BUITELAAR
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PROFILE
TALKING ABOUT REGENERATION This year, Buitelaar Group is celebrating its centenary. Under the Buitelaar name, the business has in recent years, developed into a provider of sustainable, higher welfare beef supply chain solutions. CEO Adam Buitelaar related the broad portfolio of group products and his plans to regenerate the farming industry in conversation with Phil Nicholls.
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oil erosion and desertification pose genuine threats to world food supplies in the foreseeable future. Buitelaar Group CEO Adam Buitelaar shares these concerns: “We’ve only got 60 harvests left before the world totally runs out of food.” Buitelaar Group is working towards solving the impending crisis with a blend of regenerative agriculture and a renewed economic model for the farming industry. The story of Buitelaar Group began in 1922 outside Amsterdam and has been managed by five generations of the Buitelaar family. The current incarnation of the company began in 2001 when Adam Buitelaar took over the role of CEO. Buitelaar Group has always been involved in buying and selling cattle, but today’s company evolved from the drive to add value into the livestock business. Buitelaar Group is the largest integrated beef supply chain in the UK, collecting between 800-1,500 quality calves each week. “One of the biggest milestones for me,” Mr Buitelaar explained, “was the point when I realised that we’re not a company that buys and sells cattle, we are actually a sophisticated supply chain.” The sustainable chain uses four higher-welfare collection centres strategically located in UK dairy farming areas that provide additional services such as extensive health monitoring and full traceability throughout the supply chain. At the start of the century, Buitelaar Group was devoted to the distribution of live animals, but quickly diversified into the supply
of meat. Customers include Morrisons and McDonalds, with the group offering a range of award-winning beef products. Buitelaar Select Beef won the AHDB Gold Award for England’s Best Steak, benefitting from a uniform feeding plan across the chain and a fully traceable supply chain. At the forefront of the Buitelaar Group beef range is the dedicated Heritage Hallmark brand featuring beef from a range of traditional breeds, whilst Aberdeen Angus By Buitelaar and Rosé Veal maintain their own identity within the house of brands. Irish beef is another Buitelaar Group speciality with a supplemental line dedicated to the Mount Leinster brand. The diverse portfolio of products and services at Buitelaar Group extends to using all the animal. The group supplies 1,000 tonnes per week of premium raw materials to the pet food industry. This same philosophy extends to animal hides, with markets in China, India, North Africa, Europe and Mexico. Beyond the cattle hides, Buitelaar Group sells about 3.5 million sheep skins annually. The Health and Nutrition division of Buitelaar Group oversees development of products to help the group rear over 40,000 calves every year. This range of milk powders, high-health calf housing units and antibiotic-free calf health products were developed for the group’s supply chain. These are all now offered to independent farmers.
A caring family Thanks to its dedication to quality and a diverse portfolio, Buitelaar Group has a turnover of £150 million with a team of 80 employees, over 60% of whom are women. Buitelaar Group operates in 13 sites scattered across the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands. Such a diverse geographic spread could have made Brexit a challenge: “Instead of seeing a problem, ‘I ask, how can we cope with that?’” said Mr Buitelaar. “It’s a case of asking ‘How can we turn this into a positive and use it to our advantage?’ We’ve all been aware Brexit was coming for a long time; we’ve all had time to find solutions. We’ve coped and we have grown from it.” The small team allows for a caring family culture at Buitelaar Group. “I don’t feel we have anyone working for us,” Mr Buitelaar explained. “When you’re the football team captain, you don’t have players working for you, they’re working with you to achieve a common goal. That’s how I see it.”
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