The way we work together with colleagues determines the atmosphere

Jacob van Timmeren left school when he was 18 years old. He did not want to study any longer and went to work in the cheese plant in Bedum, the Netherlands. “You will be sorry for starting to work so soon”, the headmaster foretold him. Jacob never felt sorry though. “Well, there are problems at every place sometimes, but looking back, I do not feel sorry for going to work in Bedum. I am happy with my job.”

Career start

“My career with FrieslandCampina in Bedum started in 1979. I grew up in Bedum. The dairy plant was and still is a major employer in the village. It was obvious that I would go and work in the dairy plant, just like many others from the village and the surrounding villages. This plant was still called DOMO (Drentse Ondermelkorganisatie) in those days. Even then we made ingredients from whey: Deminal 90. This is desalinated whey. In order to be able to use whey in infant nutrition, it has to be desalinated. This involved a lot of manual work and it made our hand all rough. The first two weeks of work almost made me cry because of the hard work, but as soon as my hands had hardened, the problems were over. Really a lot has changed in that respect, such as the way of working and all attention that is paid to safety. We looked at those things in a really different way in the past.”

The first two weeks of work almost made me cry

There always is change

“We also made other products in Bedum. We made butter and cheese was added to this later. We made condensed dairy and even ice cream. However, we also made lactoperoxydase and this is still made in the plant in Veghel, the Netherlands. This has always been a large plant, always in motion. Especially after the year 2000, heavy investments were made in this plant. We started to produce GOS (galacto-oligosacharides) for infant nutrition. This was really important for our plant. You know, there always is change. Recently, we said goodbye to our tower 3, one of our spray dry towers. This tower was put out of operation after many years of reliable service. This actually was quite impressive. We had worked with this tower for so many years.”

A good company

“One thing that always remains the same: the way we work together with colleagues determines the atmosphere. We help each other as colleagues, also in times of a lot of pressure. I have always done this and others do this for me too. The atmosphere is very good here. At this moment, I hold the position of process manager: I manage the production processes from a control room. I always enjoy being here. There may sometimes be less happy times, but this happens everywhere. FrieslandCampina is an excellent company. Of course, I have also received some education during work. Intermediate vocational education and a VAPRO training to become an operator. Today there are a lot of e-learnings to keep up our professional knowledge. Clearly, I am one of the oldest employees here, but I can still often help colleagues and this makes me feel good.”