"COO Herwig Dejonghe: "Financially and operational stronger than ever"
"Greenyard Foods ready for future with divisions Pinguin and Noliko"
"Our focus is consolidation and vertical integration. To consolidate all things we bought during the last few years is a big job. In the past we have especially concentrated on operational take-overs and that was then with the focus on immediate win-win situations for staff and trading finances for both parties. To buy things such as property and machinery was never a financial possibility. After the take-over of Lutosa we can now also focus on property and machinery. Now we have eight new production locations in France, Poland and Hungary completely under our control. At the moment we are still in the process of a take-over in England."
Strong
"We are stronger than ever in the area of competition. Because of the take-overs of the complete production sites we ourselves can decide about, for instance, investments. Previously that was not possible and we had to start with the property of others and had less room to move. Now everything becomes ours and we go can further with optimizing everything we obtained during the last years. After the Lutosa-deal we are in a strong financial position. The secured loan was successfully wound up early."
Divisions Pinguin and Noliko
Herwig mentions that the names of the divisions will remain the same. Pinguin for the deep-freeze vegetables and Noliko (Scana has been removed) for canned food. In first instance Pinguin was of course the company, with which all began and which did all the take-overs. But at a certain moment the question, "which is the holding company?" arose. Greenyard Foods is now the mother company and the other two are the daughters. As previously, Pinguin will remain in Westrozebeke as production establishment and no longer on the holding level. The corporate offices will be moved to the mother company Greenyard Foods in Gent."
"The share of deep-freeze in the group is two-thirds, tinned goods are just as important. The turnover of deep-freeze is about 420 million and for tinned goods it is 210 million Euro." According to Dejonghe there is definitely growth in tinned goods and in deep-freeze. "Especially a lot has been innovated in tinned goods lately. Also Pinguin has done a lot in innovations, but especially we see an opportunity in the growth of basic vegetables. Also in the areas of quality and durability we continue to innovate and invest."
To convince consumers
He mentions that in the area of communication to the consumer a lot of work is still to be done. "That is especially the challenge for Marleen Vaesen, who last year started as CEO. It is the idea to create markets for both tinned goods and
deep-freeze still. We want to bring the message in the correct manner. Of course there are threats in the economic reality in which we live now. It starts at the cultivation with a lot of challenges already. Also in the areas of the environment and legislation. It will be quite a feat to become stronger in the areas of durability and research agro-technically. In the area of the consumers challenges are not as great, but as a sector we must let them discover how good processed vegetables are. As a company we want to do our part very actively and to continue supporting generic promotions. There is still sufficient work to be done in that area."
For more information:
Greenyard Foods
7C, Skaldenstraat
9042 Gent - Belgium
Tel +32 (0)9 255 32 30
[email protected]
www.greenyardfoods.com
