This year FrieslandCampina is celebrating its 150th birthday, but there is hardly any reason to celebrate.
2020 was a bad year for FrieslandCampina and that trend will continue in 2021. Internally, it is restless – several board members have resigned in recent months. And Tuesday evening came the umpteenth setback. 239 dairy farmers stop supplying milk to FrieslandCampina, six times as much as the year before. They seek refuge elsewhere.
What’s going on at one of the world’s largest dairy companies?
FrieslandCampina is a cooperative. The approximately 17,000 Dutch, Belgian and German farmers who are affiliated with the company and who supply milk are not only suppliers, but also 100 percent owner of the group. This is also reflected in the boardroom: there are four external members and nine members from the dairy sector on the supervisory board.
Until 2014, 2015, FrieslandCampina (24,000 employees in 38 countries) will thrive due to a rising demand for infant nutrition in Asian countries. Due to increasing competition from Asian companies, sales of infant nutrition in China have been in decline since 2016, 2017.
And the corona crisis has also hit hard. Although the turnover was stable at 11.1 billion euros in 2020, the profit fell by almost three quarters to 79 million. The corona virus closed the border between China and Hong Kong, an important route for infant nutrition products to the Chinese market. A thousand jobs were lost due to the crisis, especially in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. And in March this year FrieslandCampina announced for the first time since the merger in 2008 that it would not share a profit distribution with the farmers. The decision sparked a lot of anger among farmers.
Not much later, it turned out that top woman Jaska de Bakker, who had worked at FrieslandCampina since 2017, left in the summer and received a golden handshake of 1 million. De Volkskrant was the first to report on the farewell arrangement, which led to much anger among the livestock farmers affiliated with the company. According to experts in de Volkskrant, the severance pay does not comply with the code of good corporate governance. A FrieslandCampina spokesperson disputes this and says that it was in accordance with the rules. The feeling that lingers: where the dairy farmers struggle with ever-decreasing milk prices, the top is richly rewarded, even when they leave.
Distribution within board
Meanwhile, a conflict has been raging in the boardroom for some time. Due to the nitrogen and climate crisis, the agricultural sector has to be overhauled, which makes for painful choices. Farmers have to buy expensive equipment for their stables, are voluntarily bought out and are in danger of being expropriated. This creates tensions in the agricultural sector, which also lead to mutual division in the thirteen-member board.
Two parties are opposed to each other within the FrieslandCampina board: ‘camp multinational’ and ‘camp farmer’.
Kamp multinational wants, among other things, that farmers become more sustainable more quickly and pay more attention to the climate. They also state: FrieslandCampina is a multinational and must become more mature. The dairy farmers who are affiliated with the company must, for example, adhere to the safety and hygiene regulations – rules are rules.
Kampboer feels let down by the company and thinks that too little attention is paid to the dairy farmers. They believe that the changes are happening too fast, rules are being imposed. Is FrieslandCampina still there for the farmers, or is the company only concerned with itself?
Also read: FrieslandCampina chairman resigns after three months
In September this year, fellow board member and dairy farmer Frans van den Hurk resigned. Van den Hurk was popular with the farmers’ supporters and proclaimed a ‘no-nonsense sound’, says an insider within FrieslandCampina, who does not want to be mentioned by name, because he is still involved with the company. “Don’t talk but brush.”
Van den Hurk resigned eight months after his appointment, because he “does not recognize himself enough in the policy pursued”, according to a press release on the FrieslandCampina website, and because he “in the past eight months was unable to exert enough influence to change the policy.” to change”. He found FrieslandCampina’s course unclear and the board lacked people with knowledge of dairy.
Van den Hurk informs by telephone that he does not want to respond to questions from NRC.
I still believe in the company
The departure of Van den Hurk further accentuated the difference of opinion about how the dairy sector should change and how FrieslandCampina should deal with this. His supporters, the dairy farmers affiliated with FrieslandCampina, began to have doubts. What happened within the board? And were the poor results caused by the corona crisis or was it mismanagement? Members also began to have doubts. Board chairman Erwin Wunnekink received “spicy letters”, he says. He resigned three months after he started as chairman. Wunnekink: “We only discussed the company based on emotions.”
Most dairy farmers, says Wunnekink, are in favor of changes within FrieslandCampina, but a small group is opposed. They want to run this company as a ‘village cooperative and not as a multinational’. According to a FrieslandCampina spokesperson, “major problems from society such as the nitrogen and climate crisis have been imported by the dairy cooperative. That causes a lot of internal unrest and discussion among members.”
The 239 dairy farmers who leave FrieslandCampina will sell their milk to another company. Former board members Frans van den Hurk and Erwin Wunnekink will remain affiliated with FrieslandCampina as dairy farmers. Wunnekink: “I still believe in the company.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021
This year FrieslandCampina is celebrating its 150th birthday, but there is hardly any reason to celebrate.
