Danish Crown’s activities have always centred on the slaughtering of the animals supplied by the company’s owners. Their raw materials will continue to provide a strong foundation in future, but will also be used to build a solid and global food company with a strong focus on the production of high-quality foods.
Danish Crown’s new strategy is called ‘4WD’, which can – and should – be read as both ‘Forward’ and ‘Four-wheel Drive’.
- Basically, it is a bold strategy that sets out to make a strong company even stronger – hence Forward. 4WD stems from a desire to change Danish Crown from what I would call a solid, rear-wheel drive estate – which drives extremely well on asphalted roads – into a four-wheel drive, all-terrain vehicle that moves in exactly the direction we want it to in our efforts to make it the preferred business partner for our customers. In other words, the aim is to make the Danish Crown Group so strong that we can always choose the direction that best serves our owners and customers without having to pay too much attention to the road conditions or the prevailing traditions, says Group CEO Jais Valeur.
Last week, Danish Crown announced that the plan includes a concrete and ambitious promise to the company’s owners to pay a settlement price in 2021 which is DKK 0.60 higher than a weighted average of the settlement prices paid to farmers in Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands. Now, the group strategy is being described in more detail:
• Four clear home markets – Danish Crown will consolidate its existing strong positions in Denmark, Sweden, the UK and Poland, which will make the group market-leading in northern Europe.
• Consumer focus – Danish Crown will invest in innovation to strengthen its position within the retail business, foodservice and ready-meals solutions. At the same time, the plan focuses on the establishment of a number of global product categories based on product groups with global sales potential.
• Focus on high-value products – Danish Crown will focus on boosting the value of the group’s raw materials, including organic products, pigs raised without the use of antibiotics as well as local speciality products.
• A single unit – Danish Crown’s business units must work more closely together so that valuable knowledge is shared across the group. At the same time, synergies must be realised internally, for example through the joint procurement of everything except meat under a group purchasing manager.
Since the beginning of the year, detailed action plans have been prepared for the individual business units. Jais Valeur is convinced that, with the support of Danish Crown’s 26,000 employees, he has a plan that will enable the company to achieve its goals.
- I am extremely proud of our strategy, and my expectations are high. The keywords for the next five years are focus, value creation and growth, says Jais Valeur, who is well aware that he is committing his company and himself to concrete and ambitious promises.
- With this plan, I am promising our owners that, at the end of the strategy period, they will own a company which is more valuable, which has higher sales, and which is more profitable, which can afford to make the relevant investments and, not least, which will pay higher prices for its raw materials than competing countries. Our target is a return on invested capital in excess of 10 per cent. Believe me – the owners will hold me to this promise. However, if you have a four-wheel drive vehicle, then you can go where you want. So, it’s just a question of getting going, says Jais Valeur.