"Dutch machinery specialist VieTech supplies custom-made machines and is celebrating its 15th anniversary at its new building, which is 2.5 times larger.
Team photo at the opening of the new premises last spring
The need for more square meters had been there for a while, but growth was postponed for a while during the pandemic. With temporary storage in Stompwijk, the Netherlands, it was possible to accommodate, but it was not ideal. After all, there is plenty of work in the segment in which VieTech operates, both in good times and in bad times for horticulture. "As long as there is a shift in horticulture, we have work," he says.
VieTech specializes in horticulture service, maintenance, and automation. Most of its work consists of projects in vegetable cultivation, although Wilco also has a network in ornamental horticulture. There, too, his team assists growers with machinery issues. Because of its background, VieTech has a lot of experience with Aweta machines. But VieTech is also no stranger to Viscon, Taks, and other suppliers.
VieTech team
Team VieTech currently consists of 13 employees. VieTech employs all-around skilled professionals with a background in mechatronics, who also have knowledge of electronics and electrical engineering. About five service engineers are often on the road to customers. Much of the work also takes place at the customer's premises, often at the grower's barn. Dirty hands are part of this. "Although we always spray the machines clean here on site when we overhaul," laughs Wilco. "We can definitely still use handy people. There is currently a vacancy for this as well. Please respond especially if you are motivated. VieTech has already retrained several people to become fully-fledged mechanics!"
Project in Portugal
Work
The busiest time of the year is when the greenhouses are empty, roughly between November and April. "That's when we have the most work," he says. Over a cup of coffee in the cozy canteen, Wilco explains why. Growers still sometimes switch crops, buy an additional greenhouse, or add new machines to the processing process, which also increases the demand for automation further down a machine line.
As an example, Wilco gives installation of a machine that performs quality inspection based on AI. This requires fewer people in the process, but it does require more exits and further automation to properly process all sorted cucumbers or peppers. VieTech can achieve this and relieves the customer of this issue.
VieTech is also active in floriculture, for example with bucket fillers
Most jobs taken on in Pijnacker, the Netherlarnds, focus on sorting machines. "We do some packaging machinery, but not really small packaging. That's a different specialism." They can also write software at VieTech, but to a limited extent. "Smaller projects we take on ourselves in terms of software, as long as we can work the bulb and like it. After all, I think that's important: if we keep enjoying the work, we can take that extra step that is sometimes asked for and we'll keep it up in the long run."
Here are two more individual pieces during the extension of a machine line
Customization
A typical custom-made project stands in the spacious production hall in early December. A grower asked Wilco and his team for a pepper sorter with 3 lines, and 12 exits. This turned out not to be available, so the machinery specialists from Pijnacker decided to put one together themselves. What comes in handy here is that VieTech also occasionally buys machines, and sells them again, and in this case was able to link an existing line from its own warehouse to another.
Remarkably, a project is being worked on this winter for Wilco's very first customer. This grower is switching from cucumbers to peppers.
And here is one big line, after extension by VieTech for the pepper grower in question.
Internationally active
Anyone who works with machines from Aweta, among others, understands that international questions sometimes come up. VieTech always thinks along but is also realistic. "You can want to do a lot abroad, but you also have to be able to provide support."
Up to a certain scale, the Pijnacker-based company tackles such jobs. "I had another success moment this week, when we remotely got a machine at a customer in Kenya up and running again quickly. And next week we are going to Sweden for maintenance. And we are also active in the US and Canada, with some local help for logistics."
Actually, the same applies to both national and international projects: "Commitment to solutions! Team VieTech provides solutions! I am grateful for the role we have in the market."
For more information:
VieTech
[email protected]
www.vietech.nl