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METRO MAGAZINE
THE SPELL OF BAIRRO ALTO
A visit to Lisbon
— Expanded service offering: the cooperation with PENTAGAST fires the starting shot
—Hunger to learn: METRO academies convey culinary knowledge in around 11 METRO countries
3/2019
COUNTRY PORTRAIT
COUNTRY PORTRAIT
About 1 million active customers with a focus on: hotels, restaurants, catering (HoReCa) and Traders (independent retailers)
Over 5,000 employees
About 5,000 regular delivery customers
METRO was named one of the best Indian companies by the ‘Great
Place to Work Institute India’ in 2018.
€776 million sales in financial year 2017/18
Support for small traders:
With the ‘Kirana Success Centre’, METRO India supports the digitalisation of more than 500 Kirana stores. The modernisation solutions help to increase customer frequency and economic success.
‘Direct Farm Programme’: Every year, METRO India directly procures 12,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables from farmers – without intermediaries. This not only improves efficiency, reduces food waste and ensures quality and freshness, but also in creases farmers’ incomes.
Accelerating startups: Through cooperations with more than 30 food and technology startups, METRO India enriches its assortment with innovative products – and promotes the startups nationwide.
wholesale stores
METRO India
COUNTRIES. METRO CC.COM
A DETAILED PORTRAIT IS AVAILABLE AT:
Local sourcing:
99% of the products are sourced from small to mediumsized local companies and suppliers.
As of July 2019.
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In this issue, we visit longtime MAKRO customer Hilário Castro at his restaurant in Lisbon. We are driven by people like him: restaurant and hotel owners, caterers, retailers and tradespeople who love their businesses.
It is precisely these independent business owners that we seek to support all along the line. That is why we are expanding our offerings with SME services. We are making purchasing as convenient as possible with Food Service Delivery. We are building charging stations for drivers of electric cars. And we are celebrating entrepreneurs like Castro worldwide – with Own Business Day.
Read more about these topics on the following pages.
ALL ALONG THE LINE
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2 Appetizer METRO around the world
MOVING PEOPLE
4 Time for everyone Hilário Castro stays on top of things in the
bustle of trendy Bairro Alto
8 Training further The METRO training centres conceive
cooking as an art – and as a craft
MOVING GOODS
9 Because service doesn’t stop at the store exit 3 different Food Service Distribution models
make life easier for customers
MOVING BOUNDARIES
10 ‘Every contribution counts’ E-mobility holds opportunities and
challenges: a conversation with energy manager Olaf Schulze
11 METRO is expanding its range of services The cooperation with PENTAGAST is the
first of the new SME services
12 Dessert METRO in figures
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With its Health & Nutrition strategy, METRO is setting itself concrete targets in the food sector for an even healthier product range and clear ingredients labelling. The measures include an even wider selection of fruit and vegetables in the
ultra-fresh department, focusing in particular on more regional and organic produce. The range of products with reduced levels of salt, sugar and trans fats is also to be expanded, along with foods containing no addi-tives such as glutamate or flavour enhancers. There is a special focus on METRO’s own brands. In future, customers should also be given more detailed, easier- to-understand information about nutritional values and ingredients. For instance, details of allergens and lactose- or gluten-free recipes are to be made available in METRO wholesale stores or online as well as on
the products themselves. This strategy is designed to help METRO support food service professionals in their efforts to cater for their customers’ increasing special dietary requirements relating to both dishes and ingredients.
APP
ETIZ
ER
SUSTAINABLE PACKAGING Attractive and environmentally friendly? Yes, it is possible to be both! The new packaging for METRO Germany’s own-brand Fresh Herbs in the METRO Chef and METRO Chef Bio ranges saves more than 100 tonnes of plastic per year and is also visually appealing. Made from certified paper, the packaging was developed in collabor-ation with a local supplier. A special feature is the patented top-seal solution that makes the sustainable pack resealable. As a result, cut herbs stay fresh for longer and METRO is playing an active part in reducing food waste. The new packaging has been tested in the METRO wholesale store in Düsseldorf since April 2019.
The new pack-aging saves more than
100tonnes of plas-tic per year.
1,000
existing METRO own-brand products are to be made using new recipes containing less sugar and salt by the end of 2021.
The new recipes will potentially influence
24 millionMETRO customers and 1 billion end consumers.
