'Profiling Limburg as a region to be in for quality and sustainable food'

Sour mats, gingerbread, bread, puff pastry, syrup waffles, bacon and wine gums. A total of 2,300 different products arrive at Nijsen Company in Veulen (municipality of Venray). The company processes them into livestock and compound feed, making it largely circular. When the family business was founded in 1938, it converted wheat and grains into feed for cows, pigs, chickens and goats. Director John Geurts joined the company in 2013. John has a particular vision for our province: "Limburg can be the Piedmont of the Netherlands."

Article from The Limburger

What makes Nijsen Company special is that the family business began processing waste streams from the food industry in the 1980s. "Every rural village at that time had an animal feed company," John explains. "Pierre Nijsen felt that to stay relevant and profitable he had to choose between getting bigger and bigger and producing more and more efficiently or betting on a niche. He had the foresight that agriculture would not continue to grow. By chance, he ended up in the residual streams business. A field sales representative came up with a bag of puff pastry from a baker friend asking if the company could use it. So it became the niche."

Top athletes

A question John and his colleagues often get is whether those residual streams are good for animals. Sour mats and wine gums are not exactly known for their healthy properties. "Pigs, like us, shouldn't have too much sugar. But we get the nutrients from the residual streams and that way the animals get a balanced menu. My colleagues are experts in what food a pig needs at what time and we make sure we have the right composition of fats, sugars, carbohydrates and proteins. In terms of nutrition, you can compare our pigs to top athletes on their way to a top performance."

Our people know us

John started at Nijsen in 2013. He was blank in the agricultural sector. "I was trained in business economics and previously worked at internationals such as Philips and Stork. Later, I actually started working for family businesses and they suited me better. At Nijsen, the then general manager left. They were looking for someone to keep the company on track until Pierre's son took over. But the son aspired to another position and I stayed. With great pleasure. Circularity and sustainability were on the rise and we figured we could sail in that wind. The combination of business economics and sustainable impact really appeals to me." John is proud of the company. Of the 125 people, 80 percent come from a 15-mile radius. "Many employees come from the agricultural sector and have a work ethic to match: roll up your sleeves and go for it. Many people have been employed for a long time, so there are jubilees every year. There is even someone working here who joined us after his retirement age and has already completed 12.5 years. The fact that we know each other makes it extra nice here. I'm 62 and also far from planning to stop."