From Drongen to the rest of the world

If you're driving along the E40 from Gent to Bruges, you won’t be able to miss it: the 55 metre high tower at Nuscience’s production site in Drongen. This is where products are made for pigs, poultry and cattle, and are then delivered to customers throughout the world. Martijn de Coninck, Supply Chain Manager at Nuscience: “Approximately 95% of what we produce is made-to-order, or customer specific, which means we supply thousands of different products to our customers every year. We are active in more than 50 countries and have an extensive and varied customer portfolio, supplying to local farmers, self-mixers, cattle feed producers and to wholesalers throughout the world.”

Innovative solutions
Nuscience is part of the Royal Agrifirm Group “We are the specialist factory within the Royal Agrifirm Group. We offer innovative and efficient concepts for young animals, customised premixes, high quality concentrates and feed additives that play a vital role in the health, welfare and overall performance of the animal”.

Piglet’s Flavorit
A recent example of an innovative solution created by Nuscience is the Piglet’s Flavorit. “In recent years, the composition of pig feed has changed dramatically. We started research into a new and innovative feed intake concept for our pig feed production line. Instead of the traditional, sweetener based concept that’s designed to attract pigs and mask bitter flavours, we looked at what pigs are attracted to. Piglet’s Flavorit, the ground-breaking feed intake solution, is based on how smell/aroma signals can generate a sense of familiarity and recognition. If applied correctly, an aroma can trigger the piglet’s innate reflex to look for its mother and food. This maternal recognition allows piglets to achieve smoother feed transitions, resulting in continuous feed intake, reduced stress levels and improved overall welfare and performance.

Extension of Nuscience’s policies
Nuscience’s vision: We want to be the point of reference, an quality partner focused on humanity and the environment. In this respect, excelling in customer satisfaction is one of the long-term aims. “Transport plays an important role. The drivers who load at our site are the face of Nuscience when delivering to customers. They have more frequent contact with our customers and end-users than we do, so our carriers are an extension of our company policies. When it comes to transport, Nijhof-Wassink and Ecotrans Logistics play vital roles in connecting to our customers, both in bagged and bulk transport. Ecotrans Logistics take care of all our deliveries to farmers when a truck mounted forklift is required. They also deliver approximately half of all bagged goods orders for the Dutch market. Nijhof-Wassink take care of all bulk transport orders for customers. For our Dutch market, Nijhof-Wassink uses three dedicated ADR trailer combinations, which are painted in our corporate colours. Non-ADR freights are transported using standard Nijhof-Wassink trailer combinations. Nijhof-Wassink also delivers all ADR bulk freights in Belgium”.

A helping hand
“A reliable logistics partner is essential to the success of the entire supply chain. As the drivers are the most frequent visitors to our customers, they are the familiar faces associated with our company. And at the same time, we expect a carrier to unburden us. Issues can always arise, and it’s really important to us that they are resolved by the carrier themselves. A good carrier must be able to react quickly, offer a suitable solution and be able to communicate this. This saves us time and means we don’t have to trouble our customers. Thanks to their versatile range of transport options, Nijhof-Wassink are always able to help us with any challenge we face. Whether it’s bulk or bagged goods orders, they always come up with the right solution. For example, one of our customers had a specific question about unloading loose goods, without using a tipper truck or walking floor. Nijhof-Wassink proposed using a truck crane, which turned out to be the best solution for the customer and ourselves”.

Exploring opportunities
What does Nuscience demand from a logistics partner? “A logistics partner should be able to collaborate with us on ideas. Joining forces will always lead to the creation of better solutions and offers. The customer is key and it is our responsibility to serve them to the best of our ability, while offering competitive rates and maintaining a firm eye on quality and safety. Every week, Nijhof-Wassink provide a list of KPIs. This allows us to measure our cost efficiency during the previous week. We then explore potential solutions, combinations and opportunities together to ensure an improved performance in the week ahead. This focuses on issues such as increasing the load factor, or planning optimal address combinations for delivery routes”.

Nuscience facts and figures:

  • ​​​​​​​The production site in Drongen provides 75 jobs, spread across production, supply chain, quality control, laboratory and maintenance.
  • Nuscience’s production site produces 120 tonnes of finished products.
  • Nuscience is part of the globally-established Royal Agrifirm Group.

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