France joins the Well Pict European family

Lots of changes have been occurring for AMS European over the start of 2006. AMS European was formed in the Summer of 2004 as a partnership between AMS Exotic and a Frenchman by the name of Antoine Fauger. Antoine or Tony as he is known around the Rungis produce market had been buying fruits and vegetables from AMS Exotic for the past ten years, By 2004 he was getting disenchanted by the way things were going at the company he was working for. He approaches AMS exotic with the idea to form a partnership in Paris. The “business” plan was to sell in the continent as many products as AMS Exotic could sources in the Americas and add on to this the other sources of supplies in Europe and overseas.

After 18 months in business things are moving fast. There are now four people working in the office: Antoine, Gabriel Simmonet in sales, Gretel Bressy in accounting and Stephane Courcelles in quality control / product dispatch. Net sales for the first 18 months amounted to over 7 million Euro’s, 54,00 cartons of product were sold for a total of 2,100 tons, not bad for such a small team.

The main product lines managed by the team are cherries, green asparagus, mangos, avocados, medjool dates and some stone fruits from Australia or New Zealand. The team would agree that the majority of AMS European customers are usually very finicky wholesalers who want something that looks and tastes great (isn’t this just the definition of French anyway? Just ass the Gauloises cigarette and beret and there you have it!). More seriously, AMS European niche business is to import products that’s are difficult to find whether it is far away or out of season. For instance, they do not deal in French cheers, actually they cannot wait to see them being wiped out by a storm in July, but they will buy the very latest Tasmanian cherries in February or the very earliest Californian cherries in April and sell them to a the few specialist wholesalers in France and countries such as Italy, Spain and Switzerland. Not only do they get their hands on hard to find produce, AMS European differentiate themselves by offering different packaging, switching from the normal 5kgs cherrybox to a 2 kg box is a simply way of standing out from the crowd.

Over early 2006 the team has been undertaking a range of new projects. The largest one is their move to an office above a warehouse they have purchase in the Zone Des Entrepots in Rungis market, this allows them and their customers to see what they are buying and selling, without having to drive to a warehouse as they have been doing.

Antoine believes the most interesting development this year is their new venture. Well-Pict European France. This company will see the team develop in supermarket sales in France, with an emphasis on berries, as Antione outlines, “France as a country consumes a vast quantity of berries and we are hoping that the supermarket focus will be on quality and that Well Pict European France can use UK retail marketing strategies in order to be a little different from the other berry handlers in France”. The team will have another advantage in the form of the pan European supply base Well Pict European enjoys. Antoine and his team will also ensure that their expertise in “difficult” products is put to use when dealing with the retailsers, the offer will extened to include cherries, asparagus, avocados and grapes.

April 2006