Van Hees GmbH was the first company in Europe to have a plant built specifically for manufacturing spices and quality additives inspected and certified according to strict Halal guidelines along the entire production chain from raw materials procurement to the final product. Initial assessment shows that the decision has delivered on its promise.
Since commissioning of the plant in Wuppertal one year ago, Van Hees has manufactured and sold more than four hundred tonnes of Halal products – well above the planned quantities for the brand; turnover has exceeded the two million mark. The dynamic development potential for the enterprise is huge – no other food market segment worldwide has been growing as fast as Halal.
Van Hees supplies customers across Europe, the Middle East and South-East Asia with Halal products from the company’s Wuppertal plant. The largest market is Turkey, followed by Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Europe also has countries with large Islamic populations, countries such as Germany and France. Halal food manufacturers across the world face the increasing challenge of not only certifying their products as Halal-compliant, but also documenting the entire production chain with reputable certificates – and raw materials suppliers make up a crucial link in this chain. Van Hees chose an ideal time to create the perfect conditions for meeting the stringent requirements on Halal purity as governed by strict international guidelines. All of the raw materials are tested, approved and certified by Halal Control, an independent accredited testing and certification body. Halal Control is a byword in safety, integrity and credibility, and a globally recognised authority in guaranteeing strict and professional food certification to the most stringent Halal standards.
The Halal plant in Wuppertal has a production area of more than a thousand square metres and employs more than twenty people. State-of-the-art equipment costing around half a million euros was installed to meet bulk orders for certified Halal quality products from the VAN HEES Wuppertal plant. The next investment will involve filling; only ten to twenty-kilo packaging units for large companies have been used up to now, but the company will also be including smaller packaging units. A new Halal mixing system will be installed to increase the number of Halal products manufactured from two hundred and forty different Halal-certified raw materials while supporting fast implementation of individual developments for customers from across the Islamic world.
Communication will be the most important challenge for successful expansion now, according to Van Hees Export Manager Detlef Schulz. It will be important to raise awareness amongst food manufacturers in Muslim countries of this company here in Germany, the first to succeed at implementing the complete Halal production chain for spices and quality additives with products guaranteed free of contamination from prohibited Haram raw materials during goods receipt at goods inward, production and storage. Reactions from specialists in these countries have shown a promising future.