THINK GLOBAL

ACT LOCAL

Avebe has many international customers. To give these customers the best possible service, Avebe has four international sales offices. They are located in Meerbusch (Germany), Izmir (Turkey), Cranbury (USA) and Singapore. Although the offices are thousands of kilometres apart, in various time zones, each day they work towards a common goal: to give their customers the best possible service. Roger du Croix, Angie Skalvik-Zapata and Melek Kartepe explain how.

Roger du Croix: “I’m responsible for Avebe's sales offices in Meerbusch and Izmir. I also support the other offices if necessary. We as Avebe want to help as many customers as possible, in their own language, in their own time zone. The office in Meerbusch works for customers in Europe and for the French-speaking countries in Africa. Because most employees in Meerbusch are fluent in several languages, it works very well. The contact with the other sales offices is good. 

In recent years, a great deal of time has been invested in optimising the cooperation between the offices. Previously they were more ‘little empires’, each with their own way of working. By consulting regularly, we get a uniform way of working, taking into account the regional differences, and everyone can benefit from the knowledge of the other offices. Avebe's new strategy helps us with this. The sales offices have jointly translated Avebe's strategy into a strategy of their own. We've developed our own Global Sales Centre house. This house makes it clear to everyone how we can contribute to Avebe's strategy on a daily basis. This makes the strategy tangible. KNOWN is at the heart of this Global Sales Centre house: KNOW and OWN your customer. Know who your customers are and feel responsible for them. 

Avebe has a reputation for high quality service, which is something to be proud of. Regular customer contact offers absolute added value for every company. We bring in information from the outside, because we have direct contact with our customers.” Despite the fact that the sales offices are far away from the head office in Veendam and our members in the field, we make an important contribution to the success of Avebe. 

“I've been with Avebe for four years now and I'm having a great time. I started as an Order Entry employee and am now Sales Office Manager. The Avebe office in Cranbury has been in existence since April 2015. I started
a few months later, in June of that year.
Our office focuses on customers in North, Central and South America. Avebe doesn't have a very high profile here yet. We still have a lot to gain. European customers or American customers, it's a world of difference. The culture is very different. American customers, for example, are much more focused on details, which is why it's good that we have an office here. We know our customers and their wishes. We speak their language and, because we're in the same time zone, we can switch quickly. We call it ‘Think Global, Act Local’ here at the office. These time zones also play a role in the cooperation with the other Avebe sales offices. But thanks to modern technology, we can make good use of it. 

We hold regular meetings with each other. We usually plan them around 2:00 PM so that all offices can join in via a video link. I think it's good to see that the cooperation is getting closer, especially now that we've formulated our goals and approach in the Global Sales Centre house. It gives us a good feeling that we can contribute to Avebe's success, even if we are further away. I really feel part of Avebe and I’d like to contribute to the success of the company. In this part of the world there are still many great things we can do!”

“I've been Team Leader at the sales office in Izmir for a year now. Our customers are mainly located in Turkey, the Middle East, South Africa and Asia. We support them before, during and after their order. Of course there are cultural differences between our customers and European and American customers. But that's not the only reason why it's good that we have an office here.
The procedures here are different, too.
We can take advantage of that here, from our office. ‘Serve to Impress’ is one of the things we've recorded in our Global Sales Centre house. By stating where we as global sales offices want to go, we increase the mutual commitment. This is motivating, because with good cooperation we can contribute to Avebe's strategy.

I like working at Avebe, and the cooperation with my experienced colleagues is very good. It's nice to be in contact with customers and colleagues all over the world. Sometimes you don't even notice you're so far apart. I really feel like we're part of it. In our job we don't have a direct connection with the base product and the end product, but it's still great to follow the developments of innovative products in which our ingredients are incorporated.

ROGER DU CROIX IN CONVERSATION WITH ANGIE SKALVIK-ZAPATA (L) AND MELEK KARTEPE (R)