Potato packer Nedato has appointed Carel van Buchem as Managing Director effective May 28, 2018. Carel van Buchem has broad national and international experience as general and commercial manager in the field of nutrition, retail and raw material streams.
He has worked at various companies including Van Dijk Delft, Aalsmeer Flower Auction, Nedalco and Cargill.
Following a familiarisation period of several months, he will take over the role of Chairman of the Executive Board from the current part-time Chairman of the Executive Board, Antoon van Vugt.
Antoon van Vugt is stepping down and will be fully focusing on his current position as Managing Director of CZAV. CZAV is and will continue to be a Nedato shareholder.
The other members of the Executive Board, Heero Gramsma and Wim van de Ree will continue to be associated with the company as Commercial Director and Director Cultivation and Logistics, respectively. In addition, Annemarie Bruijnzeel will continue to fulfill her role as Chief Financial Officer.
In cooperation with current management, Carel van Buchem will focus on the continued implementation of the company’s strategic realignment announced in 2017.
Strategic Realignment Plan Nedato
The key elements of Nedato’s strategic realignment plan are:
Expanding the offer of table potatoes and specialty products.
The phased implementation of the investment programme at the Oud-Beijerland (NL) site will enable Nedato to perform even more custom work for the production of private labels and private brands for the retail sector, the food services sector and the wholesale sector in Europe and beyond.
This investment programme was initiated over the course of 2017. In addition, Nedato will further invest in the cultivation and product development of organic potatoes and prevailing concepts with a focus on innovations relating to health and the intrinsic value of the table potato as a high-quality food. In addition, the company is seeking to expand its sales area to include regions outside Europe.
Active search for table potato alliances in a European context.
Despite the increasing innovation, the table potato market is not expected to grow and further consolidation will be required. Nedato, on the basis of a financially strong position, will accelerate its search for national or international alliances so as to enable it to use the combined innovative strength for innovating the table potato product in the context of fast-changing consumer patterns.
Expansion of activities relating to the cultivation of potatoes for the potato processing industry in line with growing demand.
The Nedato Flex System forms the basis for this.
Further specialisation and increase in scale is also occurring among growers. Increasingly more growers spread their risks by distributing potato pricing across multiple systems. The Nedato Flex System offers many possibilities to this end.
