Valstar is a specialist is greenhouse vegetables, but is also capable of supplying you a complete assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables, year-round. Bringing the best product groups of the specialised companies within the group together. Your orders will be delivered fresh daily and are of the highest quality all year round.
This is something you can count on.
Our vision is to help consumers enjoy delicious vegetables on a daily basis and lead healthy lives. Our products are bursting with essential vitamins and have a minimal impact on the environment. By focusing on health benefits, convenience, sustainability, and making our products unique, we aim to inspire our customers by providing produce that is set apart from regular products.
We like to collaborate with our customers and are energised by developing innovative and exciting concepts. By working to inspire the development of a wide range of products and brands, advising on category management in the supermarket, and supplying the highest quality vegetables, we work together to produce the best results possible from the available vegetable supply.
Growers
The production process starts with our growers, who work passionately every day to deliver beautiful produce. Each grower we work with possesses specialist knowledge of their product and can guarantee consistent high quality. We are directly partnered with a number of our own growers in the Netherlands and have strong relationships with suppliers both at home and abroad to ensure a diverse year-round assortment of products. For example, we can import products into the Netherlands that are not domestically available every season. Thanks to our specialised partner companies within the Best Fresh group, we are able to supply more than just greenhouse produce—our range also includes exotic products, soft fruit, specialties, and organic fruits and vegetables.
Many of our growers and suppliers self-package their product at the production location. This gives us the option of delivering directly from the greenhouse to the customer, meaning our products often reach the shelf within one day. This couldn’t be any fresher.
To stay informed about the development of new vegetable varieties, we maintain close contact with people working on breeding seeds for the most important greenhouse vegetables. When we collaborate with these breeders, as well as with our growers and suppliers, we are working to develop innovative and sustainable products and concepts. In doing so, we can stay in touch with the wishes and needs of the consumer.
Sustainability
To guarantee our products’ sustainability, we strive to primarily purchase products from growers who have received the “On the Way to PlanetProof” certification. With this in mind, our goal is to achieve 75% of our purchasing volume grown according to this certification by 2025.
> Sustainable sourcing
Valstar
If products cannot be transported directly from the grower to the customer, they are first sent to our distribution centre in Poeldijk. In collaboration with our partner ABC Logistics, the fresh fruits and vegetables are inspected, temporarily stored, and soon transported to the customer.
Our distribution centre has temperature regulated rooms with the correct conditions needed to keep each product fresh. By controlling the environment, we can ensure that the quality and taste of our products are well preserved. We also have multiple packaging options available at this location, meaning we can always offer tailor-made packaging for incoming and outgoing products. Our ERP operating system helps to provide the correct information on current stock, transport, and customer information. To keep track of our holdings, we maintain insights into our products’ origins and know exactly what processes they have gone through. In this way, we always ensure that a correct and safe product arrives at the customer.
To guarantee quality standards and food safety in our distribution centre, we work together with suppliers that hold a GFSI certification (IFS, BRC, FSSC22000, GlobalG.A.P.). In addition, we maintain the following certifications ourselves: IFS Broker, QS, Skal, USDA Organic, and AEO.
Our distribution centre is conveniently located in the Westland, one of the largest and most innovative greenhouse horticulture clusters in the world. Here, vegetables are grown in fully automated greenhouses using the latest cultivation techniques and most sustainable practices. Not to mention, the shipping hub at the port of Rotterdam is only a short distance away.
Customer
Retail, wholesale, and foodservice at home and abroad. We deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to a wide variety of customers every day. Our customer diversity requires us to use a tailor-made service specialised to fit each group’s unique needs. This is why our commerce is divided into specialised departments: Retail, Trade, Salads Direct, and Overseas.
Whether products come from our distribution centre or directly from the grower, we guarantee our customers the requested volumes, correct packaging, and of course, product freshness. Our work does not stop when our products are delivered. We like to pay attention to how the product will reach the end-stage customer and are available to provide commercial support to our customers, including category management, advice, and inspiration for on the shelf or online appearance.
Consumer
Consumers play a role at both the beginning and end of the product cycle. When our consumers are happy, we can be happy as well. End-stage customers are an essential source of inspiration for our new products and concepts. To gain insight into their desires and needs, we regularly conduct consumer research and analyse supermarket data. In doing so, we gain new insights from different sources to develop and improve our range of products.
Our vision is to help consumers enjoy delicious vegetables on a day-to-day basis and lead healthy lives. With this vision in mind, we work hard to ensure excellent quality and taste with each of our products. With our wide range of fresh products, everyone can have a feast!
In addition to excellent quality and taste, it is important that our products are grown and packaged in a sustainable and food safe manner. Modern consumers are very aware of the impact of plastics and are increasingly looking to make sustainable choices wherever they can. To meet this desire, we are committed to creating sustainable solutions for both new and existing products and packaging.
“Fa. M. Valstar” was founded in 1928 by Maart Valstar, a descendant of an original Westland horticultural family. He established himself as a trader at the newly built Fruit and Vegetable Auction site in Naaldwijk and began his legacy supplying customers in the Netherlands, Germany, and England with fresh produce. Later, he expanded his exports to reach other European countries: Sweden, Ireland, Switzerland, and Belgium.
90 years later, Valstar is still located in Westland, recognised as one of the world’s largest and most innovative greenhouse horticulture clusters. We work closely with our local growers and suppliers while also operating on an expansive international level. Thanks to our offices in Spain and the United Kingdom, we maintain close ties with our overseas growers, which means we can ensure consistent, excellent quality throughout the year.
Valstar is in possession of various certificates for quality requirements. In order to guarantee quality and food safety, we and the companies within the Best Fresh Group cooperate with suppliers who are in possession of a GFSI certification (IFS, BRC, FSSC22000, GlobalG.A.P.).
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