On 1 May 2023 7Days added fresh and ultra-fresh products to its existing service portfolio, strengthening its long-standing cooperation with Valora in Switzerland. In addition to its existing product groups – FMCG, non-food, beverages, tobacco – 7Days now also delivers fresh sandwiches, fruit, vegetables and dairy products from the cold storage facility in Egerkingen to k kiosk, avec. and P&B outlets throughout Switzerland on a daily basis.
«Our partnership with Valora is close, trusting and forward-looking. Together we are investing in a long-term collaboration. We are pleased to be the strong partner at Valora’s side in the fresh food logistics sector as well.»
Thomas Kirschner, CEO, 7Days Switzerland
Convenience means maximizing efficiency along the value chain, and exploiting potential time savings for the end customer – before, during and after the purchase of the product3
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The consumption of convenience products continues to be an important food trend to which the entire supply chain is responding. The 2022 Nutrition Trends Report1, for example, showed that the Covid-19 pandemic boosted demand for food-to-go. Convenience food and food-to-go is considered the sixth most important development in nutrition, according to the report.
“The combination of sustainability, health and enjoyment is becoming increasingly important in the out-of-home catering field. So the delivery industry is likely to focus even more closely in future on the affluent target group of health-oriented people.”
In the underlying survey, conducted by the Nutrition Hub network and the Federal Centre for Nutrition (FCN), over 100 experts from the nutrition sector were asked for their views. 22 percent of the experts surveyed see convenience food among the top 10 future nutrition trends. Specifically, fast and pre-prepared food came sixth2. According to Deloitte the market for convenience products in Europe is still relatively underdeveloped compared to China and the USA, and the market can be expected to grow by more than 10%3. Deloitte points out that in addition to people’s lack of time, smaller household sizes, urbanization and our ageing society favour this development3. Salads, sandwiches and smoothies, for example, are the top 3 convenience products most in demand by retailers3.
1 https://www.nutrition-hub.de/post/trendreport-ernaehrung-10-top-ernaehrungstrends-2022
2 https://lebensmittelpraxis.de/sortiment/35313-convenience-food-schneller-genuss-auf-der-ueberholspur.html
3 https://www2.deloitte.com/de/de/pages/consumer-business/articles/convenience-food-study.html
Convenience products require a complex end-to-end logistics solution
Fresh, fast-moving products require flexible and intelligent logistics services if customer demand is to be met to the maximum possible extent. For high-turnover consumer goods in the areas of FMCG, beverages, fresh produce, tobacco and near-food, 7Days offers storage and transportation facilities specific to groups of goods. After collecting goods and storing them correctly, 7Days conducts order-picking and packaging activities for you and prepares the goods in compacted form for transportation. 7Days delivers products to the desired points of sale, taking away empty and reusable containers as well as recycling goods for return and reuse. To ensure a consistent and continuous cold chain, 7Days provides both transportation and storage facilities ideally tailored to customer needs.
Interview
Interview with Thomas Kirschner, CEO, 7Days Schweiz
Did you get off to a good start with the launch of fresh food logistics?
Thanks to our experienced, interdisciplinary and expert team and our partnership with Valora, we can look back on a successful start in supplying Valora’s sales outlets with fresh products. In addition to the traditional FMCG range, we have been supplying Valora’s sales outlets with fresh products such as sandwiches, sliced fresh fruit, vegetables, and dairy products since 1 May 2023.
How do you manage to meet the high quality standards in the food logistics sector?
Within the scope of our core business activities we strive to act responsibly – towards the environment, in our relations with employees and in our interaction with relevant stakeholders. Through regular auditing processes we strive for the continuous improvement of the management system, and we have also adopted the appropriate hygiene standards, specifically in the area of food safety.
How does your logistics service contribute to the environment?
7Days aims to improve our service quality while reducing our emissions in a step towards green city logistics. Sustainability is to be more firmly anchored in our DNA. One aspect of this is 7Days’ use of electric Sprinter vans in metropolitan regions. The switch to electric vehicles is part of the 7Days sustainability strategy. Following this step, electric vehicles already account for more than 10% of our own vehicle fleet, with further vehicles to be added in the course of the year. Electrifying the vehicle fleet is both a goal and an obligation, in order to ensure that our entrepreneurial thinking and actions make sparing use of resources. This applies to interaction with customers, suppliers, partners and employees, and also in terms of overall commercial solutions.
