ZWANENBERG (ZFG) guarantees optimal quality by means of BESTMIX® Food

ZWANENBERG guarantees optimal quality by means of BESTMIX® Food.

With 1,250 people employed at 13 sites and a turnover of approximately € 350 million, Zwanenberg Food Group (ZFG) is one of the leading producers of meat and sausage products and canned meat in Europe. ZFG sells its products under the brand names of Zwanenberg, Zwan, Linera, Limco, Offerman, Hooymans, Kips' and Huls. The group also supplies to the market via a number of well-known private label brands and has been successful in building up a strong market position in both the home-cooked meals and the out-of-home market, largely in the area of (sliced) meat products.

To guarantee superior quality in its broadest sense, it is of course of major importance to be able to rely on good software to manage product specifications (as well as the linked ingredients and recipes).

Erik Vliek, Director QA and R&D at Zwanenberg explains: “Demands and regulations in the areas of labeling and supply of information on meat products are constantly changing. Coinciding with our quest for improvement in our product specification management, we were contacted by ADIFO requesting whether they could send us some information about BESTMIX® Food.

Based on that given information we felt it could be interesting for ZFG to give ADIFO an opportunity to demonstrate their software.

This first demo immediately gave us the impression that BESTMIX® Food could be meeting our requirements, to which the willingness to discuss by both ADIFO's sales manager and product manager, the user-friendly interface, the open database and the possibility to export data in a variety of formats contributed considerably. Consequently we contemplated the demo and contacted a (as it would turn out extremely satisfied) user of BESTMIX® Food. Taken all that into account, we decided to ask for a second, more expanded and detailed demo by ADIFO. Besides these demos the opportunities that BESTMIX® Food offers for product development have made the final decision for this application much easier.

Recently the initial installation of BESTMIX® Food and the first training of ZFG staff took place and the first files to import have been completed. ZFG's high expectations are to be met in the coming 6 months.”

Zwanenberg:

The foundation for Zwanenberg Food Group's present success was laid in 1929, when Theodorus Stefanus van der Laan opened a meat processing plant in Den Haag. He used to deliver products to his customers personally in an old Ford.

Today, Zwanenberg Food Group has developed into a dynamic business that achieves an annual turnover of approximately € 350 million. The company's expansion started in 1981 with the acquisition of Lupack in Raalte. Shortly afterwards, the group directors decided to move the head office from Leidschendam to Almelo. In 1983, a canning factory was opened in Almelo. In addition to the expansion into the area of canned foods, the company also decided to invest more money in the meat and sausages product group. This resulted in the acquisition of the dried sausage activities of De Leeuw in Borne in 1989. 1996 marked the acquisition of Unilever's Zwan brand activities (including the factory in Oss), the purchase of the Zwanenberg brand and the acquisition of the Linera licence in the Netherlands. These moves strengthened ZFG's canned food and meat and sausages interests significantly, particularly in the area of cooked meats. Huls, a specialist in dried sausage, was added to this impressive list in 1998, to be followed by Hooymans (tongue and liver specialty products), Offerman, Kraak (sliced meats) and Cebeco Meat Products (cooked meats and meal components). Recent ly ZFG took over a canned meat factory in the USA as well as starting / taking over enterprises in Romania and Australia, while in the Netherlands itself Hubro (tongue specialty products), de Eendracht (liver specialty products) and Anur (halal products) were acquired.

ZFG exports its meat and sausage products and canned meats to a great many countries worldwide, including Europe, the United States of America, the Middle East, the Far East, West Africa, Asia and Australia.

Zwanenberg Food Group's business units sell their products under the brand names of Zwan, Zwanenberg, Linera, Kips', Limco, Hooymans, Kraak-vers and Huls. Zwanenberg Food Group has achieved a strong market position with these brands and the group's policy is to strengthen its existing market position further. Brands are a key instrument in fulfilling Zwanenberg's objective of differentiating the company through perceived quality.

ZFG increasingly focuses on specific market segments. The company's expertise in the area of process management and integral quality control in combination with market-oriented positioning at all stages of the production process have resulted in a broad, superior quality product range.

More info on Zwanenberg: www.zwanenberg.nl

Author: Bea Van Deynse Updated: 09.07.2008 08:56