Mr De Cat, when people visit you in Herentals, the unusually designed building immediately catches their eye. I’ve read that the façade panels were specially developed for you. How important is good design to you?
I’m a big fan of good design and I love clever technical solutions that also look good. With this in mind, we started the project for the new building and deliberately hired an architect that had no experience in our industry. After all, we don’t want standard solutions. Rather, we wanted a building that was tailored to our needs in all areas. Accordingly, they began their work by asking us a lot questions. We spent more than a year defining how the process steps in production can be optimally designed and which facilities were ideal for this. Only when all this was clear, down to the last detail, did they develop the design of the building’s envelope. The façade panels are indeed custom-made. They serve to break up the light in different ways and thus differentiate areas of the large space.
In its own way, the building epitomises your brand promise. How do you understand “Packed to Impact”?
The slogan only came after the new building was erected. “Packed to Impact” is something like the manifesto of our company. DECA strives to partner with ambitious food companies that aim for quality and want to stand out from the competition on the shelves. We provide them with all the necessary packaging services.
To what extent is good design a question of budget?
Good design does not have to be expensive. This idea also guided us when we built our building. DECA is a typical family-run SME. Investments have to be weighed very carefully. That's why we set ourselves a budget that was normal for projects of our size. What applies to our building also applies to our packaging. Design must first and foremost be well thought out and functional in order to be convincing.
Which trends are currently determining packaging design?
I think we finally have put a phase of stagnation behind us. This lull, which halted the development of many projects, was due to the twin crises of Covid and the energy price shock. Brands didn’t want to further unsettle their consumers with new packaging during the pandemic, and countless new developments fell victim to savings efforts due to skyrocketing energy prices. From what we’ve been able to see over the past few months, however, this standstill appears to be over. But right now, new designs are not in high demand. Rather, packaging trends are moving in the direction of mono-materials, recyclability and weight reduction, in my view.
To what extent are consumers paying more attention to the sustainability of the packaging than to its appearance?
I believe functionality and appearance are still very important. Packaging should protect the product, retain moisture, be resealable and be suitable for both the microwave and the freezer. When it comes to improving the ecological balance of packaging, consumers are more likely to respond to pressure from governments and the brands’ own initiatives.
In your communications, you talk about food safety, consistent quality and an attractive product. How do you achieve these goals in the hustle and bustle of everyday life?
DECA has grown from a small into a medium-sized company. As we have grown, we have always introduced numerous quality control procedures and systems. But the most important step was the design of our production facilities in the new building. We based our design on the guidelines that apply in food production and designed our building accordingly. Thus, our BRC audits do not take place, as is usual, with prior notification. With us, quality checks take place spontaneously. In the tests so far, we have almost always achieved the highest marks. This shows how consistently our employees have focused on quality.
DECA specialises in the use of mono-plastics and even uses them for IML packaging. What are the advantages and disadvantages of monoplastics?
Ninety-five per cent of our business is single-use rigid packaging for supermarket chilled foods. Since the requirements for these products in terms of barrier properties are not particularly high, polypropylene is ideally suited for these applications. But more than that, we believe no other material can match polypropylene in this sector in terms of its versatility and relatively modest environmental impact.
How do you see developments in the recycling of polypropylene?
Solutions made from recycled materials already exist on the market. These materials currently come from chemical recycling. However, I am confident that in the next four to seven years we will be using recycled and food-grade materials that have been mechanically processed. I’ve been in the industry for 25 years now and have seen numerous trials with bio-based raw materials. So far none has been successful. For me, the future clearly lies in the closed material cycle. For this reason, I think the industry, politicians and consumers should focus on recycling.
When your father founded DECA in 1978, plastics were hardly used in the food industry. How has the company developed?
When I started, my father had bought a small trading company based in Brussels. The range of products included glassware and matching metal screw caps as well as packaging, dosing and filling machines. He was already somewhat familiar with plastics from his previous job, and when plastic began to be used as a packaging material for the emerging ready-to-serve meals in the early 1980s, he adjusted his offering accordingly. The demand kept increasing, which is why we started to produce and export plastic packaging ourselves. Today, it generates around 85 per cent of our revenues. The remaining income still comes from my father’s original business.
Which countries do you export to today?
Although we still call ourselves a small company, we are very international. The most important trading partners are Great Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. In principle, we serve all of Europe – including Switzerland. In addition, we have been working with a committed sales partner in Australia since the beginning of 2000.
DECA has been internationally successful for more than 40 years. Which factors are decisive for your excellent track record?
