Enjoyment on the shopfloor and in society
We consider being a good employer important. We accomplish this by creating a meaningful, safe and open work culture in which our 2,500 colleagues work with satisfaction. We consider it important that our products, ‘from farm to fork’, are produced and experienced with passion and satisfaction.
Happy People
We attach a great deal of importance to the cooperation with our customers and aim to be a valuable partner for them. It is our aim to have consumers sit at the table with joy and to have them enjoy our potato specialties.
Our foods and nutritional ingredients mainly fit into a sustainable, plant-based nutritional pattern. We have an innovative mentality, so when we see an opportunity, we immediately seize it. This way we are working on an increasingly plant-based world together with our customers and consumers.
We connect people, cultures and tastes throughout the world by bringing joy to tables.
Our goals
Meaningful and safe work
feel engaged
a working environment in which employees feel engaged: baseline measurement for employee engagement
Meaningful and safe work
≥ 30%
zero harm, no injuries: ≥ 30% annual reduction in lost-time accidents
Happy people at the table
3 bn
Globally connect people at 3 billion tables (2025)
Happy people at the table
Plant-based alternatives
in every product category (2025)
Happy people at the table
≥7
customer feedback ≥ 7 (2025)
Happy people at the table
Gold
Ecovadis ≥ gold score (annually)
“Every colleague deserves a great and safe working environment in which we can rely on each other, grow together and experience joyful moments. This forms the basis of everything we do.”
Wendy Haitsma - Chief Human Resources Officer Aviko
Governance
With the support of our HR and Safety colleagues we are jointly responsible for an inspiring, meaningful and safe working environment in which we can trust each other, grow and enjoy our work. Together with our innovation experts and commercial colleagues we develop plant-based alternatives for all of our products and ensure we connect with our customers.
Meaningful and safe work
Our products would never reach the table of our consumers without our 2,500 colleagues. We aim to strengthen this growing community by facilitating an inspiring, meaningful, safe working environment and by continuously further developing our people, organisation and culture. We aim to keep our people productive and healthy throughout their entire career by stimulating and developing them. We are proud of the fact that our people on average have been employed at Aviko for 13 years. We use various means to create an environment in which everyone feels at home and can continue to grow, such as a culture programme, a policy related to vitality and sustainable employment, a focus on diversity and inclusiveness and by devoting constant attention to safeguarding human rights and a safe working environment. In the near future we will carry out a company-wide baseline measurement to determine the level of employee engagement. Based on this we can set a specific target for 2025 and better determine how we can further improve employee engagement over the coming years.
We use various means to create an environment in which everyone feels at home and can continue to grow, such as a culture programme, a policy related to vitality and sustainable employment, a focus on diversity and inclusiveness and by devoting constant attention to safeguarding human rights and a safe working environment.
Stories
Granules & Flakes
Chilled & Frozen
Safe place to work
Aviko aims for everyone to have a safe and healthy workplace. For us this begins with mental safety. An open culture in which you are allowed to, dare and can say what you want. This includes reporting unsafe situations that we then resolve together. This occurs in various forums, such as the safety platforms (integrated safety teams) at our locations with participants from the entire organisation. We record unsafe situations, near misses and accidents in order to learn from them and improve situations with a clear focus...
Granules & Flakes
Strengthening our culture
Aviko Rixona’s culture programme is a good example of our HR strategy ‘Strengthening our growing family by stimulating a great working environment and continuously developing our people, organisation and culture’. This is a long-term programme that consists of various initiatives relating to cooperation, leadership and company values. All Rixona colleagues are involved in this programme. The goal is to increase employee satisfaction and to further develop our people. There were various...
Chilled & Frozen
Sustainable employment and vitality
At Aviko, we consider sustainable employment and the vitality of our colleagues important, which is why we are investing in this. On average, our people have been working at Aviko for 13 years and we are proud of this. For employees with physically heavy work, for example, it is a challenge to keep this up until they retire. On the basis of preventive medical research, we assessed the vitality of our colleagues and how we can improve on this. They participate in workshops...
Promoting diversity and inclusiveness
Aviko considers diversity and inclusiveness important. For example, this way we connect customers, neighbourhood residents, consumers, chain partners and growers, and also stimulate diversity and inclusiveness on the shopfloor. We do not differentiate in terms of gender, cultural or religious background, competences, age and physical capacities. At Aviko we consider it important for everyone to be able to start working with a solid base of...
Safeguarding human rights
We care about people at Aviko. We believe that all people should be treated equally and with respect. Not only at our own production and other locations, but also in our supply chains and in the communities in which we operate. The term human rights expresses this: these are the fundamental freedoms and the protection all people are entitled to, simply because they are human beings. We further formalised our policy concerning human rights last year therefore, and this policy will be further implemented in 2022.
