We believe in the future. If there is one thing the old strategy, 4WD, has taught us, it is that we can put an ambitious business plan five years into the future - and work together to achieve the goals we set. We succeeded with the 4WD task, and it gives faith in our own abilities throughout the chain from farm to fork. I experience lots of optimism when I talk to our employees and when I talk to our owners.
There is no doubt that we are in a good place, and we must take advantage of that with the new strategy. It is called ‘Feeding the Future’ and is about us wanting to move Danish Crown even closer to customers and consumers and sticking to the +60 øre for our owners. We will:
- Strengthen our sales by pooling efforts in the markets and creating more value in the individual parts of the animal.
- Invest in new products and sustainability to be even more relevant to customers and consumers
- Strengthen the entire chain from farm to fork and link farmers even more closely to production
- Work even closer together in the Group
- Achieve savings on purchasing, logistics, through Optima and new technology
- Build a Danish Crown culture together that strengthens cooperation and the employee's drive
- Combine Danish Crown Foods and Danish Crown Pork into one strong business unit to create more value from farm to fork
The enormous focus on sustainability is Danish Crown's opportunity to become even more relevant to customers and consumers in the next five years than ever before. We are owned by the Danish farmers, and that ownership gives us the opportunity to drive development throughout the chain from field to branded product. We should not produce more pigs, but instead create more value out of the raw materials that our owners provide.
We must succeed in investing broadly in both innovation and production, so that we deliver on our promise to offer sustainable food. If we succeed, we can also pay our owners a price for their raw materials, which will enable them to invest in further reducing the climate footprint on their farms.
In short, we must create a positive, upward spiral.
Studies have shown that there is a need for investments of 4-5 billion DKK among the owners in technology and new stables, while the plan is to invest 11-12 billion DKK in the company, of which about half is reinvestment in production.
During the period, we will set binding climate goals based on knowledge and data. As a concrete initiative in the short term, Horsens, Holsted and Haarlem must be climate neutral within the next 12 months.
Finally, we will bring together Danish Crown Foods and Danish Crown Pork in one unified unit. While laying the groundwork for the new strategy, we came to the conclusion that we must take a new path, where we gather the fantastic competencies in Danish Crown Foods and Danish Crown Pork, so that we ensure a farm to fork perspective throughout the value chain. It is a pleasure to experience how we have approached each other more and more over the past four years, so it feels natural to bring together Danish Crown Pork and Danish Crown Foods.
Our goals in the Feeding the Future strategy are ambitious, and to meet them, we must, more than ever before, work together and help each other to get better every day. I look forward to that, and I am glad that YOU, dear colleague, are on the team.
/Jais