JBL plans for the future

The new plant will enable JBL to produce granulated fish food as well as flaked and tablet food at its headquarters in Neuhofen, close to Ludwigshafen. Covering 2 000 m2 and 17 m in height, the new building was inaugurated on 18 December 2015. All the company's fish food production will take place in the plant, in which JBL has invested € 12 mio.
"We aim to produce the best food for ornamental fish in the world," says JBL managing director Roland Böhme. He highlights the major efforts that his company has made in recent years to increase quality control. The JBL boss expects the new production plant to provide further impetus for the company's international growth. JBL's export quota is already over 60 per cent, and Böhme hopes to achieve greater flexibility and productivity by producing the complete range of food and medicinal products at the company headquarters. 

JBL aims to raise the bar in terms of quality in the future and expects its retailers to do the same. This is why it will become the second company in the aquatics and reptile sector after Eheim to adopt the strategy of a selective distribution system for the German market. "By doing this we want to bolster dealers who are committed to the sector," explains Böhme. The criteria chosen for assessing online and bricks-and-mortar retailers include participation of the sales staff in training seminars, the range of live pets offered, the presentation of attractively designed aquariums and observance of clause 11 of the law on animal welfare for stationary retailers. For online dealers, the description of JBL products, presentation of images and logos and reference to an advice hotline are key criteria. 
In future, only retailers who have signed the new distribution contract will be supplied by JBL or will be granted permission to resell JBL products. The company thus aims to live up to its responsibility as a well-known brand manufacturer. Böhme repeatedly comes across instances of products not being correctly labelled in the store, or of current safety standards not being met. JBL wishes to distance itself from these practices.

Böhme believes that aquatics is in the ascendancy once more. He regards the situation in the reptile segment as more…