Feeding the Future
Nutreco Africa B.V. is a global producer of animal and aqua feed, headquartered in the Netherlands. The company has over 100 production facilities in 30+ countries worldwide and is tasked with a colossal mission: to help feed the 10 billion people who will inhabit the planet in 30 years. To achieve this goal, expansion in the Middle East and Africa regions – where the population is rapidly growing – was key to Nutreco.
The Premise
In 2020, Nutreco had no local entities in Africa.
And yet, they needed to expand to not 1 but 10 African countries in as little time as possible. With such a significant undertaking, Nutreco Africa was looking for a mostly hands-free solution, where onboarding, payroll, benefits, and tax compliance would all be delivered as part of one solution. But what the Nutreco expansion team also needed was a single point of contact for all 10 countries, to avoid mistakes and confusion, and instead allow them to focus on expansion rather than on administration.
Beyond speed and compliance, it was important for Nutreco Africa to find a partner who would understand their human-centric company culture. Nutreco Africa, always looking to improve employee experience, wanted to boost well-being and morale through generous benefits packages.
The Challenges
- 10 countries and 10 different legislations
- Language barriers
- Time
- Additional benefits packages
- Employee expatriation
- Tax & Compliance
The Solution
Through our Employer of Record (EOR) solution, Nutreco Africa was up and running in Kenya, Cameroon, Tanzania, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia in a matter of weeks.
We onboarded 30 employees across these 10 countries compliantly while navigating language and cultural barriers, thanks to our fully bilingual team and local experts. We ran Nutreco’s payroll efficiently and on time, calculating overtime, leaves, and other benefits according to local legislation. Crucially, we provided the Nutreco Africa team with a single point of contact for all their needs across these 10 countries. This significantly reduced the time they spent on administrative processes, giving the team more time to dedicate to their expansion projects.
On occasion, we also processed expatriate workers’ working permits, enabling Nutreco Africa to access a wider talent pool across the continent.
Even more importantly, we stayed true to our offer, and become an extension of Nutreco Africa’s HR department. We espoused their values and company culture to serve their employees in the way Nutreco wished. On several occasions, the company wanted to offer better benefits – on par with international standards – to their employees. Africa HR Solutions helped them find the most advantageous healthcare plans and assisted in the compliant implementation of salary increases and other employee-centric projects like a zero-interest, company-financed car loan.
The Conclusion
Over the course of 6 years now, Nutreco Africa B.V. has been able to penetrate 10 African markets rapidly, onboard 35+ employees, and provide them with additional benefits compliantly. Ultimately, this has brought them closer to their goal of supporting sustainable feed production.