Duvel Moortgat is a world famous brewer based in Belgium, built on tradition and family values. From their ten breweries in Europe and the US, the company exports its ‘devilishly good’ beers to more than 60 countries. With success, as their sales rose from 48 million to over 500 million euro in the last 20 years. This rapid growth, and the complexity it created, pushed Duvel Moortgat to reimagine their international supply chain processes together with Solventure.
In this context, we asked Koen Van der Taelen, Chief Supply Chain & IT Officer at Duvel Moortgat, how this partnership is going.
How do you use the Supply Chain Triangle to optimize your supply chain process?
In most companies I’ve found that logistics & warehousing colleagues are very focused on cost-control. That’s often been the primary driver and incentive for such teams.
The triangle invites you to make a choice, since you can’t have outstanding service level or innovation at the lowest costs or working capital. When I welcome new hires in our supply chain team, they understand that quality & craftsmanship are cornerstones of Duvel Moortgat’s story. The triangle then helps them understand that also our supply chain aims at supporting that vision. That cannot be done at the lowest cost. For example, we store -and even transport on some lanes- our beers in a temperature-controlled environment to maintain better quality.
Which challenges were you facing the last years, that have you solved together with Solventure?
Our main supply chain challenge the past years was to tackle growing complexity, in part by achieving end-to-end visibility on our international supply chain. Two decades ago we started with one sales country, one main brand and one brewery. Over time, different brands (such as Achouffe, Liefmans or Firestone Walker) joined our family of breweries. In Europe, we now have ~400 beer SKUs that we produce in 7 breweries. Moreover, ...