2020 was a bad year for FrieslandCampina and that trend will continue in 2021. Internally, it is restless – several board members have resigned in recent months. And Tuesday evening came the umpteenth setback. 239 dairy farmers stop supplying milk to FrieslandCampina, six times as much as the year before. They seek refuge elsewhere.
What’s going on at one of the world’s largest dairy companies?
FrieslandCampina is a cooperative. The approximately 17,000 Dutch, Belgian and German farmers who are affiliated with the company and who supply milk are not only suppliers, but also 100 percent owner of the group. This is also reflected in the boardroom: there are four external members and nine members from the dairy sector on the supervisory board.
Until 2014, 2015, FrieslandCampina (24,000 employees in 38 countries) will thrive due to a rising demand for infant nutrition in Asian countries. Due to increasing competition from Asian companies, sales of infant nutrition in China have been in decline since 2016, 2017.
And the corona crisis has also hit hard. Although the turnover was stable at 11.1 billion euros in 2020, the profit fell by almost three quarters to 79 million. The corona virus closed the border between China and Hong Kong, an important route for infant nutrition products to the Chinese market. A thousand jobs were lost due to the crisis, especially in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. And in March this year FrieslandCampina announced for the first time since the merger in 2008 that it would not share a profit distribution with the farmers. The decision sparked a lot of anger among farmers.
Not much later, it turned out that top woman Jaska de Bakker, who had worked at FrieslandCampina since 2017, left in the summer and received a golden handshake of 1 million. De Volkskrant was the first to report on the farewell arrangement, which led to much anger among the livestock farmers affiliated with the company. According to experts in de Volkskrant, the severance pay does not comply with the code of good corporate governance. A FrieslandCampina spokesperson disputes this and says that it was in accordance with the rules. The feeling that lingers: where the dairy farmers struggle with ever-decreasing milk prices, the top is richly rewarded, even when they leave.
Distribution within board
Meanwhile, a conflict has been raging in the boardroom for some time. Due to the nitrogen and climate crisis, the agricultural sector has to be overhauled, which makes for painful choices. Farmers have to buy expensive equipment for their stables, are voluntarily bought out and are in danger of being expropriated. This creates tensions in the agricultural sector, which also lead to mutual division in the thirteen-member board.
Two parties are opposed to each other within the FrieslandCampina board: ‘camp multinational’ and ‘camp farmer’.
Kamp multinational wants, among other things, that farmers become more sustainable more quickly and pay more attention to the climate. They also state: FrieslandCampina is a multinational and must become more mature. The dairy farmers who are affiliated with the company must, for example, adhere to the safety and hygiene regulations – rules are rules.
Kampboer feels let down by the company and thinks that too little attention is paid to the dairy farmers. They believe that the changes are happening too fast, rules are being imposed. Is FrieslandCampina still there for the farmers, or is the company only concerned with itself?
Also read: FrieslandCampina chairman resigns after three months
In September this year, fellow board member and dairy farmer Frans van den Hurk resigned. Van den Hurk was popular with the farmers’ supporters and proclaimed a ‘no-nonsense sound’, says an insider within FrieslandCampina, who does not want to be mentioned by name, because he is still involved with the company. “Don’t talk but brush.”
Van den Hurk resigned eight months after his appointment, because he “does not recognize himself enough in the policy pursued”, according to a press release on the FrieslandCampina website, and because he “in the past eight months was unable to exert enough influence to change the policy.” to change”. He found FrieslandCampina’s course unclear and the board lacked people with knowledge of dairy.
Van den Hurk informs by telephone that he does not want to respond to questions from NRC.
I still believe in the company
The departure of Van den Hurk further accentuated the difference of opinion about how the dairy sector should change and how FrieslandCampina should deal with this. His supporters, the dairy farmers affiliated with FrieslandCampina, began to have doubts. What happened within the board? And were the poor results caused by the corona crisis or was it mismanagement? Members also began to have doubts. Board chairman Erwin Wunnekink received “spicy letters”, he says. He resigned three months after he started as chairman. Wunnekink: “We only discussed the company based on emotions.”
Most dairy farmers, says Wunnekink, are in favor of changes within FrieslandCampina, but a small group is opposed. They want to run this company as a ‘village cooperative and not as a multinational’. According to a FrieslandCampina spokesperson, “major problems from society such as the nitrogen and climate crisis have been imported by the dairy cooperative. That causes a lot of internal unrest and discussion among members.”
The 239 dairy farmers who leave FrieslandCampina will sell their milk to another company. Former board members Frans van den Hurk and Erwin Wunnekink will remain affiliated with FrieslandCampina as dairy farmers. Wunnekink: “I still believe in the company.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021
This year FrieslandCampina is celebrating its 150th birthday, but there is hardly any reason to celebrate.
