Wendy Hermans CFO  Proliver, Best CFOs of 2020

Wendy Hermans
CFO Proliver


Wendy Hermans CFO  Proliver, Best CFOs of 2020 Certificate

“Delivering Protein Solutions Worldwide”

Wendy Hermans, CFO of Proliver is not a one-dimensional CFO. She combines a solid IQ and analytic insight with a high level of emotional intelligence and broad interest. Wendy has been applauded for her take on the organization as a whole and truly understanding that the numbers in the excel-file are only the result of human beings working together. Being a pioneering leader, Wendy does not only prioritize reports and financial data, she also engages in communication with all organizational levels as well as in being available for the whole team.

"PROLIVER manufactures a complete range of natural protein powders out of chicken or turkey. Its innovative technology provides highly nutritional and functional proteins and natural chicken broth and meat powders."

According to Wendy, a good CFO is someone who keeps a close eye on the KPI’s of a production company very well and immediately communicates with management if there is something not going well. “When you start a company, you put up a budget and make some turnover estimations. However, first the product has to be what the market is asking for and is willing to pay for,” she explains. “We started a little bit too early with clean label natural chicken proteins, while at that time the market was primarily using synthetic products which were cheaper per kg, but perhaps not in cost.” But slowly, the consumer was asking for more clean label ingredients and the manufacturers started to reduce their E-numbers and changed their recipes in favor of more natural and clean label ingredients. But this did not take place overnight, so the Proliver team started to listen what the market was asking for and was not yet available. “As a result of this market research, we started to expand our portfolio with e.g. functional chicken and turkey proteins,” adds Wendy. “We also added to our assortment chicken and turkey ingredients for premium pet food producers such as chicken meat proteins and liver hydrolysates.”

The company’s innovative technology converts fresh chicken and turkey parts into functional, flavorful and nutritional protein powders. The technology is based on a series of extraction, isolation and purification steps to create the desired functionality of the protein. Enzymatic hydrolysis plays a key role in this in combination with IP protected processes to develop the individual characteristics of each protein produced: creating rich chicken flavor for ready meals, neutral flavor for protein shakes, water binding properties for meat applications, and finally the proteins are dried by gentle spray drying by mean of hot air creating dust free, easy soluble protein powders. Proliver uses edible chicken parts which are not consumable in its original form but which still contain some protein. By isolating the protein out of this matrix, a high protein powdered ingredient is created which can be used by the food industry and has the same nutritional value of lean chicken breast meat. “In a world where protein sources are limited, this gives great advantages to food companies who want to offer low fat, low carb, high protein foodstuffs to the consumer,” says Wendy. “As per our calculations our model could diminish the need of broiler breeding by 20 percent due to the fact that with the Proliver model all protein of a broiler is converted to consumable ingredients instead of degrading parts to high fat mechanically removed meat (MRM), low grade pet food ingredients or fertilizers.”

Recently, Proliver has invested 6 million euros in 2020 in its production facility in Olen. They plan to double their production capacity in order to meet clients higher demand for natural clean label chicken proteins. Production, warehouse and office space will be expanded. “We will invest in extra spray drying capacity and other machinery to solve our bottlenecks in the actual production capacity. We also want to expand our protein portfolio in 2020,” elucidates Wendy. “For instance, we are starting with industrial tests using insect proteins as raw material and we want to start production of powder cooked chicken.”


Company

Proliver

Management

Wendy Hermans
CFO Proliver

Description

Proliver was founded in 2010 as a spin-off of a former poultry processor with several generations of experience in the poultry processing industry. The company manufactures a complete range of natural proteins out of chicken or turkey. Our innovative technology converts fresh chicken or turkey parts into functional, flavorful and nutritional protein powders.


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