The traveling continues, I have moved from Malmö to the European capital – Brussels! It is quite different here compared to Stockholm and Sweden, but I must say that I like it and find it quite charming!
They eat a lot of baguettes here, I mean a lot a lot! Sometimes the traffic is a little bit crazy, and I have to parallel park every day, which I unfortunately am not very good at. But I must say that I have impressed myself with my parking skills, it is going far better than expected! I also had some trouble getting to know the new products in the supermarket since the language also is a barrier, but now I have really settled in and can fully focus on enjoying what Brussels and Belgium have to offer! I have so many things that I want to explore – food, culture, cities.
I like that Belgium is such a small country. Ghent is only 40 mins away from my house!
The people in the office are really relaxed and fun. I thought I would feel like an outcast since I don’t understand the language, but it has not been like that at all and I really feel that they are taking good care of me here! I like the fact that I’ve learned random Dutch words here such as “production hours”, “pieces” and “customer”. Time flies and it’s crazy that one month has passed already. Please time, slow down so that I have time to do all the things I want to do here!
Told you they were taking good care of me. Some Easter chocolate for everyone at the office.
So what is Lantmännen doing in Belgium? Lantmännen Unibake has three production sites here. I am stationed in Londerzeel, where we produce baguettes in different sizes and with different recipes. The second production site is in Brussels. They do all sorts of specialty breads like ciabattas, thaw & serve rolls, and typical Belgian products. The third production site is in Mouscron, close to the French border. There they make sweet, yummy stuff such as croissants, pain au chocolat, and swirls. Belgium is a part of a cluster called Be-Ne-Fr-It-Es. It stands for Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Italy and Spain. We have a sales office in the Netherlands and Spain, and have sales representatives in France & IT.
Lantmännen Unibake in Londerzeel.
My project is about SKU rationalization, which means that I deep-dive into the product portfolio to optimize the product range on the basis of several parameters such as shelf life, production hours, margins, sales, and product lifecycle. This will also make room for new products to enter our product catalogue. It is a very interesting project, since it connects so many departments and because it will have direct impact on the business.
Lantmännen Unibake at a fair called Crazy snack fair.
I’ll tell you more about the fun things I do here next time!
Voila! (a word I hear quite often at the office)
/Victoria