In a push to develop the company over the next few years, BEST is making plans to set up fully operational demonstration centres in Turkey and China by spring next year.
The company, which creates and supplies food sorting technology, claims to be unaffected by the current financial crisis with an annual reported growth of 15 per cent.
New operational centres
Although BEST has installed its sorting equipment in 50 countries around the world, the company currently only has two demonstration centres in Belgium and the US where customers can test their products on BEST machines.
To serve the different markets effectively, the company believes they will need local representation in the other countries they cover. For this reason, BEST is looking to use Turkey as an operating base for the Middle East, and China as a base for Asia. Both centres should be fully operational by March 2011.
There are also plans to develop a base in Japan by the same time next year.
Vice President, Eddy De Reys told FoodProductionDaily.com that, in terms of the food industry the Middle and Far East are areas of great development: “We have seen that if the quality of life of people in general improves, their demand for quality of food goes up at the same time” he said. “The boom of sorting machines in the 1990s and the 2000s in Europe and America is now moving to the Middle East and Far East.”
The Middle East will be one of the most important growth areas for BEST for the coming decade. In the future, BEST hopes to expand into: Saudi-Arabia, Dubai, Israel, Egypt, Iran, Afganistan and even Iraq once the country becomes more stable.
Increasing staff
The company plans to increase their work force by 30 per cent by the end 2011. BEST currently has 220 employees but under the company’s new growth plan, 65 more new people are to be hired across the globe.
BEST is currently in the process of recruiting four service engineers to join two engineers in Turkey as soon as possible. In the long term, the company is also hoping to hire another five to 10 people to work for at the Middle Eastern base. Another two engineers are to be hired in China where there are currently four staff working for the company.
Predicted growth
BEST has predicted a growth of around 35 per cent compared to 2009 which would mean a turnover of €70 m. The company reports a rise of 15 per cent per year and is aiming to reach €100m by 2013.
The company provides sorting technology for food, tobacco, plastics, recycling and pharmaceuticals. It has offices in The Netherlands, Spain, Japan the US with its head office in Leuven, Belgium.