Joy to tables
We aim to bring joy to tables with our products. We do this by bringing excellent ingredients and products on the market together with our customers. We focus on launching innovative plant-based products and bringing together and connecting people, cultures and tastes. After all, things taste better when people eat together.
Stories
Plant-based alternatives
People throughout the world are increasingly focusing on nutrition and health. This is increasing the number of informed consumers and is changing buying behaviour towards increasingly more sustainable and more plant-based nutrition. The majority of our products is plant-based: after all, they all revolve around the potato. The potato is also a good choice for plant-based alternatives. Our goal is to always be able to offer our customers a plant-based alternative...
Connecting people at the table
In 2021, we brought joy to 2.5 billion tables by connecting people, cultures and tastes. Our target is to bring joy to 3 billion tables in 2025. We consider it important that everyone, no matter who you are or where you are, can find enjoyment at the table. Connecting people promotes understanding, trust and tolerance. This is why Aviko aims to actively encourage this connection, diversity and inclusiveness at the table. Together with our employees we implement this...
Safe place to work
Aviko aims for everyone to have a safe and healthy workplace. For us this begins with mental safety. An open culture in which you are allowed to, dare and can say what you want. This includes reporting unsafe situations that we then resolve together. This occurs in various forums, such as the safety platforms (integrated safety teams) at our locations with participants from the entire organisation. We record unsafe situations, near misses and accidents in order to learn from them and improve situations with a clear focus. We do this through evaluations on the shopfloor and in local management teams.
In Steenderen (the Netherlands) we were the first to start up a so-called Safety Room a few years ago. In the Safety Room we engage in a dialogue about working safely at Aviko, together with employees and partners who work with us. This way we demonstrate how safety is organised in our company and at the same time we stimulate the submission of improvement proposals designed to make our company safer a step at a time. We also continue to conduct campaigns, because safety always is a high priority. We aim to make our colleagues constantly aware of the potential risks that can occur. We at all times aim to prevent colleagues from being exposed to risks that can result in incidents. In the coming year, Aviko’s internal safety campaign will focus on the so-called ‘Line of Fire’.
”By calling each other to account and engaging each other in discussion we can learn from each other. We can then use this as a basis for taking the right steps forward together to constantly improve Aviko.”
Derk-Jan Haverkamp - Corporate SHE Manager Aviko
Attention for safety has grown in recent years. As a result, we are able to not only prevent the repetition of incidents, we are also better able to anticipate a safe working environment. Over the past two years we were able to reduce the number of lost-time accidents by more than 30% to 33 lost-time accidents in 2021. The ultimate goal is to achieve an annual reduction of at least 30%.
At Chilled & Frozen the number of lost-time accidents is dropping in spite of the fact that new plants were added. This decline is in part due to the implementation of a standardised incident recording and risk management approach. A high level of safety was achieved during the construction of our new plant in Poperinge (Belgium). Through means of clear rules and expectations, we were able to create a dynamic together with our partners that resulted in preventing serious incidents. The plant in Cuijk (the Netherlands) has been accident-free for the past two years. The granules and flakes production plants in Warffum and Venray also have been accident-free for nearly a year. However, at Aviko Rixona, lost-time accidents increased from 4 to 9 in 2021. This is related to the acquisition of the plant in Stavenhagen (Germany) where unfortunately there were 5 lost-time accidents. This significantly affected the total number of lost-time accidents.
Granules & Flakes
Strengthening our culture
Aviko Rixona’s culture programme is a good example of our HR strategy ‘Strengthening our growing family by stimulating a great working environment and continuously developing our people, organisation and culture’. This is a long-term programme that consists of various initiatives relating to cooperation, leadership and company values. All Rixona colleagues are involved in this programme. The goal is to increase employee satisfaction and to further develop our people. There were various sessions facilitated by coaches; for example about DISC, a method that can be used to produce an analysis of someone’s personal communication and behavioural styles. This provides employees greater insight into their own ways of working, as well as those of their colleagues. We are seeing that this is strengthening mutual cooperation. In addition, we have developed a programme for managers that enables them to better focus on culture as a means of safeguarding this goal over the long-term.
Chilled & Frozen
Sustainable employment and vitality
At Aviko, we consider sustainable employment and the vitality of our colleagues important, which is why we are investing in this. On average, our people have been working at Aviko for 13 years and we are proud of this. For employees with physically heavy work, for example, it is a challenge to keep this up until they retire. On the basis of preventive medical research, we assessed the vitality of our colleagues and how we can improve on this. They participate in workshops on themes that require attention. In addition, they are provided with individual coaching to guide them in making behavioural changes, for example, in relation to exercise, nutrition, sleeping and/or job satisfaction. Furthermore, we are constantly looking for ways in which we can lighten the work by making specific adjustments. We have started a pilot on this in our plants in Lomm and Cuijk (the Netherlands). At the end of the year, on the basis of the results of this pilot, we will assess how we can further roll this out to other locations.
