Ardo and Barco Visits

Friday, May 16, 2006

We started off our day at Leuven COLLEGE and attended two lectures.  Our
first speaker of the day was Roger Blanpain, a retired professor from
KU Leuven.  At the lecture we learned about many labor issues affecting
Europe today.  Professor Blanpain communicated the issues to us in a
humorous manner using many different examples.  Our next lecturer for
the day was Professor Jo Swinnen and his presentation was about the EU
agricultural and rural policy.  Many of the students enjoyed this
presentation because we were able to learn about the agriculture
subsidies in Europe, which continues to be an important issue across
the world.

Next we headed onto the bus for our first long bus ride of the trip, a two
hour trip to Ardo processing facility in Ardooie. This tour was by far
the best trip yet on our excursion. Ardo is a vegetable processing
plant that freezes and packages all different types of fresh veggies.
With over 15 facilities, Ardo has an incredible market presence. They
contract over 30.000 hectares (roughly 80,000 acres) of vegetables a
year, and sell all of it. Over 50% of their sales are packaged under
the private labeling sector. Surprisingly, many of us may have already
sampled their product, as they supply to Aldi’s food chain, and Trader
Joes.

At Ardo we took a walking tour around their processing facilities, but
first we put on white hairnets and jackets to comply with company
policy.  During the tour we saw all of the processing activities. 
First we saw the washing and cutting of the vegetables, which includes
everything from green beans to cauliflower.  At the facility we were
even able to go into the freezing room, which can get to -150 F,
needless to say we were a little cold.  We finished looking at the
process by seeing the different steps to packaging the products.  After
the tour we were privileged to have a quick question and answer session
with the Chairman of Ardo.  He answered all of the questions the class
had after the tour.  Ardo was a very interesting place to visit and the
class enjoyed the stop immensely.  After about an hour, we piled back
onto the luxury bus, and headed to Barco.

Barco is an international company involved in visualization solutions.  They
offer a wide selection of top of the line products used in a variety of
sectors two of which are the military and the media.  The examples of
technology used in the military include displays for graphic
controllers in vessel traffic management.  Examples of media use
include projection screens at football arenas, casinos, and Times
Square.  At Barco we learned about the company and had the chance to
see examples of the different types of visual effects.  One student,
Alan Perry had the chance to play a video game on a 35-foot oblong
projection screen.  After we left Barco we headed back on to the bus
and started our long bus ride back for our last night in Leuven. 

Deanna, Jeffrey, and Nathan

Posted by IBIP Administrator