HEALTHY AND TRANS PARENT
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THEORY AND PRACTICEIn May, MAKRO Portugal opened the Makropédia in Alfragide, a new dedicated space to share knowledge and experiences and to build relationships between employees, customers and business partners. The simple yet innovative concept lets participants specialise further in different business areas – through theoretical seminars on the market situation, for example, or combined show cooking and training in the fully equipped practice kitchen. Within the past 3 months, more than 30 trainings were provided in soft skills, product knowledge and show cooking, with more than 350 attendees – a successful start of the new programme. With a range of activities and daily events, MAKRO Portugal hopes to strengthen inter-action within the community and support the food service and tourism industries, thereby making a contribution to society. Due to the successful opening of the first Makropédia and the growing and demanding business market, MAKRO plans to open another academy in Matosinhos by the end of 2019. More about training at METRO on page 8.
Be it vegan food, recycling or home composting, quite a num-ber of restaurateurs have long since incorporated sustainable concepts into their business, thereby making a decisive contri-bution to a greener future. METRO is now awarding the first sustainable hospitality prize in recognition of these initiatives. The award will be presented during the congress for the German Sustainability Award in Düsseldorf on 21 and 22 November 2019. The key criterion for the award is passion, rather than perfection – the aim of the METRO Award is not only to shine a light on existing approaches, but also to give encouragement to the industry as a whole. A panel of experts will select 3 finalists from among all the entries. These will then showcase themselves to the public at the congress for the German Sustain ability Award. After the finalists’ 7-minute pitches, the jury and the audience will jointly decide who the winner is. The winner will receive a METRO shopping voucher worth €2,000 and comprehensive advice on how to expand or emphasise their concept. The runners-up will likewise be presented with METRO shopping vouchers.
INNOVATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE
More than
350employees, custom-ers and partners came together to celebrate the opening of the Makropédia.
2,000guests visit the pres-entation ceremony, making the German Sustainability Award the largest distinction of its kind in Europe.
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The congress for the German Sustainability Award will take place in Düsseldorf on 21 and 22 November.
MORE ON THE TOPIC AT:
MORE ON THE TOPIC AT:
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One for all
Between the roofs, colourful bunting flaps in the wind, and there is a hint of spicy roast meat in the air. Now and then, a delivery van trundles over the cobbles. It’s late afternoon in Bairro Alto. At this time of day, there are just a few tourists strolling along taking photos of the colourful, tiled houses, but in the evening these narrow streets will be thronged with people. This is Lisbon’s bohemian neighbourhood – both traditional and mod-ern, lively and introspective.
It is a place frequented by young and old, locals and tourists, as Hilário Castro explains. ‘This creates a unique atmosphere.’ His restaurant, Alfaia, is in the middle of Bairro Alto. Anyone looking for typical Portuguese cuisine has come to the right place here. It’s what the restaurant has been serving since 1880, making it one of the oldest restaurants in Lisbon. That’s quite a weight of history and one that Castro
Hilário Castro makes slow progress through the narrow streets of Bairro Alto in Lisbon, stopping every few metres to shake hands or chat. As chairman of the local commerce association, he always has time for his fellow business owners, and as the owner of a restaurant and wine bar for his guests. As an enthusiastic chef and longstanding MAKRO customer, he believes in using the best ingredients. We paid a visit to a man who is passionate about hospitality.
shouldered when he took over the Alfaia in 2000 at the age of just 22. He is only the third owner in the restaur ant’s history. ‘I always used to walk past here, but I could never have dreamed that this restaurant would belong to me one day,’ he says. Now aged 41, he runs a second restaurant as well, the Aldeia, which is just a few metres further on. He also rents out some apartments on the same street and has opened a wine bar opposite the Alfaia – more from necessity than for any other reason: ‘For the people waiting for a table.’ Just a few months after it opened, the bar had become established as a business in its own right.
Service and empathy make all the difference
Castro is a warm character. He smiles a lot, and some-times sits down at the table to chat with his guests. His customers are a colourful mixture: tourist couples with small children at lunchtime, young women taking a break from sightseeing in the afternoon, and older local men people-watching late into the evening. On Sundays, Castro plays football with his staff – if time allows. He’s a man with a lot of calls on his time. As chairman of the Associação de Comerciantes do Bairro Alto, the local commerce association, he represents the concerns of around 500 restaurant and bar owners, shop and kiosk operators. For him, owner-run bars and restaurants play a key role in the microcosm of the neighbourhood. ‘We value service and empathy,’ he says. And he believes this is what differentiates independent businesses from some of the big restaurant chains – and is what makes all the difference in his job: ‘We are very close to our guests.’
To emphasise the importance of this aspect, but also as a thank you to his guests, Castro will once again be tak-ing part in MAKRO Portugal’s Own Business Day (OBD) this year. OBD is a global METRO campaign to celebrate independent business owners. Castro was there from the start and took part in 2016 as one of just 20 OBD partici-pants in Portugal. This year, around 3,000 business owners are involved in Portugal alone, with special offers like discounts, tasty treats and welcome drinks (see box on page 7).
