DVAN Advocaten celebrates 20 year anniversary

For two decades DVAN Advocaten has been advising and assisting many companies, including those in the food industry, with various legal issues. Whether it concerns food safety, recalls, takeovers, relations with suppliers and customers or personnel issues, they can provide you with practical advice and assistance with knowledge of the sector. 

Over the past 20 years, DVAN's lawyers have seen many things change in the food industry. "Entrepreneurs are increasingly faced with legislation that imposes requirements to the way products are marketed," says Marco Balhuizen, head of the Agri & Food Team at DVAN Advocaten. "This concerns both food safety and the provision of honest information to consumers. Many of these rules come from Europe, and one of the objectives is to prevent trade barriers. An entrepreneur must be able to trade the product he offers in the Netherlands just as easily in another European country. "Advice on food legislation requires a practice-oriented approach with knowledge of the product, the company and the relevant market", says Balhuizen. "The advice should not only work on paper, but should also offer a real solution in practice”. 

Food law 

A crisis in the field of food safety has a major impact; on the sector or company in question, but also on society as a whole. Nino Bruggers, attorney at DVAN, said: "When foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was diagnosed in a pig in Great Britain at the beginning of 2001 and soon after it was also found in the Netherlands, it had serious import and export consequences. The Q fever problems, the horsemeat scandal and the recent Fipronil affair are also fresh in our minds. These crises led to adjusted and tightened up legislation and regulations, both at European and national level, and to tighter supervision. For example, the EU hygiene package was introduced in 2004, and in 2013 the Animals Act - with more enforcement possibilities for the NVWA. Food safety, public health and transparency remain important points of attention for the supervisory authority, as is also evident from the NVWA Annual Plan 2019. This obviously has consequences for the sector."

DVAN has in-house specialists in food law, so that they can assist clients with problems relating to, for example, labelling and (misleading) advertising, recalls and recall campaigns, traceability and food fraud. "We work for companies throughout the chain, including the supplying companies", says Nino Bruggers. "We combine our specialist knowledge in the field of food legislation with experience in a broad legal field. In doing so, we make use of a broad network in the sector; for example, we have good contacts with various knowledge institutes”. 

Chain integration and scaling up

"Over the past ten years, we have seen many forms of chain integration, scaling up and consolidation. We expect this trend to continue in the coming years," says lawyer Nathalie van Hellenberg Hubar. She specialises in mergers, acquisitions and restructurings in the Agri & Food and IT sectors, among other things. "A merger, takeover, restructuring or new partnership requires good preparation. It is often an intensive process in which the right decisions have to be taken quickly under high pressure. Our mergers and acquisitions team consists of ten acquisition specialists, who have assisted in many fine transactions both within and outside our national borders. Sauces wholesaler Remia, for example, when it took over the sauces division of Van Dijk Foods. The team also assisted SAB Catering in the process of selling its activities to Appèl. We help formalise various forms of cooperation, advise parties entering into joint ventures and parties entering into long-term contracts with companies within and/or outside the chain”.

Employee issues

"The position of employees has become stronger in the past two decades, partly as a result of the introduction of the Work and Safety Act", continues lawyer Thijs van Liempd, who specialises in, among other things, employment, co-determination and pensions. "There were stricter rules for seasonal workers, the minimum wage was increased, and the European Posting of Workers Directive was implemented. The labour law specialists in our Agri & Food sector group know what's going on. They put the interests of the entrepreneur first, obviously taking into account the protection offered to employees in the various (mandatory) collective agreements in the sector and the upcoming Labour Market Act in Balance". 

Up-to-date

"As in the past 20 years, we will of course continue to keep a close eye on trends and developments in the food industry and other sectors," concludes Marco Balhuizen. "We are a multi-service law firm for entrepreneurs, investors and family businesses in large and medium-sized enterprises. Our specialists advise, negotiate and litigate; always on the lookout for success for our clients. Our motto is therefore: 'Successful together!”

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Image Marco Balhuizen, © Sander Heezen