Nutritious and tasty products

Safe products are a prerequisite for contributing to consumer health. That might seem obvious, but it means that quality is given priority every day. All our production sites are certified in accordance with the internationally recognised food safety standard FSSC 22000. This means that all products are assessed for food safety. In 2020, we have to comply with a new version of this standard, which requires some adjustments. For example, we look at the risks posed by suppliers of products and services. 

In 2019, we continued to guarantee quality and food safety through targeted projects. For example, some production lines have been modified to meet the latest standards. In Scharsterbrug we connected the changing room, the office and the canteen with a raised walkway to the factory. The changing facilities have also been adapted. 

These measures contribute to improved hygiene by reducing crossing traffic, which improves food safety.

A measure of our success is the number of customer complaints. In 2019 we had 0.31 complaints per 1,000 tonnes of product. That number is slightly higher than the number of complaints in 2018 (0.25). This means that we just fell short of our target to keep the number of complaints level compared to 2018. Our target for 2022 is to achieve less than 0.20 quality complaints per 1,000 tonnes of product. To achieve this, we will start an improvement programme in Gorinchem in 2020.

Customer complaints are handled by our Customer Service department. Complaints are registered in a central system and the relevant department is asked to investigate the complaint and draw up and implement improvement measures. We determine the effectiveness of our complaints management system every year. Our challenge lies not so much in the field of product quality as in the field of (transport-related) losses/damage and deliveries. The target for 2020 is to reduce the number of complaints. The optimisation of the administrative processes in SAP will contribute to this.

Food safety and product quality

Food safety and consistent quality are our daily priorities. This is also the case when a complaint is lodged about one of our products. The Quality Assurance (QA) department is an important link in the process of reducing complaints throughout the entire chain. 

Jikke Douma, Project Manager QA, location Nijkerk

'Proper complaint handling is important for the future'

'A complaint about your product is never pleasant. But proper complaint handling is very important. That is why investigating the nature of the complaint and drawing up improvement measures has a high priority. Vreugdenhil records complaints in a central system. The relevant department investigates the complaint together with the people on the shop floor and looks at what improvement actions are needed to prevent similar problems in the future.'

'In 2019, a series of products were damaged in transit. Together with a team from the Shipping department of our factory in Gorinchem, we investigated the complaint and looked for a solution. The damage was caused by a batch of pallets that had been inefficiently loaded into the container. Since then, the pallets have been loaded more efficiently for this customer. As a result, they no longer fall over and more pallets fit into a container. An additional advantage is that no air cushions are now needed to stabilise the pallets, cutting the loading time by 30 minutes. This new way of loading has a beneficial effect on transport because our containers are loaded optimally. A win-win situation. In conjunction with the factory in Gorinchem, we are looking into the possibilities of extending this new way of loading to other customers.' 

In the long term, continuing to monitor and taking preventive measures to reduce complaints are important. This calls for close cooperation. 'We periodically consult with various disciplines in the factory, for example with the improvement coordinators of the various departments, the logistics manager, as well as with the forklift truck operators on the shop floor. It's only by working together that we can eliminate complaints for good.' 

In 2020 we will continue to focus on making further improvements in the process of reducing complaints.

In 2019, we launched our enriched milk powders on the African market. By enriching milk powders with the right vitamins and minerals, we contribute to the fight against hidden hunger. Our target for 2019 was to enrich our own products on the African market. This is about half of the products for Africa.

In 2019, approximately 15% of our own products on the African market consisted of enriched products. Every day we work hard to develop new products that meet the needs of our consumers. Collaboration with our customers is becoming increasingly important in this respect. And one of our challenges is to offer these milk powders at an affordable price. We have not set any hard targets for 2022. We expect the market to continue to grow organically, also outside Africa. In the coming period we will further explore the possibilities and step up our objectives.