Sirplus – Food Saving Counting on eCommerce

The young German company Sirplus hits a nerve in two ways. With their food saving business model, the start-up founded by young Berlin entrepreneurs Raphael Fellmer and Martin Schott serves the growing demand for sustainable shopping among an ever-greater group of consumers in Germany. On the other hand, Sirplus is a perfect example of the general trend in the German retail industry to shift the focus from offline to online trade. Sirplus is in fact closing down its offline business completely. The start-up saves groceries from producers and wholesalers which for various reasons cannot go on sale in “normal” stores and would be thrown away otherwise. Sirplus started with supermarket cooperations and several own stores in Berlin, along with an online store serving the entire German market. The brick-and-mortar business was hit by the coronavirus pandemic in such a devastating way that CEO Fellmer announced the closure of all Sirplus stationary stores last month. In the future, the company is putting its sole focus on its flourishing online business, which currently serves around 50,000 active customers according to company information.

sirplus.de’s made a more than strong start. In the year 2018, when the online store offering groceries saved from disposal entered the market, sirplus.de generated total online net sales of €0.4 million. In 2019, eCommerce net sales tripled to a total of €1.2 million. While in 2020, the company experienced major sales losses due to the sluggish offline business in the course of the corona pandemic, Sirplus’ online store even topped its 2018 growth rate. Net sales via sirplus.de increased by a stunning 250% to a total of €4.2 million. Although year-on-year growth is forecast to slow down in the next years to settle just below a solid 30%, the company’s step to close the offline branch in favor of a strong online business is more than understandable. CEO Raphael Fellmer said that it was no easy decision to close the Berlin stores and see Sirplus’ mission to save food literally disappear from the streets, but it was an inevitable step in light of the exceptionally positive online development.