Healthy, Tasty, Trendy
Interview with Christophe Thys, Managing Director and Nieco de Wit, Manager for Research and Development at Ravensbergen B.V.
Healthy eating is becoming increasingly central for more and more people – and so is the choice of the right snack. Muesli bars are considered a practical snack – quickly accessible, easy to transport, and healthy – at least when they are produced by Ravensbergen B.V. from Sassenheim, Netherlands. The company has established itself internationally as a reliable and innovative B2B partner for nutritious, tasty muesli bars and granola bars.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. Thys, you are the managing director of Ravensbergen Food B.V. and have been with the company for many years. Can you provide a brief overview of the development that explains how Ravensbergen became what it is today - a specialist for cereal bars and a partner of many well-known brands, employing 100 staff and generating around 26 million EUR in turnover.
Christophe Thys: The company was originally established in 1928 as a traditional bakery. A step that significantly influenced the development was the acquisition by the Swiss Haco Group in 2012, which was expanding its internationalization at that time. Although the integration into the group was not easy due to different cultures, it was crowned with success. In the past 2.5 years, we have grown significantly - we have quadrupled our turnover compared to 2012.
Wirtschaftsforum: What was the driver of this extraordinary growth?
Christophe Thys: Reasons include co-manufacturing and collaboration with all major retailers. Not least, a new leadership culture has fueled growth. Ultimately, it's fundamentally about creating value – for our customers, but also for stakeholders, meaning for shareholders, employees, the Haco Group, and the owners.
Wirtschaftsforum: Value creation is a big word. What's behind it?
Christophe Thys: For us, value creation means sustainable growth, profitability, innovation, and operational excellence. The topic of innovation touches many different areas: developing new products together with our customers, but also technological developments in machines or in digitization. In joint workshops with customers, particularly innovative ideas often emerge. Regarding products, health is a central theme. Eating culture has changed significantly in recent years due to increased health awareness. Consumers increasingly want sugar-reduced or sugar-free products with a Nutri-Score A; protein is also becoming increasingly important. Another trend is that snack bars are increasingly replacing meals; therefore, they have grown larger over time. Currently, we are also working on savory bars – a new project with great potential.
Wirtschaftsforum: With the snack bars, Ravensbergen is meeting current market trends. At the same time, there have been and are many uncertainties of a political and economic nature in the market. Do these affect the business?
Nico de Wit: Yes, especially the war in Ukraine has consequences for us. A large part of our raw materials comes from Ukraine.
Christophe Thys: The pandemic and the war have led to significant price increases. In addition, we source cocoa from Africa, where climate change has led to floods, droughts, and other extremes affecting the harvest. At the same time, the demand for healthy snack bars or granola bars is rising. For producers like us, this is a dilemma.
Wirtschaftsforum: Ravensbergen operates in a competitive, dynamic market. Where do you see the company positioned here?
Christophe Thys: Our goal is to be a reliable, solid, and innovative partner who is open to new ideas. Even when customer requests are challenging, we find solutions.
Nieco de Wit: In the Netherlands, there are many competitors who do exactly the same as we do. Our advantage is that, thanks to our size, we have the production capacity that makes us interesting to customers.
Wirtschaftsforum: Customers don't decide solely based on products to choose Ravensbergen. What are other benefits?
Nieco de Wit: We accompany our customers throughout the entire process from the initial idea to the finished product and respond quickly and flexibly to their needs.
Christophe Thys: We look beyond the immediate and take our social and environmental responsibility seriously. We work on zero waste and are engaged in projects with Unicef and other organizations to combat world hunger.
Wirtschaftsforum: What do you personally value about Ravensbergen?
Christophe Thys: The people and the culture marked by transparency and respect. As part of a large group, we have managed to preserve our family spirit. This sense of community shapes the climate and contributes significantly to success.