FrieslandCampina (which owns Dutch Lady brand) has been listed among the top four global nutrition companies thanks to a mindset of continuous improvement.

Among enterprises that have developed more and more, Dutch Lady recognised early that continuous improvement is needed for its growth.

In a competitive market, companies have to continuously improve to produce better products for consumers.

Dutch Lady has improved consistently in each of its areas. Photo Courtesy of FrieslandCampina

However, improvement is not easy to achieve, especially in a company which has 19,000 farmers as its members and 24,000 employees. The company has offices in 34 countries and sells dairy products in 100.

Improvements at FrieslandCampina’s member dairy farms and its production and distribution facilities are carried out based on the FoQus Food Safety & Quality System.

FoQus is based on national and international legislation and Codex standards, takes into account the expectations of customers, consumers and social organisations, and is updated regularly.

Roel Van Neerbos, president of consumer dairy global at FrieslandCampina, said, “FoQus is dynamic because learning, improving and sharing knowledge and experiences are an integral part of the system.”

Besides, Dutch Lady has global nutritional standards to ensure standard nutrients in each product are the same in all countries, retain the natural nutrients in milk such as calcium and protein, have good balance between the amounts of saturated fat, sugar and salt in all its products, and supplementing nutrients such as vitamins A, D and B12 to benefit children’s health.

Active people in improvement

Each farmer, veterinary worker, research and development employee, and factory worker have to have the highest awareness about their job to produce milk of standard quality.

As the core of continuous improvement, nearly 500 specialists at two R&D centers in the Netherlands and Singapore do research into milk and production day and night.

FrieslandCampina's Innovation Center in the Netherlands’ Wageningen aids its constant improvement. Photo Courtesy of FrieslandCampina

Moreover, at 64 plants around the world, including Việt Nam, the company has an R&D team specialising in localising products to suit the nutritional needs and tastes of local consumers.

The company invests up to 80 million euros a year in research and development.

Lê Thị Thoan is a quality management specialist at the Dutch Lady factory in Hà Nam Province. Every day she conducts hundreds of checks to ensure the purity of the raw milk as well as the quality of each milk carton.

Besides the R&D team, experts like her have a big role in creating value for the brand and make great contributions to improvement in milk quality in the Vietnamese market.

It is also impossible not to mention the diligence of the 19,000 farmers who are members of Dutch Lady. The Truong – Ai family (in Đức Trọng District, Lâm Đồng Province) are active among them.

Over many years of co-operation with and support from the company, they have benefited from the unceasing improvement in the way they work.

In the past they bred in the traditional manner without following modern standards, but they now have extensive knowledge of breeding after a number of training courses with company experts.

Milestone of top 4 global nutrition companies

Improvements in breeding methods bring benefits to farmers. Photo Courtesy of FrieslandCampina

Over the years Dutch standards have become a guarantee of Dutch Lady's quality, and they are constantly being upgraded. The milk carton of the past from which today’s mothers drank and the carton’s these days from which their children drink may have the same name, but are a lot different in terms of nutritional ingredients. The ingredients have been improved to make them suitable for the current generations' stature.

With these efforts, FrieslandCampina rose from eighth spot in 2016 to fourth spot in 2018 in the list of 22 largest food and nutrition companies in the world, making the largest contributions to improving nutrition globally announced by the Access to Nutrition Foundation, an independent non-profit organization based in the Netherlands which is dedicated to objectively assessing and improving the contribution the private sector makes to addressing global nutrition challenges.

However, Dutch Lady's main target is to improve its dairy products constantly rather than just find a place in rankings.

The company understands that milk is an essential everyday food that has a direct effect on children’s health. 

It researches and improves constantly to bring good nutrition at affordable cost to global consumers.