Good deal for Inex in South Korea

Belgian dairy manufacturer Inex, known for its milk cartons at school, is targeting Asian growth. It signed a deal to ship 800 million tons of cream during its South Korean trade mission.

4 containers of cream every month

On its South Korean trade mission, CEO Catherine Pycke signed a deal with Yoonique to ship 4 containers of cream every month, which is about 800 tons every year.

“South Korean company Yoonique contacted us about a year ago to create a cream”, the CEO told business paper De Tijd. “It sells that cream to restaurants and caterers for instance. When it was about to be finished, we realized we did not have a South Korean export license and worked like mad men to get everything organized. Today, during the Belgian trade mission in Seoul, we signed the deal after receiving our export license two days ago.”

Netherlands are prime export market

Inex has about 400 employees and generated a 3 million euro net profit last year. Its annual turnover is between 130 and 150 million euro, depending on the milk price and the company generates about half of its turnover abroad.

“The Netherlands are our prime export market. We are actually challenging the major corporations there, but we are also active in other countries. Several Asian countries have a lack of (whole) milk products and we already retrieve 2 % of our company turnover from China. Alongside a Chinese partner, we developed a whole, sweet, drink yoghurt, which sells very well. We also have higher margins with fat milk products, which means they are interesting to export, even to far-away nations”, she explains to De Tijd. Nevertheless, Catherine Pycke remains vigilant. “I fear the Chinese market a bit, because it is so unpredictable and I don’t want to become too dependent on it.” The new deal, with a South Korean company, should help in that regard.

Inex is one of fifteen Belgian companies that signed agreements during the South Korean trade mission’s traditional signing ceremony, last night in Seoul.