Special partnership Frigo Group and Fresh to Table enters new phase
Special. That is certainly what you can call the partnership between the Frigo Group and Fresh to Table Meal Service. Based on great mutual trust, the two companies have been bringing out the best in each other for years. “And the best is yet to come,” predicts Vers aan Tafel’s general manager Joost de Man.
Long before De Man joined the Lelystad-based meal service company in 2018, first as commercial director and from 2020 as general manager, Vers aan Tafel was already making full use of the Frigo Group’s services. “We continued to do so, even after a major reorganisation that cannot be separated from the corona pandemic,” he explains. “We then said goodbye to our former parent company and continued as a subsidiary of Frigilunch, a Belgian company that makes frozen meals. We deliver these mainly to the older target group in the Netherlands. In doing so, we cannot do without Frigo Nieuw-Vennep’s cold store and the logistics services of Frigo Group Logistics and Frigo Group Transport.”
Ambitious growth target
Fresh to Table will continue to use the Frigo Group, assures De Man, even if the ambitious growth target is realised in the coming years. “With our fresh frozen meals, 1.3 million items by 2023, we are targeting the elderly who are encouraged to continue living independently at home for as long as possible. Their numbers are only increasing. For example, the number of people over 80 is rising from 0.7 million in 2015 to 2 million in 2040. We can provide those people with a tasty and healthy meal every day, which, for example, prevents them from becoming malnourished or not getting enough protein.”
Besides ‘quality’, ‘health’ is also a key asset of Fresh to Table, which De Man hopes to play off in the coming years. “It is reassuring that the storage and transport of the frozen fresh meals are in the trusted hands of the Frigo Group. This allows us to focus entirely on our core business and our growth ambitions.”
Four Fresh to Table hubs
At Vers aan Tafel, the Frigo Group has been living up to its name and fame as a ‘logistics service provider in frozen food’ for years, according to De Man. “That starts with the transport of frozen fresh meals from the Frigilunch location in Belgium to Frigo Nieuw-Vennep, where several freezer cells are reserved for us year-round. Divided into more than 170 meals, soups, desserts and high-protein snacks, this is where the Vers aan Tafel stock is located that we draw from for our customers.”
A permanent Vers aan Tafel employee is stationed in Nieuw-Vennep every day to support the logistics processes. When picking orders, at least four employees from Frigo Nieuw-Vennep can be used day in and day out. De Man: “From Nieuw-Vennep, the meals are then transported to our three hubs elsewhere in the Netherlands. From there, our own delivery staff take care of ‘the last mile’ to our customers in their own Vers aan Tafel vehicles. Moreover, for Amsterdam and the surrounding area and the rest of North Holland, Frigo Nieuw-Vennep also acts as a Vers aan Tafel hub to our full satisfaction.”
No 9-to-5 mentality
Quality, great customer focus and no 9-to-5 mentality… According to De Man, these are qualities that the Frigo Group and Vers aan Tafel have in common. “That’s why we fit together so well and have been working together so well for so long. What we do has a lot of impact: making sure the elderly eat delicious and, above all, enough and healthy food every day. Within Fresh to Table, we feel responsible for that and I experience that same sense of responsibility at the Frigo Group.”
Click here for the ‘Customer to speak‘ section, which this time is dedicated to Fresh to Table.