Executive Council – Art & Food
Executive Council meeting – EC members only
16 March 2023 - 17 March 2023
Executive Council – Art & Food
The first EC meeting of 2023 touches on ‘Art & Food’. Paying a visit to the Ceramics Museum in the Princessehof in Leeuwarden is an historical, cultural and culinary experience all in one. An amazing collection of ceramics of all ages collected from all over the world and presented in the book ‘Art & Cooking’. The Executive Council meeting will be a discovery tour acquiring new insights on food and creativity. On one hand to develop in an industrial way new meat alternatives on the other hand to create in an artistic way culinary pieces of art. Where two fields of expertises overlap, that’s the sweet spot of innovation. Touching on the main theme ‘Food Chain Innovation’ of IFFI’s program in 2023.
This cultural experience is combined with visits to ME-AT (a cooperative owned company), Ausnutria (a stock listed company) and Royal Smilde (a family owned company. Three food producers, very different in ownership but equally driving innovation in the marketplace as well as the supply chain to the next level. The members of IFFI’s Executive Council will gain first hand insights from three business leaders.
Thursday, 16 March 2023
10.00 hrs
Welcome at Royal Smilde in Heerenveen
Royal Smilde is a family owned company producing a wide range of margarines, oils, fats, salads, sauces and bakery products.
We will visit the head office in Heerenveen, also the manufacturing site for margarines, oils and fats.
Ronald Prince, CEO of Royal Smilde and chairman of FNLI, will introduce us to Royal Smilde and share his views on the market in general and the position of Royal Smilde in particular.
Rosa Kiers, Manager Reseach & Development will share insights on the role of innovation.
12.00 hrs
End of visit
Small lunch at Royal Smilde and travel to Ausnutria in Heerenveen.
13.00 hrs
Visit of Ausnutria in Heerenveen
Nourishing Life & Growth.
In Heerenveen a brand-new plant arises, producing high quality infant foods fully electrified!
CEO Jeroen Kiers will share his vision with us on growth and the importance on innovation to realize this growth sustainably.
Lucie van der Zee (R&D Lead) and Harriet Fransens (Innovation Lead) will present on innovation.
15.00 hrs
End of visit
Travel to Leeuwarden City Centre
15.45 hrs
Visit to Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics
At the museum, we will visit the exhibition ‘Celebrate!’ A special exhibition to start with in the year that IFFI celebrates its 15th anniversary!
You might even find some tableware that you’ve seen in the cookbook Art & Cooking
17.00 hrs
End of visit
Time to check in into hotel Post Plaza* and/or drinks in the bar of Hotel Post Plaza.
18.30 hrs
Dinner at Bistro Aragosta
The Aragosta has the warm, intimate feel of a bistro, where your welcoming host will introduce you to cuisine that is mainly French in feel with the occasional Italian influence.
The cooking is classical, highly subtle and very tasty. Aragosta has been awarded a Bib Gourmand.
22.00 hrs
Networking and drinks in the city
Night
Stay in Hotel Post Plaza or another hotel*
Friday, 17 March 2023
09.30 hrs
Visit of ME-AT in Leeuwarden
The production of ME-AT products takes place in Leeuwarden, where the former production location for beef has been specially set up for the production of plant-based ME-AT products.
The lines at ME-AT Leeuwarden have a modular design and set-up. In order to be able to meet specific product and packaging needs. Creating flexibility and responsiveness to supply retal and food service.
Willem Cranenboer, General Manager of ME-AT, will give a presentation on this start-up and show us around.
12.00 hrs
End of visit – end of EC meeting (small lunch available)
Willem Cranenbroek
Willem Cranenbroek is general manager at ME-AT. Before ME-AT, Willem worked at VION Food for over a decade, taking on various managing roles. He graduated in Food Quality Management at Wageningen University.
Jeroen Kiers
Jeroen Kiers is CEO at Ausnutria and has a background in R&D and business development. Before joining Ausnutria as Director Strategy & Innovation, Jeroen worked for companies like FrieslandCampina and NIZO as well as a few startup companies in food. He graduated with a PhD degree at Wageningen University.
Ronald Prince
Ronald Prince is CEO of Royal Smilde and chairman of FNLI. After studying business economics in Rotterdam, Ronald started working for Procter & Gamble and Unilever in various commercial positions. He switched to Farm Frites, where he focused on food service Western Europe and retail, among other things. He continued his career at United Coffee as commercial director before joining Royal Smilde in 2007. There he held various management positions and was also appointed CEO of the group in 2013.
The Executive Council meeting is for EC members only and senior management of the member companies. They will share insights about food chain innovattion, the main theme of the IFFI annual program of 2023.
Registration
For Members Only, participation is covered by the membership fee (IFFI members are employed by the IFFI member companies). Please register by filling in your login details.
Hotel
Post-Plaza Hotel & Grand Café
Tweebaksmarkt 25 – 27
8911 KW Leeuwarden
t. +31 (0)58 215 9317
www.post-plaza.nl
In the heart of the city center, it doesn’t get more Leeuwarden than this. Post-Plaza is located on one of the most beautiful streets in the capital of Fryslân. A unique Hotel & Grand Café, located in the old Post Office of Leeuwarden.
The hotel reservation is not included in your IFFI membership fee. If you wish to stay at the Hotel Post plaza (or another hotel), we kindly ask you to make the hotel room reservation yourselves.
A special discount code will be sent upon request. Please send an email to marita@iffi.nu
Royal Smilde offers a broad diversity of product types in various categories. Diversity is their strength. Their combined knowledge and opportunities result in differentiating concepts and plenty of scope for innovation.
We are proud of our own infant formula brands produced from goat milk, and regular and organic cow milk. But equally special is our collaboration with our commercial customers whom we support in developing and producing their own infant formula brand, as well as specialised dairy ingredients. Our customers and consumers can rely on our expertise founded on over 100 years of experience in the dairy industry and on the high quality supplied from our own production sites in the Netherlands.
Princessehof
Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics
Grote Kerkstraat 9
8911 DZ Leeuwarden
www.princessehof.nl/
The 18th-century city palace of Maria Louise van Hessen-Kassel, Princess of Orange Nassau, ancestor to King Willem-Alexander, is located at the heart of Leeuwarden’s historic city centre. This building houses the Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics. In 1898 Maurits Cornelis Escher was born there. The finest ceramics collected in The Princessehof National Museum of Ceramics. The museum has the largest and most varied collection of Chinese porcelain in the Netherlands and has a rich collection of the Dutch Art Nouveau and Art Deco ceramics from the period 1880-1930.
Within de city canals of Leeuwarden, capital city of Fryslân, you can find Bistro Aragosta. Here you can pull up a chair and experience a casual and stylish ambiance while enjoying delicious dishes that characterize our bistro kitchen; honest, pure and daily fresh.
The products are produced in a 100% dedicated state-of-the art facility located in the north of the Netherlands, the beautiful city of Leeuwarden. Before they could open their facility they had to remodel a former beef slaughterhouse. They began to strip the site in November 2019, meaning that floors were replaced, ceilings were lowered, water and electrical lines were modified and extra cooling capacity was added. The result is a brand new, state of the art facility that is dedicated to the production of plant based products. This means no cross contamination of any animal DNA, making our products truly 100% plant based.
