Interview with Hugo Visscher, General Manager for Koudijs 

30-09-2022

GNBCC is pleased to share this article on its business member, Koudijs, based on an interview with Hugo Visscher, General Manager for Koudijs Ghana.

 

Can you tell us about yourself and your journey to becoming General Manager for Koudijs?

I have worked with Koudijs/De Heus since 2009 in various capacities for which I travelled to different African countries until 2019 when I relocated and settled in Ghana. I started in 2017 with conducting market research on whether or not they should invest in Ghana. This was a green field investment because we started operations from scratch. I took up the opportunity and in 2017 we started the entity. In 2018 we bought land and early 2019 we started construction. It took 1,5 years to set up the facility. In October 2020 we commissioned the plant.

 

What is an accomplishment you are most proud of?

I am grateful for the whole journey and the fact that it went above expectations. What can give me a feeling of pride is the strong team we are having, these are the people that made this possible.

 

What should our members know about Koudijs?

Koudijs is a subsidiary of mother company de Heus which is 100% family owned. The family started the business in 1911 but found its roots in the 17th century when they started with flour milling. There is a famous picture in Rijksmuseum of the mill where the family started. Currently the fourth generation of two brothers own Koudijs/De Heus. In 1998 Koudijs was a feed miller which was acquired by de Heus. Koudijs at the time had export activities. Koudijs has been known as a brand however this is slowly changing to the Heus.

I was the first employee for Koudijs Ghana at the start of 2018 and in April 2018 we added the next employee. In 2019 we started construction. We had a small team and were importing from the Netherlands and warehousing the feed. We had about 10-12 people at the time for warehousing and marketing. In 2020 when we started the mill we started with 45 people and currently we have 100 people. We also have casual labour of about 20-30 people and more than 100 partners and dealers.

We have an interesting dealer network. Our end users are always (layer) farmers. We offer layer feed, broiler feed and tilapia feed. Now we have two streams of business, B2B (Business to Business) and B2F (Business to Farmer) where the latter is for farmers buying in larger quantities like 100 bags of 5 tonnes or more).

 

How has your experience with GNBCC been so far and what do you expect for the future?

The relationship with GNBCC has always been good. In the past years GNBCC has developed quite positively into being more active and influential. GNBCC has become an extension of the Dutch community. We have had some contacts and business through GNBCC.

 

 

 

 

 

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