Food industry software solutions specialist Affinitus is aiming to increase its exposure in the Netherlands with a presence at next week's inaugural Amsterdam Produce Show. 

The British company has been designing software for more than 25 years in the fresh produce industry, and is behind the innovative Freshware, Chefserve and Agrilogic systems.

Following the success in countries including France, the Netherlands and Spain, as well as in its domestic U.K. market, Affinitus is looking to reach a broader range of companies through the event, which takes place in Amsterdam’s Westergasfabriek from Nov. 2-4.

"Our software is an ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] system, and it’s one of the only systems that’s based on mainly fresh produce. Because of our strong background in the industry our system includes many features and benefits that will be very relevant in a fresh produce business" Affinitus product consultant Ellis Cole told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"Many retail systems are pretty straightforward in the way they work but they’re quite strict on guidelines, whereas Freshware is a very bespoke application designed alongside the customer."

He said those working with fresh produce had everything they needed to manage their companies daily tasks on the software.

"It enables them to do their daily sales to their customers, it enables them to procure from their suppliers - so goods in and goods out - and they can do things like stock management, warehouse management," he said.

"Where we excel is we have our own financial package, so customers can essentially run their business on our software and see all their financial figures and profits, similar to that of bigger people like Sage and other accounting packages."

Cole also mentioned the company was investigating Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips that would enable shipping containers to be tracked, along with the temperature inside.

Getting the 'foot in the door' in the Netherlands

While the system is already present in Europe, he said Affinitus now wanted to start pushing the 'import and packhouse-side' of the system in the Netherlands.

"A lot of our customers in the wholesale markets deal with importers from Holland and on seeing the way the industry works out in Holland our software would suit many companies. The main customer database that we will be looking at is importers and exporters, that’s where we as a company excel, and obviously the reason why we want to be going over to Amsterdam," he said.

"We’ve have retained 60 % the London Wholesale markets for quite a while now and we’ve got a lot of customers in and around the country also

"Lots of people who I speak to say fresh produce systems are very scarce out in Holland, which seems amazing because of its number of import export businesses, Holland are actually more behind the times in terms of technology for ERP systems than we are in Great Britain.”

He said the Amsterdam Produce Show would be the perfect place to get the company's 'foot in the door', especially given the event's technological focus.

"We were looking at having a representative in Amsterdam to see if there is an immediate interest but we won’t know for sure until we go over there. It’s a perfect opportunity to also see what other companies are doing," he said.

"Also we’ve got a lot of interest in what other companies are doing, obviously if there’s already a company out there that’s doing something similar than we can merge and be even bigger. So we're looking at business in general in a wider scale.

"If I can make a couple of contacts who understand what we’re doing that’s all that matters. When importers who talk to other importers start using our product I’m hoping they will see the practicality and benefits of the Freshware system."

www.freshfruitportal.com