The Board of Friesland­Campina sees opportunities to admit new members

Scope for sustainable growth

In its initial outlines of the strategic ‘Road Map to 2030’, FrieslandCampina expresses a desire to maintain the scale of its milk processing until 2030. In order to be able to remain a player on the world market and to keep investing, the Board has stated that existing member dairy farms will be able to grow in volume and that new members will be permitted to join the dairy cooperative. This will be fleshed out in more detail in conjunction with the company, cooperative’s members, and the Members’ Council over the next few months as part of the assessment of the member recruitment policy.

Sybren Attema, chair of Zuivelcoöperatie FrieslandCampina U.A: ‘In order to ensure we are best placed to process and add maximum value to our members’ milk, the Board takes the view that there is scope for growth on the part of existing member dairy farms as well as for adding new members. Growth and making things more sustainable within the company and on farmyards will continue to be intertwined in the future too. We will be discussing sustainable growth with each other over the coming year, including during the assessment of the member recruitment policy.’

Business update

In a business update, Executive Board members Hein Schumacher, Hans Janssen and Roel van Neerbos informed the members of the Members’ Council about the developments within the company.

Exploring strategic options for Friso infant nutrition activities
CEO Hein Schumacher announced that FrieslandCampina is exploring strategic options for the infant nutrition activities under the Friso brand. With key markets for infant nutrition – particularly China - rapidly evolving, the aim of the strategic review process is to ensure that the Friso business is optimally set up to capture future growth.

Pension liabilities release
CFO Hans Janssen reported a release of 50 million euros’ worth of pension liabilities. Within the framework of the collective labour agreement negotiations on the sector pension scheme for Dairy, new agreements have been made for the next five years. These include a reduced commitment to index-linked benefits, resulting in the one-off release of 50 million euros this financial year. This will be recognised as income on the income statement. Secondly, employers and employees have agreed that they will both pay a higher contribution to the collective contribution scheme for the Dairy industry as of 2026. This is in anticipation of the transition to a new pension scheme (within the framework of the national pension agreement).

Leadership

During the Members’ Council meeting, Chair Sybren Attema announced on behalf of the Supervisory Board that Hein Schumacher is to be reappointed as CEO for a second four-year term as of 1 January 2022.

Attema: ‘FrieslandCampina is in the middle of a multi-year transformation, and hard work is being done on ensuring that the cooperative and the company are successful and future-proof. For the Supervisory Board, the reappointment of Hein Schumacher is all about calm, continuity, and pressing ahead with the strategy already in place. We are confident that Hein Schumacher and his leadership team are on the right path for us and successfully deliver on our goal.’

Attema also announced during the Members’ Council meeting that Wout Dekker, after four years as member of the Supervisory Board of Royal FrieslandCampina N.V., has decided to retire from this position as of 14 December 2021.

Amendments to Rules of Practice and Right of Initiative Rules

The Members’ Council meeting also saw the Board inform the Members’ Council about amendments to the Rules of Practice in respect of such matters as quality assurance for the milk and safeguarding the sustainability data of affiliated dairy farms. The proposed amendments to the Rules of Practice were discussed with the dairy cooperative’s members during the autumn meetings and will come into effect on 1 January 2022.