In the Netherlands, on Thursday, January 12, members of the growers' cooperative, Growers United, voted unanimously to appoint Fred van Heyningen as its chairman of the board, effective April 1.
Until then, he remains Hoogvliet supermarkets' interim CEO. Before that, he held positions including CEO at Nature's Pride and board chairman of Rabobank Westland.
"He has knowledge of our sector, retail, internationalization, and the financial world. So, we're sure Fred can help us achieve our goals for 2030 with the right strategy and approach," says Jack Groenewegen on behalf of the board.
New management structure
Fred's appointment completes the new management structure. It was already voted at the AGM in December to appoint members to both the Growers United Strategic and Production Boards.
From April 1, the Growers United Board comprises experienced directors in the form of Jack Groenewegen, Pleun van Duijn, and Tom Zwinkels, with Jan Opschoor, Perry Dekkers, and Stefan van Vliet as board members.
The Production Board focuses on realizing strategic decisions around cultivation and local and overseas production. Members voted to appoint Stefan Oussoren, Richard Hartensveld, Roy Persoon, Michel Zuijderwijk, Twan van Marrewijk, Ben Groenewegen, and Floris van der Linden.
Managing as a whole
This new model means sales, packaging, and production are managed as a whole, giving form to further integration within Growers United. Fred van Heyningen: "I'm very much looking forward to using my know-how, experience, and drive to take the cooperative to the next stage."
"And contributing to strengthening the growers' businesses even more. I feel very much at home in a cooperative like Growers United where cooperation, ambition, and pure entrepreneurship are so highly valued."
The cooperative will implement the new management model in Q2 of 2023.
