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Our company

Who we are

Zandbergen World’s Finest Meat is a leading company in the international protein supply chain with our head office in Zoeterwoude, the Netherlands. We source chilled and frozen meat from the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. We import beef, lamb, pork and poultry from these countries and supply it to customers in all the EU Member States, Switzerland, Norway and the United Arab Emirates. We have also been offering alternative protein solutions since 2018.

Zandbergen provides a diverse selection within each product group in order to meet the needs of a wide variety of customers. In addition to the products we import, Zandbergen produces portioned steaks and hamburgers and an extensive range of sliced and cubed products.

SERVING THE MARKET WITH WELL OVER 1000 PRODUCTS

We work with strategic partners and distributors in every country in the European Union. Our clientele includes multinationals, Cash & Carry companies, supermarket chains, catering suppliers, meat processing companies and the ready-made meal market.

Zandbergen has developed solid and reliable relationships with its suppliers and all our products are the result of collaborative efforts with some of the world’s highly respected international companies. We also work in close collaboration with our customers, which enables us to realise ongoing new product development and to anticipate customer needs.

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Purpose

We work with the world’s finest meat at Zandbergen and the drive to continuously improve our market performance is in our DNA. We take a sustainable approach that focuses on respecting animal welfare, conserving natural resources and battling climate change. We believe in helping improve the world through a more balanced food supply. Our mission is to provide honest, high-quality products that combine animal protein with plant protein and to demonstrate sound leadership in the food industry.

We believe in helping improve the world through a more balanced food supply

Our History

Zandbergen was established by Johannes Zandbergen in 1927. He operated a butcher shop in the centre of Leiden in the Netherlands. The shop was known for selling the best meat in town. He had thirteen children and many of them followed in their father’s footsteps. His youngest son, Ton Zandbergen, succeeded him and took over his father’s butcher shop in 1970. With his wife’s active support, they began expanding the business rapidly. Together with Ton’s brother Cor, they opened more butcher shops and began supplying meat to restaurants, hotels and hospitals in Leiden and the surrounding area. The two brothers’ commitment to top quality combined with their real Dutch entrepreneurial spirit led them to decide to begin sourcing meat from other countries and to begin focussing on meat imports. In 1973, they moved their business from the butcher shop in Leiden to an office and warehouse in Zoeterwoude, which provided easier access to Schiphol Airport and the ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. This marked the foundation of Meat Import Zandbergen Brothers B.V.

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Facilities

Our head office is located on the Industrieweg in Zoeterwoude and the majority of our employees work at this location. It accommodates departments ranging from finance to sales and from quality to the board of directors. Our state-of-the art logistics centre and production facility enable us to fulfil our customers’ needs and exceed their expectations.

"Our facilities are a crucial element of our success."

The cold store unit at our head office uses semi-automatic transport systems and has a total storage capacity of 3,500 M/T for storing both chilled and frozen products. This location also has shock freezers to ensure a safe and rapid decline in temperature for products that must be industrially frozen.

Frigomundo coldstore

We opened our Frigomundo cold-storage facility in early 2008. It is one of the most modern of its kind in the Netherlands. This new facility is located just a few hundred metres from our headquarters on the same industrial estate and has enabled us to centralise our complete product flow. Everything is independently stored under our own supervision, allowing us to provide optimum service and efficiency, while minimising costs and negative impact on the environment.

Frigomundo rolled out a major sustainable energy project and installed the largest cold store solar panel system in the Netherlands in May 2017. We see a growing necessity to move towards CO2-neutral production chains. Making the storage more sustainable enables us to positively influence the environmental impact of the total production chain.

More information at www.frigomundo.com

Customs Facilities

Frigomundo Customs Services, which is Zandbergen World’s Finest Meat’s customs agent, focuses fully on handling all the customs formalities to ensure the smoothest possible import, export and transshipment.

Based in the Bonded Warehouse C-Spec, Frigomunodo Customs Services carries out the customs administrative processing for both Meat Import Zandbergen Brothers B.V. and Frigomundo B.V. from where the goods are shipped. Virtually all the customs processes have been largely automated to ensure the fastest possible processing.

Service & Quality

Service and reliability are the driving forces behind Zandbergen World’s Finest Meat. That is why we have taken full control over the supply chain. This enables us to provide our customers with the highest level of service from the moment the product is bought on the world market until we deliver the goods to our customers.

It all starts with our product specialists ensuring we receive high-quality products according to our specifications. We are able to ensure smooth import into the EU thanks to our shipping and customs division’s far-reaching knowledge of the related legislation and documentation requirements. This means we can provide our customers with a stable product flow according to clear and mutually agreed terms. There are short and direct lines of communication. All the required information can be provided within minutes, giving you access to everything you need to know in order to be able to act quickly in an ever-changing market.

Service and reliability are the driving forces behind Zandbergen World’s Finest Meat

There is not one specific factor within our company that holds the key to delivering the highest level of quality 365 days. It is the cooperation between each link within the entire logistics chain that brings about consistently high quality throughout each step of the process.

This cooperation requires clear-cut agreements on what is and is not allowed, transparent business processes and performance reviews. A company must fulfil these criteria in order to have a reliable quality system. In order to reinforce this philosophy, Zandbergen has a quality department that encompasses a number of different disciplines, including professional butchers and food technologists.

Learn about our quality approach and certifications

The New Plant

Beyond Meat, a leading producer of plant-based meat, has opened a new production facility in Zoeterwoude in collaboration with Zandbergen World’s Finest Meat: The New Plant. The collaboration makes it possible to meet the growing European demand for Beyond Meat products. The innovative Beyond Meat products are produced in this ultramodern production location.

For more information see thenewplant.nl

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Sustainability