Puratos & Colruyt

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

 

This morning we met with Daniel Janssens, Professor of
Managerial Aspects of European Integration at the Katholieke Universiteit
School of Business and Economics.  He
spoke with us about the EU Commission, Parliament, and Council – and the
differences between each of those and how they implement policy for the
EU.   He stressed the difficulties of making
policies and regulations for 27 different countries that must all completely
agree before a final decision can be made. 
The lecture was a great supplement to basic knowledge we had already
acquired about the EU from lectures and readings before the trip, and helped
any missing pieces come together.

 

At 9:30am, the group loaded the bus for a 10:30 visit at
family-owned Puratos Innovation Center, a worldwide leader in the bakery,
confectionary, and chocolate industry.  
Puratos was founded in 1919, in Brussels and they have 59 plants in 41
countries.  They amazed us with their
beautiful building and experimental baking center, where they test many of
their new products.  As we walked in, we
were able to catch glimpses of the chefs working away on new products. The
group heard lectures on Corporate Identity, Brand Management, & GMO Policy
before having a delectable lunch prepared by their very own chef.  It was evident that the company has spent
much effort on developing their brand and image and signaling its quality to
its customers.  The lunch was served on
the company’s fine linens and china complimented by wine in their crystal
glasses.  This was the perfect
opportunity for our class to practice our dining etiquette skills that we
learned in a seminar earlier in the semester! 
The chef made us a very special chocolate layered dessert with mango
sauce which he presented to us personally.

 

We then traveled up the road to Colruyt food distribution
center.  Colruyt is a family owned
Belgium company and an important food distributor which offers the lowest
prices across the board.  We visited
their warehouse and stepped into their -25 degree Celsius freezer to check out
their innovative packaging, labeling, and distribution practices which all have
been developed with the most environmentally-friendly practices that we have
ever encountered. They use solar panels, windmills, and recycled palettes.  They definitely seem to be following the
current trend of “going green.”  We were
all amazed by their automatic order picker, which was a large piece of
machinery that sorted the produce and other items to be distributed to each
individual store.  The process went so
seamlessly it appeared to be magic! Next we visited one of their grocery
stores, which was similar to ALDI in the US, and we noticed that there are no
shopping bags to cut down on costs and also waste.  Our group enjoyed tasting some of the free
samples of Belgian waffles and fruit and even bought a few items!

 

We arrived back at the hotel early in the evening and went
off in separate groups for dinner.  Most
of us chose to rest up for our big day in Brussels tomorrow!

 

 

By: Karlie Elliot, Jessa Becker, Chauncey Watson, Cassie
Tuzi

Posted by Meredith Blumthal