On Thursday 11 and Friday 12 October, 25 Dutch Agri Ladies were visiting Irish Agri Ladie, Caroline Keeling, CEO of Keelings, Grace Binchy of Consumer Insights Specialists for the Irish Food Board and Cathriona Hallahan, Managing Director of Ireland Microsoft. The strength of a powerful network combined with interesting content and Irish hospitality turned out to be a formula for success. The trip was organised by the GroentenFruit Huis in cooperation with Keelings Solutions.
There were only 36 hours between arrival and departure. “It’s as if we were on the road much longer,” was often heard. That happens when so many different impressions are made in such a short time, and when there’s so much information to process while visiting different places.
Among each other
Ten years ago, the first Agri Ladies meeting was held. It was an excursion to a Dutch Jumbo supermarket. Remarkable about this first gathering was the extremely low percentage of no shows and the good mutual atmosphere. Although all Agri Ladies hold their own in their field, an occasional gathering of agri women among each other bears repetition. That’s why the jubilee-edition took place last week, with excursions to Keelings, Tesco’s Ballymun DC, Board Bia and Microsoft Ireland. This interesting programme came about thanks to the close cooperation with Rick Rebergen, Business Improvement Manager of Keelings Solutions in the Netherlands, Shay Cloherty, International sales and Marketing Manager at Keelings Solutions, and the good contacts of Keelings with Tesco, Board Bia and Microsoft.
Insight into figures
“The Strawberry Woman,” is Caroline Keeling’s nickname. Keelings, a family company from Ireland, is specialised in the production and sales of soft fruit, but has also extended their volume with other fruit and vegetables. “My grandfather started the company in 1937, and ever since we’ve been taking steps as a family company. My grandparents were early adapters of modern technologies from Dutch greenhouse horticulture,” Caroline says. One of the steps Keelings took was the development of their own software to gain a better insight into daily results. “The strength of this software, which is marketed by Keelings Solutions, is completely based on knowledge of the sector. It offers a solution for insight into costs, prices, stocks and much more. From an overview at the end of the season we developed into a daily insight into figures that help make decisions and manage the company. Thanks to this insight, 80 per cent of discussions is now about the future.”
Keelings has 2,300 employees, a turnover of 35 million euro, Irish product, and employees in Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Spain, the UK and China. The Keelings brand is in third place of the Irish Band Pulse Score. Keelings’ products are sold in 12 countries, including France, Hong Kong and the UK.
Always available
Since Tesco came to Ireland, Keelings has had a contract with them for carrying out the activities in the Ballymun DC. In total, 325 employees handle one million boxes of product here every week, and they supply 150 shops per week in a radius of 400 kilometres. The products are divided between fresh and frozen. The shops prefer keeping their stocks as low as possible. Tesco’s philosophy is that everything is always available to the consumer in various types, varieties and weights. “That requires a lot from us as a distribution centre,” says General Manager Damien Pendergast.
Consumer Insights
To find out more about consumer behaviour, the Agri Ladies visited the Irish Food Board, Board Bia. With an annual budget of 78 million euro consisting mostly of government money, contributions of producers and income for services rendered, Board Bia has a considerable budget to develop brands, support producers with marketing and do consumer research, and this could be noticed. Grace Binchy, specialist Consumer Insights, gave a presentation that sounded superb. “Good decisions are based on good information,” she started. To that end, Board Bia asked research bureau Kantar Kwantitatief to research 32,800 consumers from various countries. This led to five overall trends: Engaging Experiences, consumers value experiencing special events and want to share those with others. For Responsible Living, it’s all about a positive impact on your surroundings and environment. Health and Wellbeing is about the consumers’ wish to eat and drink healthily. The Fuller Lives trend is about the desires of consumers to use their available time as productively and socially as possible. The fifth trend, Community & Identity is all about unity and creativity. Brands can respond to that.
‘Empower every person’
Finally, the Agri Ladies were also offered a glimpse into Microsoft Ireland’s new building. A team of three was ready to talk more about Microsoft’s mission and the switch the company has been making in the past five years. “Five years ago, we were faced with the enormous challenge of housing 2,000 employees in one building,” says Managing Director Cathriona Hallahan. As of 1 December 2017, everyone has been housed in the modern and exceptionally stylish building of Microsoft. Microsoft’s mission: ‘Empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.’ Microsoft wants to set up the prior conditions for that. For example, they’re investing in children. Microsoft realised the so-called Dream Space. Pupils between the ages of 9 - 11 and 15 are invited to this space and challenged to think of innovative ideas. As of April this year, Microsoft already invited over 4,000 pupils. The investment for the space, the set up and the accompanying staff amounted to five million euro. After Hallahan, presentations were given by John McCormack, responsible for sales, and Paul Farnan, specialist in the agrarian sector.
Agri Ladies network
Agri Ladies gatherings are organised by the GroentenFruit Huis, usually in cooperation with a company from the sector. It’s an informal network of women working in the agricultural sector. The group meets approximately once per year according to a permanent formula: content combined with networking.
For more information:
Wilma van den Oever
GroentenFruit Huis
vandenoever@groentenfruithuis.nl