Further details have emerged about plans for a major restructuring at Italy's largest fresh apple export company, the Association of South Tyrolean Fruit Growers' Co-operatives (VOG).
The group's general assembly gave the go-ahead last month to the implementation of VOG 2010, a strategic plan designed to implement a commercial and structural reorganisation of the group's 18 cooperatives.
The new strategy has been devised with the aim of streamlining the association's commercial activities, increasing its effectiveness by means of an internal reorganisation process.
Referred to as the 'pool model', the restructuring envisages the creation of four pools as of the start of next season in August 2010. The association’s 18 fruit growers' cooperatives will be evenly spread across these pools according to production zone.
The groupings will be responsible for marketing all apples produced by the individual members and, according to VOG, will work according to the same supply, selection and accounting directives, paying individual fruit growers according to their membership status and yield in kilogrammes.
Furthermore, the director of each individual member cooperative will be directly involved in commercial decisions, enabling each cooperative to control and influence the strategic decisions of the association as a whole.
Each pool will appoint a representative who will form part of a central working group.
Presided over by the director of the VOG Association, the board of representatives will be tasked with formulating general sales plans and identifying production and revenue targets, as well as using brands and marketing strategies in support of turnover objectives.
As a result of this new structure, in future the association will coordinate the entire sales process by means of a centralised invoicing system, divided into eight 'strategic activity sectors corresponding to the group's various target markets.
'The VOG 2010 strategy was created with the aim of consolidating our position in the market and, in the long term, guaranteeing a fair deal for our producers,' confirmed the VOG Association's chairman, Georg Kössler.
'Thanks to the new strategy, we will be able to offer our customers a more efficient service, responding more quickly and efficiently to their requests and to market changes.'
VOG director Gerhard Dichgans added: 'Today, the individual cooperative is no longer able to stand up to the international challenges of the market. The key phrase is 'close ranks' and this is the route indicated in our plan.'
Crucially, the new strategic plan also brings VOG's structure into line with the formal requirements of current EU regulations, thus enabling it to continue enjoying producer organisation status.
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