A-ware: Not ready yet in Belgium

Milk reception is one of the services that the two companies share at the Aalter location, as is the energy supply. Everything used to belong to FrieslandCampina, but now a division of assets has been made while retaining joint services. Making good agreements about these matters is one of the reasons why the final transfer of the milk powder factory took longer, explains Luc Lamberigts (right in photo above), managing director of A-ware Belgium. It all changed with the arrival of Royal A-ware in Belgium.

The takeover of the powder factory was announced at the end of 2020, with the final transfer taking place almost a year later. The recruitment of dairy farmers has not suffered. "It felt from the start as if we hardly had to go out," says Luc Van Hoe (left in photo above), director of A-ware Belgium's dairy stores. "Even before we officially started recruiting, farmers came to us themselves and registered in all kinds of ways. Even on my old home telephone, which only my parents-in-law actually call on anymore and which is never used anymore, they managed to contact me. find."

What explains all this spontaneous interest?
Van Hoe: "The situation in Belgian dairy farming. Some processors have volume restrictions. At the end of last year, members of Milcobel were told that there was too much milk. The milk price also lagged behind and there are many smaller things, rules and regulations at play. requirements, which means that some farmers no longer feel as known, even though they are in a cooperative. In Flanders, dairy farmers also often look to the Netherlands, where they have seen how A-ware operates. That track record apparently appeals to many enterprising farmers. "

Considerable numbers of dairy farmers have now come over, despite legal difficulties. You must have brought in hundreds of suppliers. When are you ready?
Van Hoe and Lamberigts laugh. Lamberigts: "We do not mention numbers. We will stop when we have enough, but for the time being dairy farmers can continue to register. We are growing step by step. We ensure that we always have enough space, so that farmers who supply us can continue to grow. First existing suppliers and then new ones. Every supplier has the same growth space, regardless of when he starts with us. The powder factory has been transferred and we can produce more than 40.000 tons of milk powder per year, plus cream if we don't make whole milk powder. But we still have a few small We have to overcome some hurdles. We are in a shared position with FrieslandCampina. If we are both running at full capacity, the milk supply system cannot cope. So we are going to expand it together. We are also going to modernize the factory here and there."

The sounds are that the average farmer you bring in brings a large pool of milk, even more than the average in the Netherlands. Do you select based on that?
Van Hoe: "We also hire smaller farmers, but the fact is that many younger farmers come to us. These are often entrepreneurs who have consciously chosen to specialize in dairy farming after the end of the quota. Older farmers who no longer have much invest and who want to stop in the long term, on average no longer choose to switch so quickly."

"What we offer is probably an attractive package, but we give people the time to get everything clear. We emphatically do not chase milk. We want to be open and transparent. That starts with registration. We speak to people personally and in small groups and are open and transparent. Furthermore, we do not redistribute milk money and we do not impose any excess statutory requirements. Suppliers can participate in additional programs, such as our sustainability program, but this is all voluntary. We also pay out milk money every fortnight. so that entrepreneurs are close to their cash."

Just to be clear. Many farmers from Milcobel come to you, but not only from Milcobel?
Van Hoe: "That's right. People also come to us from other companies, partly because there are sometimes restrictions. People can grow with us."

Have the legal problems now been resolved for the Milcobel members who want to join you?
Van Hoe: "That is a matter between Milcobel and the departures. We have seen that Milcobel has been proven wrong twice. The exit ban has been declared unlawful."

Anyone who cancels with Milcobel must miss a 'loyalty bonus'. Is that possible? In the Netherlands, a cooperative that made a distinction between stayers and quitters was proven wrong.
Van Hoe: "My feeling tells me that, as long as you are a member of a cooperative and comply with all obligations, you must treat everyone equally and it remains strange that a cooperative and its members are before the court. However, it is not our case and we will make no further statements about this."

In the Netherlands, A-ware is mainly active in cheese - where the company's roots lie - and partly in fresh dairy products and tapas, in Belgium it is milk powder and partly also cream or butter. That is a completely different sport. I can imagine that there were questions about that.
Lamberigts: "There were indeed a lot of questions about this from farmers, partly based on the idea that powder and butter were often mentioned as surplus products in the past. FrieslandCampina also used the powder towers in Aalter as a pressure relief valve. They were switched on when there was food in other places. was a lot of milk. This can create an incorrect picture of the yields. There are many misunderstandings about milk powder. But there is never anything wrong with the combination of powder and cream or butter. There are plenty of companies that prove this. The point is that you have to read the market carefully and perform well commercially, but you also have to do that with cheese or other products. Think of it this way: we are going to modernize the installations and work with them differently. It is no longer a matter of: start-stop, start -stop. We will run it 24/7. This ensures consistently good quality and better cost of the product. For A-ware, this factory is an excellent opportunity to serve our customers. We see many opportunities in the market, in the short and long term."

A-ware is considered a bit of an odd one out by many Belgian parties. How do you experience that?
Van Hoe: "I think it is because we are breaking a lot of habits. That is not out of idiosyncrasy or anything, but it is our way of working: clear, businesslike, direct. It cannot be because we are a foreign party in the Belgian dairy. We have known foreign companies here for a long time: Arla, Danone, Savencia, Lactalis, FrieslandCampina. We came here to Aalter and are here for the long term. Our plans do not end in Aalter."

Lamberigts: "It is not the case that we were told: Here you have a factory. Just get to work with it and when it is full, you are done. We look at what the market offers and what the market demands. That is in the DNA of Royal A-ware and is the basis of our success, today and in the future."