Greenhill guarantees high quality

Schoonderwoerd Vlees from Bilthoven has added a new and unique brand to their assortment of meat. The family business imports mainly beef and lamb from New-Zealand and Australia.

The brothers Nimrod and Nigel Schoonderwoerd are at the helm of Schoonderwoerd Vlees since 2010. Their grandfather founded the company in 1945 and started out as a butcher. Over the years, Schoonderwoerd Vlees has started to specialise in importing and distributing beef and lamb from Australia and particularly New-Zealand. Only after an extensive internship in New-Zealand, to learn the trade and make contacts, were the brothers allowed to lead the company. They started energetically with the move from De Bilt to the location in Bilthoven. A modern building where from that moment they also had enough freezing capacity and no longer had to lease extra space. By now, the brothers have plans to expand.

Quality from New-Zealand

“My father got his meat everywhere. Ireland, America, from all over the world, but also from New-Zealand”, Nigel tells us. “He saw the quality of meat from New-Zealand and felt that if he focused on that, he would do something different than the competition.” Schoonderwoerd Vlees now exclusively imports high quality beef, lamb and mutton from New-Zealand and grain-fed beef from Australia. “From October until December, we also import game, especially venison. But these aren’t large quantities. It’s more like a service to our regular customers”, he explains. The cattle in these countries is treated extremely well and these animals are only ever outside and on large meadows. “The lambs, sheep and cows in New-Zealand don’t receive any extra feedings. With the exception of grain-fed Ocean Beef, all our New-Zealand meet is purely natural and grass-fed. The farmers care a lot about animal welfare. In the Netherlands, we provide high quality products to supermarkets, butcheries and the wholesale hospitality sector, but we also export. There’s not a country in Europe we won’t supply to.”

New quality brand by Schoonderwoerd Vlees

Sustainability is important

Schoonderwoerd distributes the meat in the Benelux with their own new fleet. The three trucks and delivery van come equipped with the economical Euro 6 diesel engines. “Our cars have recently been equipped with a recognisable look, which conveys the quality of our products and brands”, Nigel says. “An ingenious layout makes it possible to transport both fresh and frozen meat at the same time and thus transport in a sustainable manner.” The building also contributes to the company’s sustainability goal. “We have LED lighting everywhere that works on movement sensors and of course, the refrigeration rooms have been optimally isolated with thick walls. The heat from the cooling machines in stored in a tank and reused as floor heating for the building.” Schoonderwoerd Vlees has sufficiently invested in digitalisation, making the entire chain traceable and limiting the paper flow to a minimum. Despite the building not being old, the brothers are making plans to expand. “We’ve grown 300 percent since 2013. We can keep going for a while but if the growth continues the way we expect, we must expand quickly”, he declares.

‘An ingenious layout makes it possible to transport both fresh and frozen meat at the same time.’

Eigen label ‘Greenhill’

One of their ambitions is to put their own brand Greenhill on the map properly. At this moment, Schoonderwoerd Vlees sells different brands from diverse suppliers such as Maori Lakes and Canterbury for lamb, Ocean Beef and Greenlea for beef (both from New-Zealand) and Aberdeen Black for grain-fed beef from Australia. “All quality brands, but with Greenhill, we put our own quality label on the market”, the brothers emphasise. “Now, we only sell lamb with this label, but beef will be added in the future. At Greenhill, quality and animal welfare come first. Products are also produced according to our own strict hygiene requirements and packaged. Our clients find that important.”

www.schoonderwoerdvlees.nl