"Grower collaboration vital”"

Marijke Vanderstukken ended up in a situation as the CFO of Veiling Haspengouw at the end of 2014 that gave her a fright. She had heard before that there was space for improvement, but she hadn’t expected the financial situation to be as bad as it was. At the time she didn’t have a ‘feel’ for the fruit, but she still took this opportunity to get Veiling Haspengouw back on track with the Board of Directors. Marijke openly talks about the problems there were and talks of her faith in obstacles yet to be overcome.

“In February I asked the Board of Directors: Does Veiling Haspengouw still have a reason to exist? If the answer had been ‘no’, we would have had to lay down the gauntlet. A ‘yes’ meant we had to change as an auction and fight to get the trust of the grower back. It was a very emotional and intense discussion and the conclusion was to continue with the auction.” Marijke established the financial problem, but found few sympathetic ears within the organization to start with. “Many acted like the problem didn’t exist. Consultancy bureau PwC confirmed that I was right and we investigated and analysed the situation further together. Then we got the banks in and put the problems on the table. We wanted a six month ‘stop’, halting the capital repayments. This removed the pressure of having to pay those off and meant that we could work on the changing process. The talks with our banks weren’t easy, but they cooperated.”

Marijke had only been at the auction for a few months when the CEO left after internal discussion. “He moved from CFO to CEO in a short period of time and now I was being offered this position. My biggest concern was that I didn’t know the growers. As a condition I suggested that I continue to hold the talks in the course of the change and that I had to see whether this was a function I aspire to for a longer period of time. At first I didn’t want to be the face of the growers. This is why we brought out the function Supply Manager. Together with the Field this is the first point of contact for the grower towards the auction. Meanwhile I am learning a lot in the area of fruit. It’s fun that I am getting the opportunity and the time to learn.”

 

She saw various problems within the organisation that were related to both the financial situation and the organisational situation. “The first thing I ran into was that the Board of Directors were both stake holders and growers. My fear was that grower might put the importance of their own business above that of the auctions. Making good agreements was important. I believed that we had to be straight down the line. It goes for everyone or no one.”Another obstacle was that the commercial team turned out not to be strong enough to bundle up the supply and put it on the market. This came forward very quickly due to the Russia ban and other affairs. This meant that various growers started selling part of their products outside of the auction. There was some logic in this. They were told at the auction that nothing could be done with their fruit. A grower will then look for different possibilities themselves.”

To improve its weak commercial position, Veiling Haspengouw entered into talks with different parties to see if this would bring them closer to the solution. In May it was possible to request the resolution of the auction due to its negative equity, so there was some hurry. “We spoke to BFV and Univeg. At BFV we looked at common points, but it worked very differently at an administrative level. After various talks BFV decided not to put it to the full Board of Directors. At first this seemed to be a logical collaboration to me. Personally, I think that there was a missed opportunity between the three auctions to work together intensively. Yet I still believe there is a future for collaboration in a horizontal manner.”

Veiling Haspenhouw also sat down with Univeg. Marijke: “There was promise in this from the start. They were difficult negotiations. There was still some scanning to do in the division of roles between myself, the president and the vice president. We were a good combination: I can see it well from an economic and judicial point of view and the other two had their knowledge of the sector on hand.” The CEO is very sure about the nomination of the collaboration and believes some overestimate this. “The perception among many is that Univeg will sell our fruit, but this is not the case. H-Fruit still sells itself and management is adding Carlo to the Board of Directors. Univeg was a customer and remains a customer. The big advantage is that we can use their huge network. Some transactions go straight through H-Fruit, others through the Univeg channel. Of course we shouldn’t hide that this collaboration opened up new financial means. This has helped us forward a lot. What attracts me is that Univeg is listed through Greenyard Foods. Certain affairs are dealt with very professionally and this was my main reason for getting on board. We want to extend this to all levels here.”

 

"We can honestly say that we brought up all problems. The jobs left to do are mainly within the business. It seemed like everyone was stuck in a rut and problems were obviously being ignored. My intention is to make the entire business more professional together with Carlo. It isn’t easy when people have been here for a long time, but it has its ups and downs. Sometimes I wonder if I’m too hard. I’m very straight laced. A lot of things are black and white for me without a shade of grey. I give my opinion clearly, but remain polite. It’s a different way of communicating and I noticed that this open communication didn’t sit well with everyone at first. But the professionalization is already noticeable, such as reporting or setting up procedures.”

Carlo Franssen was appointed as the managing director of H-Fruit and H-Pack at the start of September. “We work together and we made priorities step by step. You can’t see the auction without H-Fruit or the other way around. Everything is linked.” The outlines of the strategic plan STAM2020, which the auction introduced at the start of 2014 are still the same. “We want to win back the trust of the growers and have learned that this means ensuring the best pay out price. We constantly monitor that and can take corrective measures if we were to systematically deviate from this. At the moment we believe everyone is satisfied. The growers have been busy picking and will now focus on sales. The quality of the fruit is good this year. The Russia ban is still there, but we are continuing with the new sales markets such as India. At the moment it is still smaller volumes heading there, but we certainly want to develop this step by step.”

Marijke didn’t expect there to be this much emotion in growing fruit. “The first time I was confronted with it was during the heavy hail storms in August. Producers work towards their harvest all year and it can suddenly be gone. I can image that growers have partially lost their faith in the auction and that they weren’t all that eager when we announced our plans. From an economic perspective I don’t understand why they sold outside of the auction, as this is a short term vision. In the long term you are undermining the market with this. But they had to go somewhere if the auction couldn’t market it.” However, you are stronger with a bigger group. In the long term you can serve the retailers better with a bundled supply. If we all supply in fragments, it will go badly and the retailer will get more power.” Veiling Haspengouw has to earn back the growers’ trust. “it’s hard work. We announced the collaboration on 28th August, but on 1 September the world didn’t suddenly look different. It’s a month long route. At the moment improvement can be seen and some growers say they feel a fresh breeze blowing through the organization. It seems we are doing good work.”

A budget will be made, followed and adjusted for the coming year. “We won’t tackle all the problems at once but work through them one by one. We also clearly communicate this and continue to inform our employees and growers. We haven’t had an easy year, but are doing our best to earn back trust.” Marijke is also learning from the fruit sector every day. “I visit growers to get to know them and notice that they appreciate it.” She sees good opportunities for the top fruit sector. “In the future I expect the share of pears to increase. The club varieties will also become increasingly important. We already have Kanzi, Greenstar and Migo and these club varieties certainly have a future. It seems logical to me that if we take down a Jonagold tree today we won’t just plant a new Jonagold in its place. There are too many of them at the moment. Someone once said: “If the consumer asks for a blue apple, we will have to convince the producers to grow it. This is an extreme example, but you base yourself on the demand of the market.”

Contact: Marijke.Vanderstukken@veilinghaspengouw.be