Team Beverage moves headquarters to Bremen

Team Beverage AG, a service provider in the drinks sector with 230 employees across Germany, works with customers in wholesale, retail and the catering and convenience sectors (petrol stations, for example). The company has now moved its headquarters and almost 90 employees from Wildeshausen in Lower Saxony to Bremen, where its new offices can be found in the Europa-Center building in Bremen Airport-Stadt. The offices offer approx. 2,500 square metres of space with room for further expansion, as Team Beverage is planning to increase its workforce by around 40 employees in the medium term.

Martin Günthner, Bremen’s Senator for Economic Affairs, Labour and Ports, is very pleased with the successful move: “We have managed to convince another food and drinks company to relocate its headquarters here. In the competition for domestic and international investment, Bremen scores highly as a key urban centre for the region, and also with its large pool of skilled workers. I’m delighted that a growing medium-sized business such as Team Beverage sees its future here, and I firmly believe that its relocation to Bremen will present many opportunities for further commercial success.”

Several new distribution channels through Transgourmet

The relocation to Bremen, initiated and managed by Bremeninvest and supported by Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH (BAB), is causing a stir not just in the drinks sector. With a network of more than 40,000 distribution points, around €1.3 billion in commission revenue, and over 11 million hectolitres traded in returnable bottles, Team Beverage is already one of Germany’s leading distribution, procurement, marketing and service platforms for the drinks industry. New distribution channels in the food sector have opened up for the company since Transgourmet Deutschland acquired a 70 per cent share in the business. Transgourmet has around 10,000 employees in Germany. The Transgourmet Group is based in Basel and is part of the Coop Group.
“By entering the drinks market, Transgourmet aims to meet customers’ growing demands for better service and fewer points of contact. In their private lives, our target customers have already seen the focus of retail move online, but when it comes to B2B, this development is still in its infancy. In order to meet this challenge successfully, further quantitative and qualitative expansion of our new partnership is necessary,” say Frank Seipelt and John Matthew, joint chairmen of the executive board at Transgourmet Central and Eastern Europe.

Multichannel vendor Transgourmet is a wholesale supplier and cash & carry specialist for professional catering kitchens. The company provides an end-to-end service and offers a comprehensive range of foodstuffs, consumer durables, consumer goods and commercial kitchen equipment. It operates in Germany as a supplier under the brands Transgourmet and EGV, and as a cash & carry distributor under the brands Selgros and FrischeParadies. The Transgourmet Group, Europe’s second-largest specialist in wholesale supplies and cash & carry, employs over 24,000 people and has net sales of around €8 billion. Umbrella brands include Transgourmet Central and Eastern Europe, Transgourmet France, Transgourmet Switzerland and Transgourmet Austria.

Multichannel vendor Transgourmet is a wholesale supplier and cash & carry specialist for professional catering kitchens. The company provides an end-to-end service and offers a comprehensive range of foodstuffs, consumer durables, consumer goods and commercial kitchen equipment. It operates in Germany as a supplier under the brands Transgourmet and EGV, and as a cash & carry distributor under the brands Selgros and FrischeParadies. The Transgourmet Group, Europe’s second-largest specialist in wholesale supplies and cash & carry, employs over 24,000 people and has net sales of around €8 billion. Umbrella brands include Transgourmet Central and Eastern Europe, Transgourmet France, Transgourmet Switzerland and Transgourmet Austria.

The wholesale drinks sector, which is dominated by SMEs, has reorganised under the umbrella of Team Beverage AG. The retail division promotes beverage stores across Germany, including GetränkePartner, Zisch-Getränkefachmärkte, GAM Partner, Gmaxx-Märkte and its branches, the partner markets within the IGP and GVP system, Getränke Star cash & carry stores and GPG Handelsmarken GmbH stores. It also runs www.wir-liefern-getraenke.de, a leading online portal selling drinks in returnable bottles.

Food has been added to the product range

"The investment by Transgourmet promises excellent growth potential for Team Beverage AG, the drinks wholesale sector and the drinks industry in Germany,” says Thorsten Schön, spokesperson for the executive board of Team Beverage AG. “From our customers’ point of view, food and drinks belong together, and online and offline shopping complement one another in the same way. That’s becoming increasingly important. With an extensive range of food and drinks and a multichannel approach, including its own e-commerce portals, Team Beverage is now in an excellent position.”

The synergies that may result from the merger of Transgourmet and Team Beverage, and which rely heavily on digitalization, are viewed at Team Beverage as an organic evolution that can help to create jobs. “We’re establishing an online environment that neatly complements our existing offering. We’re not transforming our business from offline to online, instead we are combining the two,” says marketing manager Arne Seeliger. “That’s what multichannel is all about.” At present, Team Beverage has five sites cross Germany employing around 230 people. According to Seeliger, the company will need to hire an additional 30 to 40 employees over the coming years to handle the expansion of the Gastivo online platform. The new headquarters near Bremen airport have enough room to accommodate 120 to 130 employees.

Growth spurs the move to Bremen

Why did Team Beverage relocate to Bremen? Marketing manager Seeliger names a couple of reasons: “We wanted to move away from rural surroundings to a major urban centre because we’re growing rapidly and need skilled workers in a range of disciplines. We would have struggled to hire the right people in our old location. What’s more, the offices in Wildeshausen were no longer big enough to fit our plans.”

According to Seeliger, the site in Bremen’s Flughafenallee offers everything the business needs in the future: “Office space, good transport links for all our employees, and for our customers and partners.” The Bremen location also increases the company’s attractiveness as an employer. “We hope to not only please our existing workforce, but also to make it easier to find new employees.” The move was considered with total transparency and fairness towards the existing workforce: “All alternatives were considered in advance and discussed with the employees. We involved everyone as much as possible as we want to retain our existing employees, not lose them.”

Thorsten Schön, spokesperson of the executive board of Team Beverage AG, felt there was plenty of encouragement during the relocation. Initial talks with the Senator for Economic Affairs, Labour and Ports, for example, left him with a positive impression of the future site: “They showed us that they would welcome us with open arms.” Arne Seeliger was also impressed with the team at Bremeninvest: “Great attention to detail, very professional and focused on our needs – they helped us wherever possible, which is something we hadn’t experienced in the past. That made it fun.”

Your contact persons for moving to Bremen are Thorsten Tendahl, team leader for national relocations, +49 (0)421 9600 121, thorsten.tendahl@wfb-bremen.de and for international relocations Andreas Gerber, team leader of Bremeninvest, +49 (0)421 9600 123, gerber@bremen-invest.com.

If you want to know more about Bremen Airport-Stadt, please contact Andreas Zimmermann, +49 (0)421 9600 124, andreas.zimmermann@wfb-bremen.de.

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