on 39,000 sq. m of space. Meat and sausage products are sourced from the company’s own butcher's department. But deliveries are only part of the company's successful business model – additional services are available to provide customers with the definitive feel-good-factor. For 35 years, IT services and in recent times also checkout systems have been made available. A team of chefs trials new ideas, while industrial management experts and quality inspectors are also part of the team when it comes to catering and large-scale customer advisory services. There are over 800 employees in Weeze alone working for 8000 customers, and the number of customers in Germany as a whole is more than 50,000. The lorries, of which there are no less than 150, leave the premises in Weeze at 04:00 in the morning to deliver to customers. Via the A 57 motorway, transport to customers around the country is quick and easy with drivers for the outward and inward journeys changing over as needed. Even if Weeze might be seen to be geographically on the fringe, nobody is interested in relocating away from here. A key capital resource are the employees in the region, who have grown together through three generations. The outlook for the future is rosy: the hotel business is booming in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the volume of food consumed away from home is increasing. Year after year, new old people's homes are coming online. The field of convenience foods, starting with sliced lettuce, through to precooked beef olives and more, shows considerable growth potential. Nobody here is particularly worried about Amazon, because that company does not have the decades of organically developed logistics based on many years of experience.
 
CHEFS CULINAR West GmbH & Co. KG
Holtumsweg 26
47652 Weeze
Tel. +49 2837 80-0
Fax +49 2837 80-332
 
As of February 2018