A chamber of liquid treasures on the second floor
Castro will probably be offering welcome drinks during OBD too, but he also does that at other times. As well as typical Portuguese dishes, the ‘Alfaia Group’, as Castro calls his collection of food and drink outlets on the Travessa da Queimada, also specialises in wine. His treasure chamber is on the second floor of the Alfaia, up a stiflingly hot, narrow staircase. Only the double lock on an otherwise unassuming door hints that there might be something valuable behind it. The temperature drops dramatically on the other side, where an air conditioner creates the ideal conditions for the countless bottles of wine stored here. Carefully sorted, they are stacked on crammed shelves, while boxes and crates are piled on the floor.
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For ‘polvo à lagareiro’, the octopus is boiled, grilled and then cooked in the oven in olive oil and garlic.
6
VIDEO AVAILABLE AT:
WWW. MPULSE.DE/ MOVINGPEOPLE
A highlight for tourists: the historic tram in the steep, narrow streets. Despite the hubbub, a warm atmosphere suffuses the quarter.
From table wines to true rarities – Castro’s stocks include a range of varieties.
This chamber is by no means the only room in which Cas-tro stores wine. He stocks 1,200 (!) different wines and he sources both rare varieties and his bestsellers, including the fruity Verde Muralhas from northern Portugal and the intense Insólito from the south, from MAKRO. ‘MAKRO is a bit like our external warehouse,’ Castro smiles. And not just for wine – Castro procures fresh produce like vege-tables, fish and meat from MAKRO, as well as dry goods and kitchen utensils, and has done ‘from day one’.
Continuity is a characteristic of Bairro Alto, and so is change. Opposites do not necessarily contradict one another here. It’s what makes the neighbourhood so spe-cial. Despite intense competition, there is a ‘great team spirit among the restaurant owners,’ says Castro. ‘For instance, if someone runs out of a particular type of wine, another restaurant will help them out.’ In view of his own wine store, this is not a problem for Castro. And anyone who knows him will know that he is only too happy to help.
Own Business Day – facts and figures
- OBD is held annually on the 2nd Tues-day in October. This year’s OBD will be on 8 October.
- OBD will be celebrated for the 4th time.- 26 countries will be participating with
initiatives this year.- On the website (www.own-business-
day.com), independent restaurateurs and retailers offer specials designed to boost their profiles and attract new customers.
- #loveownbusiness is the hashtag used in social media to mark all the initia-tives, pictures and videos related to OBD.
- OBD now has a dedicated Facebook page for the first time, to make end con-sumers in particular aware of the events happening on the day.
- The 3rd International Own Business Study, which comprises 10,000 partici-pants from 10 countries and which will be published on the occasion of OBD, is an important part of the campaign. The study results can be found here: www.mpulse.de/movingboundaries.
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HER
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TRAINING
There is no culinary pleasure without the right ingredients – and the right preparation. As a wholesale and food specialist, METRO places a premium not just on quality, but also on the art of cooking. In many of the 36 METRO countries, there are training centres designed to both pass on timetested traditions and further the culinary craft. Their motto: learning through feeling, tasting, smelling and doing it yourself.
After all, what underlies all cuisine is the craft of cooking. And like any craft, this must be learned – ideally from professionals. Because prepar-ing food that is at once a treat for the eyes and the palate takes plenty of practice and years of experience. This is clear to anyone who has dedi-cated him- or herself to the culinary pleasures.
METRO therefore not only sells the ingredients for all sorts of delicacies, but demonstrates how to prepare them as well. It also operates so-called training academies in around 11 of the 36 METRO countries, including Bulgaria, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine and Hungary.
Each academy is a unique combin-ation of educational and training centre, professional cooking school, show kitchen and event venue – all geared to the particular themes, culinary culture and restaurant scene of the respective location.
The primary focus is on METRO cus-tomers from the food service indus-try. In practically relevant seminars and workshops, professional chefs,
sommeliers, baristas and renowned instructors from the home country and abroad pass on their knowledge about ingredients, cooking tech-niques, nutritional trends and much more. They inspire the participants with their creativity and their pas-sion for the precision of their craft. Together, the instructors and partici-pants create innovative dishes and newly interpret national classics. Many of the training academies are also explicitly oriented to budding young chefs.
The training academies at METRO additionally serve the company’s internal continuing education pro-cess, regularly providing seminars for METRO staff. Because employees who understand the challenges pro-fessional food service customers grapple with every day can offer them even better advice.