On the one hand, it is certainly the consistently excellent quality that we have already talked about. On the other hand, our success is probably also due to our very broad and flexible product range. With its standard range, DECA covers most of the needs of companies in our sector. We also work with product families, which means, for example, that we offer different packaging volumes for one lid. This gives customers a great deal of freedom. For instance, they can use a 400 ml pack instead of a
300 ml pack for a promotion without having to change the filling and packaging machine. Where we also score is with our flexibility, which allows us to produce relatively small quantities economically.
It is part of the DECA philosophy to think about your own footprint. Belgium has targeted reaching carbon net zero by 2050. What goals have you defined for DECA?
We have not set a specific goal or date. However, we use every opportunity to keep our environmental footprint as small as possible. As an injection moulding company, we naturally use a considerable amount of electricity. We have been producing part of it for 10 years with our solar system on the roof. The remaining energy that we purchase comes exclusively from certified renewable sources. We use the waste heat from our production to heat the offices and the dock levellers in winter so that they remain free of ice. In addition, we collect the rainwater that falls on our large roof area and use it to flush toilets and for other less sensitive applications. Last but not least, we insulated our building more than necessary and installed an automatic shade system.
Where do you see the future development of sustainability in the packaging sector?
In principle, plastics, and in our case polypropylene, already have a good ecological balance sheet compared to other materials. If we can improve the circular economy and increase recycling, the footprint of our raw material will be further reduced. If we as a company focus on our own carbon footprint and reduce it as much as possible, we are already achieving a groundbreaking goal. If we combine this with increased use of recycled material when that time comes, we will have an optimal solution.
Although DECA builds its own injection moulds, you bought your first mould from Otto Hofstetter AG in 2018. What prompted that decision?
The focus of our mould department is on revision, maintenance and repair work. So far, we have only built a few complete forms. Our department consists of only a few professionals, and the infrastructure is manageable. As a small organisation, trying to do both repair work and manufacturing yourself is difficult and ultimately does not bring the desired results.
Why did you choose Otto Hofstetter AG?
On the one hand, we appreciate Swiss quality and that’s what Otto Hofstetter AG delivers. On the other hand, we Belgians are flexible, which is what we expect from our partners. In this respect, too, we are well served by the people from Uznach. They listen, take our proposals seriously and are interested in jointly coming up with the best solution. We’ve never encountered a hint of the often-cited Swiss stubbornness with Otto Hofstetter AG people. Quite the contrary: like us, they welcome a positive exchange of ideas.
To what extent did the fact that Otto Hofstetter AG is also family-run play a role in selecting them?
The family business structure is probably one of the reasons for the flexibility that we value very much with Otto Hofstetter AG. In addition to the fact that the employees have extensive skills, we know that Mr Hofstetter is there, in the background. Thanks to the short information paths and transparent decision-making within the company, he can – if necessary – decide at very short notice whether something works or not.
Where do you see potential for improvement at Otto Hofstetter AG?
I don’t feel competent enough to judge this. I prefer to rely on the feedback from my specialists in production. And I didn’t get any complaints from that side. Orders for the latest moulds give an indication of how projects may deliver even better results in the future. We discussed our needs and ideas in detail beforehand. It may have taken some time, but the result is now convincing for both parties. With quality moulds like this, it’s definitely worth having discussions beforehand to avoid having to make changes afterwards.
Both DECA and Otto Hofstetter AG strive to reduce the use of materials. Where do you see potential for further reductions?
In many applications, the mechanical properties of polypropylene would allow the wall thickness to be further reduced using a special mould. Since most of our customers at DECA choose their products from the standard range, we have not yet exhausted these possibilities, because each of our products is used for a different application or processed in a different way. We design our products to be universally applicable, which doesn’t mean that we don’t also consider how we can reduce the use of raw materials. We strive for the 90 per cent solution, not the 100 per cent one.
You joined the company in 1998 as logistics manager and B2B sales manager. A lot has changed since then. Has anything stayed the same since your father’s time?
Yes, in 1998 I officially joined DECA. But, like children in many other entrepreneurial families, I suppose, I helped out at the company earlier, at weekends and during the school holidays. Then as now, DECA is shaped by the mentality of the people in this part of Belgium. They like things simple and fair. Some say we are not enthusiastic enough. But we are humble, focused on what we do and proud of what emerges. If we promise something, we will do everything we can to make it happen.
DECA now has sales of more than EUR 38 million and operates in over 37 countries. What will your company look like in five to seven years?
Our goal is to continue to grow organically and to continue to lead in our market with pioneering products. It will be crucial that our organisation remains flexible and that we can count on the right employees. Achieving this goal entails proactive planning in coordination with our customers. That will not always be easy. At the same time, I’m very confident that, in 10 years, DECA will have produced packaging for many key market players and will have doubled its sales.
Mr De Cat, thank you for this open and interesting discussion. We wish you every success in the future.
