“We currently enjoy a leading position in the beef market, and in light of developments in recent years, it is obviously a good idea to consider establishing an up-to-date and modern production facility,” said Lorenz Hansen, managing director of DC Beef. “We have been able to follow developments in costs at the world’s most advanced pig slaughterhouse, and there is every reason to draw on the group’s experiences here.”
Establishing a modern cattle slaughterhouse will inevitably have implications for the company’s cattle slaughterhouses in Tønder and Holstebro and the deboning departments in Skjern and Fårvang, he added.
“The current situation understandably creates uncertainty among employees, but we have decided to be open about the process, and we will do what we can to keep our employees regularly informed,” Hansen said. “The location of a new cattle slaughterhouse is still an open question with many different factors to be taken into account, but during the analysis phase we are looking at most of Jutland.”
Determining whether productivity and the cost level can guarantee a competitive basis for the company will be one of the most important considerations in the final decision.
Last year’s extraordinarily good results in DC Beef gives credence to looking at the possibility of optimizing cattle slaughterhouse capacity. The results made it possible to allocate resources so that a new facility will not be an excessive burden to members. It also means that a new slaughterhouse will very quickly produce positive financial results, Hansen said.
Building a new slaughterhouse at an estimated cost of a half-billion Danish kroner (US$99,118,558) breaks with developments in recent years which have seen jobs being transferred, but it does not mark a new strategic direction for the group.
“The two things are very closely related,” said Danish Crown’s CEO Kjeld Johannesen. “Today, the foreign workplaces in the Danish Crown group are a precondition for the Danish workplaces. Likewise, establishing modern and streamlined slaughterhouse capacity in Denmark is a precondition for Danish Crown retaining its leading position both in Denmark and abroad.”
