Danish Crown makes major organizational changes to boost processing and strengthen business

Danish Crown is taking the next strategic step to expand the group’s position as a leading European food company.

With a new organizational structure, Danish Crown will continue its thorough transformation of the company, where more refinement, sharper market focus, stronger brands and greater cost efficiency will become the building blocks of the Danish Crown of the future. 

“We have set crucial milestones for our strategic direction, which will make Danish Crown a leading food company in Europe – with greater value creation for the shareholders’ animals, stronger brands and more streamlined operations. It is an ongoing process where we will first create a competitive organization and operations before moving on to the next phase around brands and products,” says Group CEO Niels Ulrich Duedahl.  

Danish Crown will focus more on Europe and less on being a global player, and the ambition is to increase the processing of meat from the unit owners from around 25 percent to 50 percent by the end of 2030. 

The first major step is being taken now that Danish Crown is implementing a major organizational change, which means that seven of the company’s eight business units are being combined into a new joint organization.  

“If we are to deliver on our strategic benchmarks, the conclusion is that we cannot succeed with the current organization. We must be able to create changes and execute effectively across the entire company, so that all parts of the company support the strategy and create added value from the entire animal we receive from the unit owners,” says Niels Ulrich Duedahl. 

The change follows the organizational adjustment that Danish Crown began in June, when the group’s group functions were merged. With the new changes, the independent business units Sokołów, Beef, Industry, Foods, KLS, UK and ESS-FOOD will be brought together under a new global management with joint production, joint sales and joint product development. 

DAT-Schaub, which sells by-products, will remain an independent business unit within Danish Crown’s organization. 

“We are building an organization where we say very clearly that Danish Crown is one unified company. At the same time, the new organization will be an important step in increasing competitiveness,” says Niels Ulrich Duedahl. 

The organizational change was announced to Danish Crown employees on October 2, and a process will now begin to set up the organization in detail over the  coming months. It is expected that the new organization will be fully functional in six months. 

The new organization will phase out the current roles of directors responsible for individual business units. Instead, global management will be expanded, where decisions and responsibilities lie across countries and business areas. 

In addition to Group CEO Niels Ulrich Duedahl and Group CFO Anders Aakær Jensen, the global management will consist of Karolina Henriksen, CCO for Markets & Channels, Przemyslaw Gostkiewicz, CPO for Products & Brands, and a COO for Manufacturing and Supply Chain. The candidate for this position has been found, but will not be announced until later in the autumn. 

Facts: 

The changes in Danish Crown are taking place as an ongoing strategic process towards 2030, where work is being done on the following, among other things:  

• The ambition is for the degree of processing of meat from the cooperative owners to increase significantly and reach 50 percent by the end of 2030. 
• Danish Crown will focus on six defined markets with a greater European focus. 
• The number of brands must be significantly reduced, and instead a  
  brand strategy with fewer and stronger brands must be developed. 
• Danish Crown must be a cost leader in the European market, to which a new organization and previously announced cost reductions must contribute.