Dutch co-product group Duynie BV has brought together three British-based companies in its portfolio to form Duynie UK, a new co-product supply specialist for the livestock sector that has a lot to offer the pig sector. Graeme Kirk reports
Although Duynie UK may be a new name to UK pig producers, the companies coming together to form the business bring with them hundreds of years of experience. The operation brings together Wellingborough-based James & Son; Duynie Moist Feeds, which was set up here by the Dutch parent group several years ago; and Soltens UK.
James & Son was the most recent addition to the Duynie portfolio when it was acquired by the Dutch group last year. Having started co-product trading in 1850, it has since expanded and diversified to become a reputable and experienced supplier of a large range of quality animal feeds and reliable advice across the UK.
Duynie Moist Feeds was established here in a similar line of business to James & Son, while the role of Soltens here, and in Europe, is as the procurement arm of the Duynie group.
Interestingly, the whole operation is farmer-owned, being part of the Royal Cosun group. This was established more than 100 years ago by sugar beet growers who came together to build their own sugar factory. The company has diversified and grown over the years and now has 3,500 employees and an annual turnover of £1.53 billion.
Royal Cosun’s core business remains in food production and manufacturing, and Duynie was founded to market the ever-increasing volume of co-products produced at its factories. The firm’s success in purchasing and marketing co-products in the Netherlands led to expansion across Europe, and in a world where food production and processing is in the hands of fewer, larger businesses, Duynie’s breadth of operation has secured many group supply deals.
Throughout mainland Europe, Duynie is the preferred co-product marketing business for Heineken, which resulted in the UK business being awarded the brewers grains marketing contracts for the company’s breweries at Tadcaster and Edinburgh late last year.
“Despite the competition for co-products from anaerobic digesters for energy feedstock, we are successfully increasing our sales volumes into the livestock sector,” Tom HalI of Duynie UK says. “But if there’s a value outside of animal feed, our group will upgrade the co-products into other things as diverse as wallpaper paste, fluid loss reducers for water-based drilling muds and various other applications.”
While brewers grains has limited use currently in the pig feed sector, Duynie UK markets a number of liquid and moist co-products from suppliers such as the potato processing industry, brewing and distilling, and most recently from the bioethanol industry.
“We’re extremely innovative in the marketing of co-products,” Mr Hall adds, “and we’ve worked closely with our supply partners to create new products for the monogastric sector. Our latest innovation is to blend various high-starch co-products at potato factories into one liquid potato feed.
“Our customers tell us that they need consistent, quality product that’s available throughout the year. As production of co-products can be sporadic, we listen to customers and we continue to invest heavily in storage capacity at production sites to improve continuity of supply.”
Innovation is a Duynie watchword and the company is always looking to overcome barriers to co-product value.
“A lot of bulk moist feeds that couldn’t be optimised in the past can now be mixed with other products so that they’re in a form that makes them available to our liquid pig feeding customers,” Mr Hall says. “These products are unique; nobody else is mixing them and making them available to pig customers, and we’re having great success with it because it’s one of those win-win-win scenarios you seek in business; our supplier-partners achieve maximum value for their food and beverage industry co-products; we increase our trade of co-products; and through our innovations our farmer-customers get access to products that were previously not available.”
Duynie UK is committed to increasing volume supplies to the pig industry.
“While the number of liquid feed units around the UK is at best static, we see huge opportunities in improving the feed efficiency of other feeding systems, in particular on outdoor units,” Mr Hall says. “We already work with innovative farmers using feeding equipment usually found on dairy and beef farms to produce moist feed blends for both sows and finishing pigs in what has, until now, been a dry feed dominated sector. After initial outlay these farmers consistently achieve substantial purchased feed savings.”
The world of farming is a changing one, and through innovation and continuous improvement, Duynie aims to remain at the forefront of the feed supply chain, maximising value for both supplier-partners and farmer-customers alike.
> For information on reducing your feed costs call 01977 516540, or visit: www.duynie.co.uk