Fine Food Colruyt Group is the only food retailer in Belgium with industrial-scale production departments, grouped under Colruyt Group Fine Food. Thanks to in-house production and years of expertise, we can operate in a cost-effective manner, guarantee constant quality and create added value for our private labels and ultimately for customers. Meat processing is Fine Food’s biggest activity, alongside a salad department, a coffee roasting house, a wine-bottling plant, cheese-processing departments, a bakery and a ‘vertical farm’ for fresh herbs. Fine Food has more than a thousand employees on nine production sites.
Strong increases in production 47.000 tonnes of meat processed 27.325.000 litres of wine bottled 49.587.000 pieces of cheese packaged 7.200 tonnes of coffee roasted 25.150.000 loaves baked
• The production departments delivered higher volumes throughout the financial year, partly due to increased retail sales and product diversification and partly as a result of higher demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. From mid-March to past the summer of 2020, the meat and cheese departments in particular turned out higher volumes than normal. Unprocessed fresh meat did particularly well, partly because consumers cooked more often at home when it was impossible to visit a restaurant. The coffee roasting house and wine-bottling plant experienced smaller production increases, while bread production declined slightly, as a result of reduced shopping frequency in our supermarkets. • Fine Food managed to cope with the volume increases thanks to the exceptional efforts of its own employees and temporary support from Colruyt Group colleagues. For months, it also relied on 200 temporary staff, 39 of whom were taken on permanently in the end. • Except for a few minor incidents, production was barely disrupted by the coronavirus. Facemasks, hairnets and hand hygiene are part of the daily routine in any case. However, with adapted shifts and routes, the number of people in changing rooms and canteens for example was limited. All the familiar ‘golden rules of hygiene’ were communicated in many ways and stewards ensured that they were correctly respected.
ACTIVITIES | Retail • Wholesale • Foodservice • Other activities • Group support activities
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