INSIGHTS INTO THE TURKISH ACADEMY ‘GASTRONOMETRO’ AT:
WWW. MPULSE.DE/ MOVINGPEOPLE
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MODEL 3: INDEPENDENT FSD DEPOT
MODEL 2: INSTORE DEPOT
Because service doesn’t stop at the store exitPicking, packing, loading and transport: what the customer nor-mally has to do, METRO can do very simply for him or her with its Food Service Distribution (FSD). In all 36 countries, food ser-vice professionals, hotel operators, caterers and traders take
advantage of this delivery offer, choosing from a specially tailored assortment of around 6,000 professional articles. Different operational models are used, depending on local requirements and circumstances:
The METRO delivery service is used by food service profession-als and wholesale customers worldwide. Additional support is provided by in-house regional specialists: Classic Fine Foods in Asia and the Middle East, Pro à Pro in France and Rungis Express for gourmet foods in Germany and Switzerland. Overall, the FSD services represent an independent line of business.
The FSD customer receives his or her products from the wholesale store’s stock. In the store, there is only a small outgoing goods zone, in which articles from the product ranges are consolidated and loaded onto the delivery vehicles. Depending on the store, there may be a small storage area for articles that are in especially high demand.
The FSD depot is located within the wholesale store, but forms a separate merchandise management entity. The FSD depot is responsible for its own inventory: it orders – independently of the wholesale store – via central METRO platforms or directly from suppliers. Only a small number of the articles come from the store, so the depot can include, for example, its own frozen foods area.
If a region has high FSD demand and insufficient capacity in the existing wholesale stores to meet this need, METRO establishes independent FSD depots, that is, combined warehouse and distribution centres, in designated locations.
WATCH THE EXPLANATORY VIDEO AT: WWW. MPULSE.DE/ MOVINGGOODS
MODEL 1: OUT OF STORE
INSIGHTS INTO THE TURKISH ACADEMY ‘GASTRONOMETRO’ AT:
FSD DEPOT
SUPPLIER SUPPLIER
FSD DEPOT
ORDERORDERORDER
SUPPLIER
MPULSE MOVING GOODS 9
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Mr Schulze, METRO has set itself ambitious climate protection goals: by 2030, the company aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50% per square metre of sales and warehouse space. What is electro-mobility’s contribution to this?
The contribution of electromobility is small in numbers, because our CO2 footprint is also small, at just 3%. But it’s a visible contribution, and a highly emotional one. It makes our efforts
towards climate protection very clear. And in the
end, every contribution counts, whether
large or small.
In 2017, METRO AG joined the EV100 initiative, which was conceived to promote electro-
mobility. What has happened at METRO
since then?
Our goal is the comprehensive introduction of electromobility, without a rush, without fear and panic, but rather rationally and sustainably. And of course also profitably. Up to now, we’ve installed exactly 354 charging stations in many countries, for example in China, Ukraine, Moldova, and in our core European countries, including Germany, of course. And there soon will be more chargers – such as in Rödelheim and Meckenheim, Germany, and at MAKRO Poland. We make emobility experiencable by implementing it in our delivery operations, with great success in Austria and France. And in Germany, we have a company car policy that actively calls for the use of EVs or hybrids.
Does that mean you’re satisfied with the development up to now?
The development so far is okay – we’re moving ahead according to plan. We mustn’t deny that emobility and the infrastructure it requires cost a lot of money. That isn’t a simple business case. On the other hand charging stations for our customers increase their loyalty and bring added value for them, as well as for us when sales increase.
But you couldn’t make a profit from charging stations directly,
not now and probably not in the future, either.
What is the greatest challenge of the self-defined goal of providing over 1,000 charging points for customers by 2030?
Generally speaking, the challenge of emobility is that we have to invest. We have to use sound judgement and set up the charging stations in the right locations with the greatest customer potential. We have to look for rollout partners and, of course, push the rollout forward to complete it by 2030, as the schedule calls for. But I’m sure we’ll have the 1,000 charging stations in place before then.
What’s the role of electromobility in METRO’s strategic orientation to wholesale?
There, our professional customers come to mind first. Emobility is absolutely a driver of value. When customers come to us, perhaps repeatedly, because they want to charge their vehicles while shopping, then we’ve done everything right. But that’s the easier exercise. The more important challenge is to develop solutions that make delivery to customers by EV cheaper and better than with diesel. Because our customers operate their restaurants in the city, for example – and here, our electromobility also makes for better air quality. For METRO as a wholesaler, emobility represents yet another opportunity with regard to our professional customers. Because they have a need to provide charging stations for their restaurant customers or hotel guests – so we should think about putting charging solutions for our customers right ‘on the shelf’.
