Attema: FrieslandCampina must be closer to members

This said chairman Sybren Attema during a meeting in which he explained the plans for the period up to 2020, called 'Course for 2030'. It was Attema's first public appearance since he became cooperative chairman on November 12 last year. He speaks of a heavy task that lies on his shoulders, but he says he will not run away from the responsibility it gives.

Determined too much from above
Attema's analysis is that in recent years too much has been determined from above by the cooperative. In any case, that is how it was felt by the members and also by the Members' Council, he said. He wants to change that. That's why members' meetings now also start open, so that members can bring in their own points instead of the agenda being closed in advance.

FrieslandCampina therefore wants to be closer to the members, make more long-term agreements and would like to maintain the company at its current size. The latter means, among other things: with 67% of the milk supplied from the Netherlands. An absolute figure for milk supply or turnover is not a target. This requires retaining current members, strengthening ties with them and giving the companies the opportunity to grow.

Loss of members 'painful' for FrieslandCampina
FrieslandCampina also wants to recruit new members. But how to do that is still a matter of debate. He calls the loss of members - 285 last year - painful. Members are still being drawn, he knows. The cooperative wants to work hard to keep them.

Apart from that, Attema takes further consolidation in dairy into account. "It seems clear to me that this will be the case in the coming years." Attema did not want to say more about this.

FrieslandCampina assumes that the market will continue to demand different milk flows for the coming years. This is also taken into account in company policy, vice-chairman Sandra Addink indicated. On the one hand, this requires flexibility from member companies. Market demand must always be responded to, but more predictability will also be sought in regulations. FrieslandCampina also wants to take more account of the increasing differences in business types in relation to all kinds of social requirements.

Focus Planet 3.0
That is why a new Focus Planet system is being rolled out. This is a quality and sustainability system with which all kinds of companies can score benchmarks and improve themselves.

In addition to managing the cooperative, as a supervisory director, the board is also involved in supervising the company. According to Attema, the conclusion of this is that the company has not done well enough in recent years, because there was certainly no longer a leading milk price in recent years and the returns were also too low. The reasons for this may lie in the past, for example because too much - superfluous - capacity has been added afterwards. Attema believes that the company should do better in the coming years. FrieslandCampina will mainly have to do this under its own steam, because the cooperative wants to remain the sole shareholder. But joint ventures can be set up, as has often been done in the past.