“A new production plant to strengthen our position on the French market”

Carrot specialist Verduyn has just built a new state-of-the-art production plant in Wancourt (Pas-de-Calais). Emmanuel Schaffner, sales director of Verduyn France, talks about this new facility, which will be operational from September.

"Everything will be packaged in France"
Our products harvested in the Hauts-de-France region used to be shipped to Kortemark (at the company's headquarters in Belgium) before returning to France. "As of September, however, the French carrots will be packaged on our premises," explains Emmanuel Schaffner, referring to the new production plant, 2,000 m² of which will be devoted exclusively to packaging.

Two packaging lines for "top-of-the-range products, one for bulk and one for bags," in a production plant with the latest tools, which we will be "the first to use in France." The new production plant will replace the company's two pre-existing refrigeration areas.

"Expanding our position on the French market"
"Beyond the logic of packaging a French product in France, our new production plant meets our clients' demands, but also enables us to save on logistics and reduce our carbon footprint," explains Emmanuel Schaffner. With this new investment (following an initial investment of 12 million euros [13 million USD] 5 years ago at the head office), the company's objective is "to free up space at the head office for the Benelux and export departments, and to increase our position on the French market, particularly in private label, since the two lines will initially be dedicated to this range."

The prospect of developing employment in the region is particularly important for the group. In the future, "we are not ruling out the construction of another plant, either for packaging or for storage, depending on our growth and on the success of this new investment."