ASSEN - If you really still can't do without C1000 products, you should head north. In the coming months, the Maxxoutlet shops (in Assen, Groningen and soon also Leeuwarden) will have pallets full of private brand articles. Kooistra.com, buyer of leftover stock, directs the trade. 'A huge success. You can see that C1000 has a place in people's hearts.'
Telephone for Eric Kooistra. A supplier on the other end of the line. Whether Kooistra is still interested in 80 pallets of C1000-branded dog food. A short conversation follows, the deal is quickly done. Typical of Kooistra.com, says the owner. 'We are set up for large volumes, don't do anything difficult, are nancially sound, love unregulated trade as well as adventures.' One such adventure is the sale of a parade of private labels from the old supermarket formula. The 36-year-old
director behind the residual lots occasionally looks up from the impact of C1000's demise. 'The supplier I just spoke to on the line is getting hourly
called if he still had dog food from the house brand. Yes, C1000 still really appeals to people. For the next few months, inveterate C1000 fans and other bargain hunters will be able to browse through the buyer's so-called Maxx outlet shops. In addition to a load of non-food, from wardrobes to children's clothes, there will be
here now include nappies, soups, crisps and other food products with the familiar red logo.
Distrifood speaks to Eric Kooistra at the Assen branch, where partner Tjitse Lawerman also joins them for an interview. The duo is expecting hundreds of pallets of C1000 products in the near future. '800 from C1000's distribution centres and another 700 we take over from various suppliers. That's 1500 in total," Lawerman sums up. 'That stock is roughly equivalent to the contents of 50 truck trailers.' The freight does not mean that the Maxx shops turn completely red. Anything but. Of the 10,000 items in a Maxx, 500 to 600 are aomstige of the supermarket formula's stable. However, a visit to Assen proves that the C1000 range is the lure. For discounts of up to 70 per cent, consumers are happy to make a trip. 'We receive customers here who live 50, 60 kilometres outside Assen,' Kooistra knows. In particular, the C1000 house brand serves as a magnet, not a profit machine. 'Of course we hope to make a profit from the sale of C1000 products, but that's not what we're about. If people come because of the
C1000 range, they also walk past the children's clothing and barbecues. The C1000 name generates a lot of trac and that's what it's all about. And if you can buy food for
such low prices, the customer is willing to walk for that.'