Located in Vietnam, the new head office will be responsible for boosting sales throughout south-east Asia, and will be supported by two new sales offices in Taiwan and the Philippines. However, it will be shutting down its Singapore sales office.
Operating through its ESS-FOOD subsidiary, the Danish Crown Group has opened up meat exports from Denmark and Europe to countries in south-east Asia. According to the group, meat consumption in the region has now reached a level that “makes it interesting” for the Danish Crown Group to have its own sales offices in several countries.
The Philippines is currently the fifth-largest market for pork from Europe and, in the past year alone, exports have grown by almost 15%. The growth has been driven by a combination of greater prosperity and better opportunities for distributing frozen meat products in the region.
Strong 'appetite for pork'
“We simply need to be even closer to our customers in south-east Asia,” said Morten Holm, CEO of ESS-FOOD. “There’s increasing interest in meat from Europe, and particularly in Danish pork, so it’s natural to expand our network of salespeople and agents by establishing our own sales offices. This means better service for our customers on a day-to-day basis, and creates the best possible foundation for boosting sales in the region.”
“As a region, south-east Asia has always had an appetite for pork, so it’s only natural for us to boost our sales efforts,” said Lars Albertsen, SVP Export at Danish Crown. “We already have strong exports to the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan, but there is definitely potential for more, and it wouldn't surprise me if we also end up opening our own office in Thailand at some point.”
The new offices in south-east Asia will be managed from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and within a few months, the office will be supplemented with sales offices in Manila and Taiwan, while sales to Thailand and Singapore will be handled by the Vietnam office.
Previously, ESS-FOOD and Danish Crown have operated separately in the region, but from now on the sales force will represent both companies, in line with Danish Crown’s 4WD strategy.
“When our salespeople visit customers, pork from Danish Crown is naturally a major focus area, but it’s equally important that they can offer customers the wide range of products and services that ESS-FOOD has on its shelves,” said Holm. “In my opinion, this makes us a very attractive partner for our customers at all levels in south-east Asia.”