TRADE AND MARKETING Piet de Bruijne, Farm Frites: ‘I am firmly convinced that squeezing the sec I t is in the Farm Frites reception hall in the village of Oudenhoorn that major shareholder Piet de Bruijne welcomes us. On the wall we see certificates such as the Supplier of the Year for McDonald’s, which hide most of the traditional wooden wall from view. De Bruijne (47) asks us to follow him, up the stairs to his office. His work domain provides a view of the farmland where his father started the family business in 1971. He takes off his jacket and starts talking straightaway. De Bruijne begins by explaining that – even now in 2009 – Farm Frites is still an independent family business. Farm Frites is divided into three operating companies, one of which is based in Europe, one in South America and one in Egypt. Each operating company has its own management and responsibilities. ‘They are three different companies with different cultures, different markets and completely different perspectives. Of course, we collaborate as much as possible. We try to coordinate our business as much as we can. I’m the top man, together with a financial man who keeps a close eye on the financial structure. In total, the Farm Frites businesses process over 1.5 million tons of potatoes in the world today, according to De Bruijne. ‘If you were to build another line now, you’d be doing it for your worst customer.’ Marketing is the art of maintaining or increasing the turnover of a product. Is it not difficult for a major shareholder to have to watch the market continuously? ‘Yes, that is difficult and that is what I sometimes tell my staff. Farm frites has a shareholder with empty pockets. All my money is in Farm Frites. As a major shareholder you have to keep a close eye on what you are doing. I certainly don’t have a few hundred million euros laying about somewhere. As Farm Frites, we always have to remember that we can only take calculated risks. I cannot simply make up the difference when necessary, like the sugar beet cooperation Cosun. This means that we cannot carry out all our plans at the same time. What we can do, however, is collaborate, which is why I’m so glad that we have an alliance with the American family business Simplot. Within that alliance, we’ve divided up the world. This means that Farm Frites operates in Europe, the Middle East and South America. Simplot is in North America, China and Australia. We don’t fight each other. That makes our alliance so fantastic. And we share knowledge and experience, and products as well, whenever necessary. It means that, together, we can implement our growth plans more quickly, if necessary. So, you are not building any new production lines in Europe, are you? ‘No, there is no point in doing that. If you were to build another line right now, you would be doing it for your worst customer. What we put first now is continuity and the improvement of our product range. We don’t plan to sell even more chips at the moment. What we do want, though, is to sell more chips in a better segment. Farm Frites won’t be better off by becoming twice as big. I wouldn’t mind, but that’s not the point. The ambition to grow is there, but we have sufficient capacity at present for the future. And if that is not enough, we can always knock at Simplot’s door. Within the alliance, we are working on product development, from potato to the sale to our various customers. You see, selling isn’t difficult. That’s not our greatest challenge. The art of marketing is that you try to add as much value as possible to the products you sell. It’s not really difficult to quickly score a new B brand, but what you’ve then created is a product where only money counts. What are your main objectives where marketing is concerned? ‘We have a number of main objectives. One of them is that we want to be the best-recommended supplier of processed potato products in the food service. We also want to be the most sustainable potato processing company. And we want to have a good and pleasant work environment for our staff. Those are the three things we focus on. And passion is the keyword in all three of them. Not only I myself, but also the boys who buy the potatoes, the people in the factory and those who take care Potato World 2010 • number 1 Pagina 3

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