‘Every contribution counts’
When METRO joined the international Electric Vehicle 100 (EV100) initiative in 2017, it committed itself to actively promoting electromobility. Olaf Schulze, Energy Manager at METRO AG, talks about what has changed at METRO since then, what challenges remain to be met and why emobility offers customer value.
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METRO IS EXPANDING ITS RANGE OF SERVICES
Restaurateurs deal not just with food, but equally with issues such as financing, insur-ance, personnel and professional food service equipment. These aspects of the restaurant business offer good starting points for new METRO services. ‘We have access to the customers and could serve many of these areas,’ says Martin Behle, Operating Partner of METRO responsible for businesses in Germany and Austria.
An international team of young METRO pro-fessionals considered how to best make this possible. Restaurant founders make numerous decisions at a very early stage. These include the kitchen equipment that they purchase from local and regional food service supply specialists. Thus the starting gun has been fired for the first SME service, in autumn 2019: the cooperation with PENTAGAST, Germany’s largest association of specialist food service suppliers.
Both partners see a clear advantage in this symbiosis of food (METRO) and kitchen equip-ment (PENTAGAST). METRO has developed so-called pre-kitchen products specially for the food steamers distributed by PENTAGAST. These relieve restaurateurs of a great deal of work. The push of a button is all it takes to create a high-quality meal. This is a benefit to all involved parties: PENTAGAST sells more appliances, METRO increases its share of sales and the restaurateurs can work efficiently and satisfy their guests.
MORE ON THE TOPIC AT:
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When people think of METRO, they typically think of fresh fish, crisp vegetables and excellent meat – and the big blue box. As a solutions provider for independent restaurateurs and retailers, METRO is poised to significantly expand its own offerings under the term SME services. With digital services and more.
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METRO in figuresTotal sales¹ €7,551 millionLikeforlike sales growth¹ +3.4%EBITDA¹ €347 millionStores (METRO Wholesale)1 773
In the core business wholesale, METRO achieved its 24th consecutive quarter of likeforlike growth.¹
DISH, the online B2B platform specialising in the needs of food service professionals, is already available in 14 countries.¹ With DISH, restaurateurs are given access to digital solutions, industryspecific information and networking opportunities.
To fight hunger and food waste, METRO Wholesale supports food banks in 21 countries worldwide. In financial year 2017/18, we donated more than 51 million meals to people in need.1 Q3 2018/19.
IMPRINT
Publisher METRO AG, Metro-Straße 1, 40235 Düsseldorf, Germany PO box 230361, 40089 Düsseldorf, Germany
METRO on the internet www.metroag.de
Corporate Communications T +49 211 6886-4252 F +49 211 6886-2001 [email protected]
Project lead, concept and editorial (same address as publisher) Katharina Meisel
Project management Kim Franziska Lübke, Katrin Mingels
Graphic design Strichpunkt GmbH, Sophienstraße 6, 10178 Berlin, Germany
Editorial support and realisation Ketchum Pleon GmbH, Bahnstraße 2, 40212 Düsseldorf, Germany
Printing Druckstudio GmbH, Professor-Oehler-Straße 10, 40589 Düsseldorf, Germany
Photography Alexander Link: p. 1, 10 Urban Zintel: cover, pp. 1, 5–7 Boris Zorn: p. 12
Illustration Strichpunkt GmbH, Sophienstraße 6, 10178 Berlin, Germany
Photo credits METRO AG
Disclaimer METRO AG makes every reasonable effort to provide correct and complete information in this magazine and to not infringe third-party trademark rights. METRO AG cannot accept any liability or vouch for providing information that is up to date, correct and complete in this magazine. In particular, the user is not granted rights of any kind to company names and other industrial property rights held by METRO AG or its associated companies with out the express permission of METRO AG. The reproduction or use of graphics or texts created by METRO AG is not allowed without the expressed permission of METRO AG. METRO AG remains the holder of the copyright to such content. Any use of the industrial property rights held by METRO AG or its associated companies for which approval has not been granted or which abuses the owner’s rights represents a violation of proprietary rights and/or an infringement of fair competition.
You will find a digital version of the METRO magazine MPULSE at: www.mpulse.de/en/downloads.
If you would like to receive the magazine as a print publication, please contact: [email protected].
DESSERT
HUMANS AND BANANAS SHARE 50% OF THEIR DNA. Source: John Wiley & Sons (2014). Ortanderl, Ritgen: Chemie für Dummies. Das Lehrbuch. Weinheim.
Useless knowledge from the world of food
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE MORE?
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