Impressive Marketcafé at HatchTech
On March 27, the DPC Marktcafé was located at HatchTech in De Klomp. Visitors were proudly welcomed to the brand new home of this supplier of incubators and more.
More than 65 interested parties, who work for members of the DPC, accepted the invitation to visit the market café at HatchTech in De Klomp near Veenendaal. What started almost 30 years ago as a one-man company of an enthusiastic hatchery specialist and installer is today a company with more than 360 employees, some of whom are university educated and enthusiastic researchers. Together with founder Tjitze Meter, they have succeeded in giving the established hatchery practice a new dimension with unusual philosophies and techniques and thus acquired a leading position in the world. For example, the research team has discovered that most early embryonic mortality can be greatly reduced by initially slowing down the incubation process by a few days. In doing so, they have shifted the standard from 21 days to 24 days of incubation and reduced early embryonic mortality from approximately 8 to less than 5%.
Growth and diversification
HatchTech now has offices in China, Poland, Germany and Ukraine and has approximately 80 shareholders, including many employees. These shareholders thus give a clear commitment to the company and their work. By expanding the activities in, among other things, detecting male chicks in hatching eggs (in-ovo sexing), which means that these eggs are not hatched and cocks no longer have to be killed, new shareholders have joined, such as the German supermarket chain REWE. They are major shareholders in the HatchTech product group Respeggt, in which the gender technology activities have been combined.
In addition to HatchTech hatchery technology, the HatchTech group consists of HatchTraveller and Cultipro vertical farming and the Plantegg joint venture. The group has thus grown into an important player in the development of new production technologies for the food industry.
The growth of HatchTech has led to several moves in Veenendaal and recently to a beautiful new complex in nearby De Klomp.
The visit to this new complex was an eye-opener for many. It is an open-concept office that encompasses research, production, and storage. Production Director Ellen Poodt said it exudes a great atmosphere that should give staff the feeling that working from home is a punishment. The visitors were able to experience part of that atmosphere. The network reception after the introductions and tour of the showroom and the various workplaces rounded off the very successful visit in a worthy manner.
Support to Ukrainian employees
HatchTech's branch in Ukraine is less than 10 km from the war zone where the Russians have dug in. Until the start of the war with Russia, 70 of all parts for the HatchTech incubators were made in this facility, with an area of six hectares. The services were also provided from here. To ensure the continuity of these activities, close cooperation has been set up with the Polish sister company. HatchTech has nevertheless decided to continue its activities in Ukraine as much as possible in order to show support for their Ukrainian employees.