Promoting diversity and inclusiveness
Aviko considers diversity and inclusiveness important. For example, this way we connect customers, neighbourhood residents, consumers, chain partners and growers, and also stimulate diversity and inclusiveness on the shopfloor. We do not differentiate in terms of gender, cultural or religious background, competences, age and physical capacities.
At Aviko we consider it important for everyone to be able to start working with a solid base of knowledge, pride and confidence in his/her new position, regardless of his/her cultural background or targeted work location. This is why we are making use of an onboarding app at Aviko. With this practical app, we want to give our new colleagues a warm welcome in a fun and inspiring way. The app contains lots of general, interesting and useful information for new colleagues and is currently available in French, Dutch, German and English. This way all of our new colleagues will feel at home at Aviko from the very first day.
Plant-based alternatives
People throughout the world are increasingly focusing on nutrition and health. This is increasing the number of informed consumers and is changing buying behaviour towards increasingly more sustainable and more plant-based nutrition. The majority of our products is plant-based: after all, they all revolve around the potato. The potato is also a good choice for plant-based alternatives. Our goal is to always be able to offer our customers a plant-based alternative, at the very least by 2025, and preferably earlier. Some of our products, for example, contain egg, cheese and/or cream. We already have a plant-based alternative for 80% of our product groups. By far the larger part (87%) of the total product volume now is plant-based and we are further expanding this.
We already have a plant-based alternative for 80% of our product groups. By far the larger part (87%) of the total product volume now is plant-based and we are further expanding this.
Aviko Rixona anticipated this with the development of Potato Cheezz. Potato Cheezz has been developed in cooperation with Cosun and looks like cheese, tastes like cheese, but is made from potatoes and has numerous positive properties. The product is salt-free, fat-free, lactose-free, does not contain any cholesterol, and instead contains more fibre and is 100% vegan. This way we convert the potato into a cost-effective, plant-based and more sustainable cheese alternative for the pizza industry, as a snack or as a meat substitute. Potato Cheezz has a significantly lower CO2 footprint (less than 20% of ordinary cheese) and is healthier than regular cheese.
Together with our strategic partner in Spain, Eurofrits, we developed a range of plant-based, healthier snacks with vegetable proteins and fibre as an alternative to animal proteins. The products were crowned with the ‘International Superior Taste Award’ certification, produced with 100% green energy and packaged in 100% bio-based materials. This way we use our food innovations to make the world a better place for everyone.
Connecting people at the table
In 2021, we brought joy to 2.5 billion tables by connecting people, cultures and tastes. Our target is to bring joy to 3 billion tables in 2025. We consider it important that everyone, no matter who you are or where you are, can find enjoyment at the table. Connecting people promotes understanding, trust and tolerance. This is why Aviko aims to actively encourage this connection, diversity and inclusiveness at the table. Together with our employees we implement this aim in various ways.
For example, for the past few years we have been on the road with the ‘Neighbourhood Table’ to bring people of various backgrounds together. We have since organised a ‘Neighbourhood Table’ more than 160 times. We are happy to be able to contribute to connecting people in the neighbourhood this way, something that in our present times perhaps is more important than ever. Because organising the ‘Neighbourhood Table’ was temporarily impossible due to the corona measures, we provided more than 7,000 three-course meals to healthcare workers during the corona crisis. This way we encouraged people who stand ready for their patients 24/7.
For the past few years we have been on the road with the ‘Neighbourhood Table’ to bring people of various backgrounds together. We have since organised a ‘Neighbourhood Table’ more than 160 times.
In addition, in the middle of the lockdown we initiated a promotion, the ‘box with bits of joy’. We put out a call for nominations for people who needed some cheering up. Almost 10,000 people this way received a box full of tasty treats, delivered by our own staff. We also organised online cooking workshops, to enable people, even in times of isolation, to cook and eat together. Spread across three online workshops we spent time cooking together with almost 40,000 people spread over four countries.
Last year we also organised a ‘Harvesting Day’ to connect growers and customers with each other. This proved to be a big success and this is why we are further developing this concept in the Netherlands this year, after which we will roll it out internationally. Moreover, we regularly donate our products to foodbanks. We have also donated money and products to restaurants and organisations that offer meals and assistance to refugees from Ukraine. Furthermore, our colleagues in Central Eastern Europe, as well as in other countries, are offering personal assistance, such as accommodation, to refugees.