FrieslandCampina starts members round with a boost

In an explanation for trade journalists, CEO Derck Jan van Karnebeek and chairman Sybren Attema provide further explanation. There are of course threats to FrieslandCampina. For example, the milk supply is under pressure, partly due to the buy-out scheme for farms that was initiated by the previous cabinet. Attema believes that it is 'not realistic to think that FrieslandCampina will succeed in maintaining the milk volume'. However, he cannot and will not give concrete figures on membership and volume losses.

The aim is to recruit new members and suppliers. And Attema also prefers to focus on the bright spots that are now more than, for example, a year ago. There is room for innovations and the members are prepared to embrace them. They also see sustainability less as a threat and more as an opportunity, he signals. Attema even dared to claim that 'the move has been made' by the members. The 'good intentions' of the new cabinet also help.

Just a good year
Meanwhile, CEO Van Karnebeek has also achieved a complete turnaround. The spectacular recovery that was shown at the presentation of the half-year figures is continuing for the rest of the year and that gives enough confidence to be able to provide certainty about a subsequent payment, for example. Investments are also being made again.
Van Karnebeek does not think that 2024 will be an exceptionally good financial year right away. Rather, it will be just good, he says. Sharply rising dairy prices can also bring their own challenges. 

Maintain improvements
He does think that the reorganization that was set in motion last year is already yielding the necessary results. Business units that used to focus on their own results now work better together because they are judged on the collective result, not on that of their club alone. One of the first gains is that the enormous cheese division is already delivering better returns and apparently not at the expense of, for example, the ingredients division.

The trick now is to maintain the changes that have been initiated. In a coop with roosters – which many managers often are – it is difficult to maintain the balance in a sustainable manner and to ensure that your own component is not favoured. It requires a strict, consistent and very attentive coach. It does not have to be due to the capacities of the FrieslandCampina apparatus. There are, as Van Karnebeek says, few dairy companies that can do as much with milk as FrieslandCampina. In recent years, however, it has also become apparent that pressing the right buttons is and remains quite a challenge.

Increase power, lower threshold
In the longer term, it is also important to strengthen equity again. It has taken quite a beating. Strengthening it also benefits credit ratios and financing costs. It could even provide room for a lower entry fee and even easier membership recruitment. The choice is up to FrieslandCampina and its members.