International growth in safe hands for food company Darta

Darta is a food company which has grown within the space of a few decades into an international player committed to sustainability, driven by new technology. KBC's international branches have helped make that growth possible. ‘Because the bank sees the bigger picture, we are assured of a high level of service in our activities abroad.’

Although Darta, based in the Belgian town of Ardooie, is a fairly young company, founded in1988 by Jean-Pierre De Backere and Johan Talpe, it is today regarded as one of the most highly automated and sustainable food companies in the region. Starting 36 years ago with an annual production of 20 000 tonnes of frozen vegetables, Darta now sells 270 000 tonnes of products annually, ranging from frozen vegetables and fruit to spices and convenience products. ‘To achieve all this, we now employ more than 1000 people across the group’, says co-CEO Steve De Backere.

Steve De Backere also sees only advantages in the shared role: ‘We can challenge each other, which is healthy for the business. At the same time, it ensures operational speed. Every decision spreads quickly throughout the company and when we expand abroad, we can sit around the table with multiple parties in parallel, without any delays in our decision-making.’
This agility has proved useful in recent years, as Darta worked on a substantial international expansion programme. ‘Like many food companies in the region, we use the logistical assets in our region to market our products abroad’, says Dries Talpe. ‘Our production is also going international, with branches in the UK, Portugal and Italy. We are doing this partly for climate reasons: this diversification allows us to absorb production losses more easily if the weather in one region is disappointing.’

Having a close relationship with the local market is essential for Darta, according to Talpe. ‘We work with local sales teams in our main markets and build a branding that closely matches the local market. In Italy we are an Italian company, in the UK a British one. In the food sector, especially, it’s hugely important to have a good understanding of the market.’
Darta has its own way of dealing with local bureaucracy. ‘We select our strategic people from local candidates, rather than sending Belgians out to run the foreign plants. Locals not only know the legislation better, but also the language and wider cultural context’, Talpe says.

Darta’s international expansion is not taking place at the expense of the company's family character. Its foreign locations are also part of that family. ‘We hold our annual ‘plant manager day’ at a different site each year. When we took over an Italian company, we invited all the farmers who supplied them to come to Bruges. They included people who had hardly ever left their village. When you hear afterwards that they also feel part of the Darta family, you know you are on the right track. Incidentally, our own Belgian people also had to get used to working in an environment that has rapidly become very international’, says De Backere.

KBC plays a key role as main bank for companies seeking international expansion. The bank supports Belgian entrepreneurs abroad with the financial and market knowledge at its branches in Western Europe, the US and Asia.
‘KBC was a great help with our projects in the UK and Italy’, says Karel Talpe. ‘The bank sees the bigger picture, and knows us as a healthy company that reinvests its profits. That means KBC is able to offer a service that you don't get from local banks’, confirms Bernard Van Hees, General Manager of KBC Western Europe. ‘With our international branches, our aim is to provide maximum support for Belgian entrepreneurship and the expansion of the companies we work with. We offer them financial support, know the local market and, if they wish, put them in touch with local accountants and legal advisers from our network. The fact that we already know the companies through their Belgian operations means we can offer them better and faster support than a local bank.’

No surprise, then, that KBC was involved in Darta's UK operations from the start. Dries Talpe explains that decision: ‘The regulatory environment in the UK is complex. Thanks to KBC, we were able to get started quickly and without fuss. With a local bank, things might not have gone as smoothly. ‘Our local partners, such as the farmers' association that co-invested in the project, are also extremely positive about the cooperation with KBC.’

‘When we took over an Italian company, we were shocked: they worked with about a dozen banks’, laughs Karel Talpe. ‘We have retained some of those relationships, but KBC's central strategic role in the whole process has strengthened our growth. For example, if you invest in capacity, raw materials or logistics, you soon create a bottleneck and another investment quickly becomes necessary. Speed is then essential, and for that you need a flexible financial partner. KBC can match that speed because they have known us as a healthy company for so long.’

Bernard Van Hees continues this theme: ‘The same logic lies behind KBC's international services. If we support our customers in one location, we are happy to extend that partnership to other countries. That means we are always in a position to facilitate our customers’ internationalisation plans. And that’s the main purpose of our international network.’

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