The future of global poultry farming? If you ask the Vencomatic Group, it’s sustainable and animal-friendly.
The Eersel-based family business is a global player when it comes to housing, egg handling, and climate control for poultry. To give you an impression: more than 75 million hens live in an environment that came from the drawing board in Brabant. And every hour, over one million hatching eggs pass through eggpacking machines of its subsidiary Prinzen.
However, the innovative Dutch manufacturer is not just about the big numbers, efficiency, and yield. An equally important question that occupies the 450 employees of the Vencomatic Group is how poultry farmers can produce with the lowest possible environmental impact and the highest level of animal welfare.
One planet“We only have one planet and we want to protect it. At the same time, there’s a challenge to feed the world’s growing population. Eggs and chicken play an important role in this”, says Lotte van der Ven, CEO of the Vencomatic Group. “This drives us to always look for ways to use raw materials and energy more sparingly.”
A good example is the heat exchanger developed by the Vencomatic Group. It uses heat from the poultry house to heat fresh air from outside, without the two airflows coming into contact. This enables poultry farmers to achieve a healthy indoor climate with significantly lower CO2 emissions. The next innovation is just around the corner: The heat exchanger is now being further developed with new technology so that it also fulfills the function of an air scrubber and captures up to 90% of ammonia emissions.
Also in the field of animal welfare, the Vencomatic Group is leading the way. For example, in 2004 the company developed a solution for on-farm hatching, the hatching of broilers on the farm. The chicks have direct access to water, feed, and fresh air, giving them a better, stress-free start. “We were the first to sit down with animal welfare organizations. The industry thought we were crazy,” remembers founder Cor van de Ven. “But we’ve always said: if you put the needs of the chicken first, you end up with the best results.”
For that reason, the Vencomatic Group also enjoys its cooperation with Impex, which supplies drinking water systems under private label to the Brabant-based company. “About 35 years ago, you had numerous manufacturers offering drinking water nipples. Most nipples were unreliable. The water flow wasn’t stable; they leaked. The systems of Impex were a positive exception then and they still are. A number of years ago, I visited the Impex factory in Germany and you can see why. I’ve seen with my own eyes that Impex invests in quality and innovation,” says Cor.
The bond between the two companies has always been warm over the years, with a healthy give and take relationship. “Impex already had a dealer structure in South America and Asia when we started exporting. We were allowed to tap into that,” says Cor. “I also remember once being stuck at the border in the United States. According to customs, I had some wrong stamps on my passport. Richard Wentzel was already in the country for a trade show. One phone call was enough and he came to help me!”
Water quality & hygiene
Drinking water systems
Pig drinking water solutions
