Milcobel names Peter Grugeon as new CEO

BELGIUM – Milcobel, Belgium’s leading dairy cooperative, has named Peter Grugeon as its new CEO, effective June 1.

His appointment comes three months after the departure of former CEO Nils van Dam, who left the company in February due to a disagreement with the board of directors over the cooperative’s strategic vision.

Grugeon returns to the dairy industry following an interim period at Multi-Color Corp., a labelling and printing company.

He brings extensive experience from his previous role as CEO of Inex, his family’s dairy business. Additionally, Grugeon has held key management positions at various Belgian food companies, including Vandemoortele, Puratos, and Greenyard.

According to Milcobel’s president, Betty Eeckhaut Grugeon understands the challenges facing both dairy farming and the dairy sector.

“His diverse background provides him with a comprehensive understanding of the entire value chain, encompassing both commercial and operational aspects.” 

Upon taking the helm, Grugeon emphasized the importance of managing the cooperative with a family business ethos, focusing on achieving profitable outcomes that provide tangible benefits to its members.

“We must turn over every stone to ensure that we ultimately achieve a good bottom-line result and make sufficient profit to offer our members that added value,” he stated.

Milcobel, which sources milk from approximately 2,000 family-owned local dairy farmers, supplies supermarket chains, and local retailers, and provides ingredients to manufacturers and private-label customers.

The cooperative has faced a challenging business environment, marked by volatile markets, a peak in milk production, and stricter sustainability requirements in Belgium.

Grugeon’s strategic priorities include enhancing value-added product offerings and ensuring a market-based milk price.

He aims to drive efficiency within the organization to maximize profitability and deliver greater returns to members.

“A market-based milk price is the basis for this. But if we also want to give back more to our members, this is only possible if we are an efficient organization, where we strive to maximize our result just like any other company,” Grugeon explained.

Despite these efforts, Milcobel reported a net profit of €4.4 million in 2022, down from €10.7 million the previous year, although turnover increased by 19% to €1.36 billion.

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