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2016 Recap
As the year is drawing to a close, it is time for us to reflect upon the past year and thank everyone for making 2016 such a great success. New brands joined the Wessanen family, many innovations were launched and we took further steps towards a greener future.
New in the Wessanen family
Ineobio/ Destination
Ineobio is an expert in organic coffees, teas and herbal infusions and is the owner of Destination, the leading brand in Coffee and Tea in French Health Food Stores. It has a broad range of high quality coffees as well as herbal, black and green teas and is 100% organic and where relevant, fair trade certified.
Mrs Crimble's
A pioneer of the UK gluten-free market for more than 30 years, Mrs Crimble's, has established itself as a leading brand in the market, famous for its macaroons and broad range of other gluten-free products.
Biogran
Biogran owns the leading organic brand in Spain, El Granero and has very successfully extended into the Grocery Trade with its Ecocesta brand. Main product categories are ambient organic/natural food such as cereals and rice cakes.
Piramide
Piramide is a long established tea brand in the Netherlands and leader in the Health Food Stores channel.
Biofach 2016
With more than 2,300 exhibitors from the national and international organic sector, the Biofach is the world’s largest trade fair for organic food and agriculture. In 2016 we used this perfect opportunity again for presenting our brands and innovations, meet organic producers from the organic market and be inspired by the sector’s latest trends.
We are looking forward to seeing you at the Biofach 2017!
Wessanen presents its brands at Biofach 2016
Youth Food Academy
Wessanen and the Youth Food Movement working together on supporting Organic Food. Wessanen participated for the first time in the YFM Academy, a program in which young professionals and students from the whole food chain, from farm to increase their knowledge about the food system.
Clean the mountain
Distriborg has re-launched as Bjorg Bonnterre & Compagnie. In order to celebrate the change of name, Bjorg Bonneterre and Compagnie has engaged all the employees in a “clean the moutain” operation in the Alpes. 370 people have collected 304 Kg of waste.
French team cleaning maountain in the Alpes
Bonneterre wins distinction label
Bonneterre entered a selection of its products for the ‘Best organic products of 2017’ in France. The entered products are judged by a panel of organic shop consumers. The products are evaluated based on many criteria, including texture, smell, taste etc. In order to be a awarded the mark of distinction, the products must be ranked with a score that is at least 16 out of 20.
Organic Day 2016
Every year Wessanen holds an organic day across all its countries and companies in order to engage and educate all our people and make them true ambassadors of our mission : Healthier food, Healthier people, Healthier planet.
CLIPPER has won the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards
This year our lovely tea brand CLIPPER was presented with the Beverage Manufacturing Company of the Year FMEA trophy in front of hundreds of guests. Clipper Teas fought off tough competition in the beverages category from four other manufacturers, including Coca-Cola European Partners and Aston Manor Cider. Read more about theglittering celebration at The Hilton Park Lane Hotel in London.
Clipper won Food Manufacture Excellence Awards
Wessanen UK partners with International Tree Foundation
Wessanen UK has entered into a partnership with the International Tree Foundation (ITF) to support a series of community-led forestry and education projects across the world. The new partnership sees Wessanen UK become the first corporate sponsor of ITF’s new 20 Million Trees Appeal, which aims to plant 20 million trees in and around Kenya’s highland forests by 2024, when the ITF will celebrate its Centenary.
Find out more about the partnership
Nationaal Schoolontbijt
The Nationaal Schoolontbijt, or the national school breakfast, is an initiative to encourage school children in The Netherlands to have healthy breakfasts on a daily basis. In order to educate the children about the importance of a good breakfast, over 2,720 Dutch primary schools provide a school breakfast for a full school week. Here, children learn that in order to be successful in school, sports and other activities, they need the energy from a proper breakfast. Wessanen Benelux supported this annual event by providing a variety of products. Zonnatura donated 22,000 packets of Roasties Apple & Cinnamon to the national school breakfast.
Amsterdam TriathlonAmsterdam Triathlon
Wessanen Benelux and Headoffice took part in the Amsterdam Triathlon. Everyone push their own personal best and together with their team achieved excellent results. Leading up to the event we collected donations of more than 2000 EUR for the Dutch Foodbank.
We Connect Copenhagen
This year's We Connect event took place in Copenhagen, Europe's Green Capital 2014 and is one of the most sustainable cities in the world. About 70 colleagues from all countries met to get inspired. The team activity was the highlight of the event: We spent the entire afternoon developing a habitat for bees and other animals in a deprived area of Copenhagen.
Capital Markets Day
On 16th November we held our Capital Markets Day at our subsidiary Abafoods in Italy. Key management, analysts and investors talked about strategy, how it is put into action, organic trends, brand growth and how to build a green culture. Following this, everyone had the chance to get a tour around the Abafoods Dairy Alternatives production site and taste new innovations.
Capital Markets Day in Italy
Certified B Corporations
B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. There is a growing community of more than 1,600 Certified B Corps from 42 countries and over 120 industries working together toward 1 unifying goal: to redefine success in business. In 2016 we have started our B-Corp journey with our French business and looking forward to the upcoming year.
Ook wij staan achter biologisch
Wessanen supports this long-term campaign to raise awareness for the European label for organic products. The main objective of the label is to make organic products easier to be identified by consumers. A large part of our product range is certified.