HAK stops production due to high energy prices

Vegetable and legume manufacturer HAK plans a short production break in January 2023 due to soaring energy prices. This will be a six-week break. According to the organisation, with current energy prices, it is not feasible to continue production throughout the winter. The security of supply of HAK products will not be jeopardised by the measure for now. However, it is inevitable that prices will be higher.

Supply of products continues for now. Prices rise.

The production pause has no impact on the supply of HAK products to retailers. No fresh vegetables come off the land in January, which have to be processed immediately. In this respect, winter is a relatively quieter period at the factory, allowing planning to be pushed forward.

Timo Hoogeboom, CEO of HAK, says: "We plan the break at a time when the harvest season is over and no more fresh vegetables are coming in from the fields. The other products like (dried) pulses we can plan more flexibly and therefore often produce in this period. We now push those through in the planning. In addition, we always keep a safety stock for unexpected circumstances. So we can deliver as usual for the time being."

However, HAK does expect the prices of vegetables and pulses to rise considerably. Hoogeboom: "The current energy costs are really exorbitant and for the time being ten times higher than last year. We are really doing everything we can to take care of our costs ourselves where possible and plan smartly so that prices don't have to rise at that level - such as this measure of production pause. Despite these initiatives, we are not yet managing to avoid sharp price increases. This is painful but unfortunately the reality."

Hak.nl