2020 was a bad year for FrieslandCampina and that trend will continue in 2021. Internally, it is restless – several board members have resigned in recent months. And Tuesday evening came the umpteenth setback. 239 dairy farmers stop supplying milk to FrieslandCampina, six times as much as the year before. They seek refuge elsewhere.
What’s going on at one of the world’s largest dairy companies?
FrieslandCampina is a cooperative. The approximately 17,000 Dutch, Belgian and German farmers who are affiliated with the company and who supply milk are not only suppliers, but also 100 percent owner of the group. This is also reflected in the boardroom: there are four external members and nine members from the dairy sector on the supervisory board.
Until 2014, 2015, FrieslandCampina (24,000 employees in 38 countries) will thrive due to a rising demand for infant nutrition in Asian countries. Due to increasing competition from Asian companies, sales of infant nutrition in China have been in decline since 2016, 2017.
And the corona crisis has also hit hard. Although the turnover was stable at 11.1 billion euros in 2020, the profit fell by almost three quarters to 79 million. The corona virus closed the border between China and Hong Kong, an important route for infant nutrition products to the Chinese market. A thousand jobs were lost due to the crisis, especially in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. And in March this year FrieslandCampina announced for the first time since the merger in 2008 that it would not share a profit distribution with the farmers. The decision sparked a lot of anger among farmers.
Not much later, it turned out that top woman Jaska de Bakker, who had worked at FrieslandCampina since 2017, left in the summer and received a golden handshake of 1 million. De Volkskrant was the first to report on the farewell arrangement, which led to much anger among the livestock farmers affiliated with the company. According to experts in de Volkskrant, the severance pay does not comply with the code of good corporate governance. A FrieslandCampina spokesperson disputes this and says that it was in accordance with the rules. The feeling that lingers: where the dairy farmers struggle with ever-decreasing milk prices, the top is richly rewarded, even when they leave.
Distribution within board
Meanwhile, a conflict has been raging in the boardroom for some time. Due to the nitrogen and climate crisis, the agricultural sector has to be overhauled, which makes for painful choices. Farmers have to buy expensive equipment for their stables, are voluntarily bought out and are in danger of being expropriated. This creates tensions in the agricultural sector, which also lead to mutual division in the thirteen-member board.
Two parties are opposed to each other within the FrieslandCampina board: ‘camp multinational’ and ‘camp farmer’.
Kamp multinational wants, among other things, that farmers become more sustainable more quickly and pay more attention to the climate. They also state: FrieslandCampina is a multinational and must become more mature. The dairy farmers who are affiliated with the company must, for example, adhere to the safety and hygiene regulations – rules are rules.
Kampboer feels let down by the company and thinks that too little attention is paid to the dairy farmers. They believe that the changes are happening too fast, rules are being imposed. Is FrieslandCampina still there for the farmers, or is the company only concerned with itself?
Also read: FrieslandCampina chairman resigns after three months
In September this year, fellow board member and dairy farmer Frans van den Hurk resigned. Van den Hurk was popular with the farmers’ supporters and proclaimed a ‘no-nonsense sound’, says an insider within FrieslandCampina, who does not want to be mentioned by name, because he is still involved with the company. “Don’t talk but brush.”
Van den Hurk resigned eight months after his appointment, because he “does not recognize himself enough in the policy pursued”, according to a press release on the FrieslandCampina website, and because he “in the past eight months was unable to exert enough influence to change the policy.” to change”. He found FrieslandCampina’s course unclear and the board lacked people with knowledge of dairy.
Van den Hurk informs by telephone that he does not want to respond to questions from NRC.
I still believe in the company
The departure of Van den Hurk further accentuated the difference of opinion about how the dairy sector should change and how FrieslandCampina should deal with this. His supporters, the dairy farmers affiliated with FrieslandCampina, began to have doubts. What happened within the board? And were the poor results caused by the corona crisis or was it mismanagement? Members also began to have doubts. Board chairman Erwin Wunnekink received “spicy letters”, he says. He resigned three months after he started as chairman. Wunnekink: “We only discussed the company based on emotions.”
Most dairy farmers, says Wunnekink, are in favor of changes within FrieslandCampina, but a small group is opposed. They want to run this company as a ‘village cooperative and not as a multinational’. According to a FrieslandCampina spokesperson, “major problems from society such as the nitrogen and climate crisis have been imported by the dairy cooperative. That causes a lot of internal unrest and discussion among members.”
The 239 dairy farmers who leave FrieslandCampina will sell their milk to another company. Former board members Frans van den Hurk and Erwin Wunnekink will remain affiliated with FrieslandCampina as dairy farmers. Wunnekink: “I still believe in the company.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021
This year FrieslandCampina is celebrating its 150th birthday, but there is hardly any reason to celebrate.
