C1000 fans grab a bargain one last time
- (https://kooistra.com/2015/08/01/)
ASSEN – Anyone who really can’t do without C1000 products yet should head to the north of the country. Over the coming months, the Maxx outlet shops (in Assen, Groningen and soon Leeuwarden, among others) will have pallets full of own-brand items. Kooistra.com, buyer of surplus stock, is running the trade. ‘A huge success. You can see that C1000 has a place in people’s hearts.’
A phone call for Eric Kooistra. A supplier on the other end of the line. Is Kooistra still interested in 80 pallets of dog food under the C1000 own brand? A short conversation follows and the deal is quickly done. Typical of Kooistra.com, says the owner. ‘We are set up for large volumes, we don’t make things difficult, we are financially healthy, and we like mixed lots and adventures.’ Selling a whole line of own brands from the defunct supermarket chain is one of those adventures. The 36-year-old
man behind the surplus stock is sometimes surprised at the impact the disappearance of C1000 is having. ‘The supplier I just had on the line gets a call every hour
asking whether he still has own-brand dog biscuits. Yes, C1000 really still means something to people.’ Over the coming months, die-hard C1000 fans and other bargain hunters can browse to their heart’s content in the stock buyer’s Maxx outlet shops. Besides a load of non-food, from cupboards to children’s clothing,
the shops now also stock nappies, soups, crisps and other food products with the familiar red logo.
Distrifood meets Eric Kooistra at the Assen branch, where his business partner Tjitse Lawerman also joins the conversation. The pair expect hundreds of pallets of C1000 products in the coming period. ‘800 from the C1000 distribution centres and another 700 we are taking over from various suppliers. That makes 1,500 in total,’ Lawerman adds up. ‘That stock is roughly equal to the contents of 50 lorry trailers.’ The load does not mean the Maxx shops will turn completely red. Far from it. Of the 10,000 items in a Maxx, 500 to 600 come from the supermarket chain’s range. A visit to Assen shows, however, that the C1000 range is the big draw. For discounts of up to 70 percent, consumers are happy to make the trip. ‘We get customers here who live 50, 60 kilometres outside Assen,’ says Kooistra. The C1000 own brand mainly works as a magnet, not as a profit machine. ‘Of course we hope to make a profit selling C1000 products, but that’s not what it’s about for us. If people come for the
C1000 range, they also walk past the children’s clothing and the barbecues. The C1000 name generates a lot of traffic, and that is what matters. And if you can buy food at
such low prices, customers are happy to come for it.’
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