2020 was a bad year for FrieslandCampina and that trend will continue in 2021. Internally, it is restless – several board members have resigned in recent months. And Tuesday evening came the umpteenth setback. 239 dairy farmers stop supplying milk to FrieslandCampina, six times as much as the year before. They seek refuge elsewhere.
What’s going on at one of the world’s largest dairy companies?
FrieslandCampina is a cooperative. The approximately 17,000 Dutch, Belgian and German farmers who are affiliated with the company and who supply milk are not only suppliers, but also 100 percent owner of the group. This is also reflected in the boardroom: there are four external members and nine members from the dairy sector on the supervisory board.
Until 2014, 2015, FrieslandCampina (24,000 employees in 38 countries) will thrive due to a rising demand for infant nutrition in Asian countries. Due to increasing competition from Asian companies, sales of infant nutrition in China have been in decline since 2016, 2017.
And the corona crisis has also hit hard. Although the turnover was stable at 11.1 billion euros in 2020, the profit fell by almost three quarters to 79 million. The corona virus closed the border between China and Hong Kong, an important route for infant nutrition products to the Chinese market. A thousand jobs were lost due to the crisis, especially in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. And in March this year FrieslandCampina announced for the first time since the merger in 2008 that it would not share a profit distribution with the farmers. The decision sparked a lot of anger among farmers.
Not much later, it turned out that top woman Jaska de Bakker, who had worked at FrieslandCampina since 2017, left in the summer and received a golden handshake of 1 million. De Volkskrant was the first to report on the farewell arrangement, which led to much anger among the livestock farmers affiliated with the company. According to experts in de Volkskrant, the severance pay does not comply with the code of good corporate governance. A FrieslandCampina spokesperson disputes this and says that it was in accordance with the rules. The feeling that lingers: where the dairy farmers struggle with ever-decreasing milk prices, the top is richly rewarded, even when they leave.
Distribution within board
Meanwhile, a conflict has been raging in the boardroom for some time. Due to the nitrogen and climate crisis, the agricultural sector has to be overhauled, which makes for painful choices. Farmers have to buy expensive equipment for their stables, are voluntarily bought out and are in danger of being expropriated. This creates tensions in the agricultural sector, which also lead to mutual division in the thirteen-member board.
Two parties are opposed to each other within the FrieslandCampina board: ‘camp multinational’ and ‘camp farmer’.
Kamp multinational wants, among other things, that farmers become more sustainable more quickly and pay more attention to the climate. They also state: FrieslandCampina is a multinational and must become more mature. The dairy farmers who are affiliated with the company must, for example, adhere to the safety and hygiene regulations – rules are rules.
Kampboer feels let down by the company and thinks that too little attention is paid to the dairy farmers. They believe that the changes are happening too fast, rules are being imposed. Is FrieslandCampina still there for the farmers, or is the company only concerned with itself?
Also read: FrieslandCampina chairman resigns after three months
In September this year, fellow board member and dairy farmer Frans van den Hurk resigned. Van den Hurk was popular with the farmers’ supporters and proclaimed a ‘no-nonsense sound’, says an insider within FrieslandCampina, who does not want to be mentioned by name, because he is still involved with the company. “Don’t talk but brush.”
Van den Hurk resigned eight months after his appointment, because he “does not recognize himself enough in the policy pursued”, according to a press release on the FrieslandCampina website, and because he “in the past eight months was unable to exert enough influence to change the policy.” to change”. He found FrieslandCampina’s course unclear and the board lacked people with knowledge of dairy.
Van den Hurk informs by telephone that he does not want to respond to questions from NRC.
I still believe in the company
The departure of Van den Hurk further accentuated the difference of opinion about how the dairy sector should change and how FrieslandCampina should deal with this. His supporters, the dairy farmers affiliated with FrieslandCampina, began to have doubts. What happened within the board? And were the poor results caused by the corona crisis or was it mismanagement? Members also began to have doubts. Board chairman Erwin Wunnekink received “spicy letters”, he says. He resigned three months after he started as chairman. Wunnekink: “We only discussed the company based on emotions.”
Most dairy farmers, says Wunnekink, are in favor of changes within FrieslandCampina, but a small group is opposed. They want to run this company as a ‘village cooperative and not as a multinational’. According to a FrieslandCampina spokesperson, “major problems from society such as the nitrogen and climate crisis have been imported by the dairy cooperative. That causes a lot of internal unrest and discussion among members.”
The 239 dairy farmers who leave FrieslandCampina will sell their milk to another company. Former board members Frans van den Hurk and Erwin Wunnekink will remain affiliated with FrieslandCampina as dairy farmers. Wunnekink: “I still believe in the company.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC in the morning of October 7, 2021