Miller Magazine Issue:114 June 2019

70 INTERVIEW JUNE 2019 In spite of the number of flour mills falling by over 15% the past 10 years, there is probably still more mill closures and consolidation to take place within Europe, all be it at a slower pace. Those facilities that have worked to reduce their cost structures below the market average, improve milling efficiencies and at the same time focused on the custo- mer, product and geographic specialization will ultima- tely survive and maximize returns. One of the challenges that European flour millers face today is concerns about gluten. Bread con- sumption has been declining in many European countries. What can you say about these concerns? Concerns about gluten are existing, but in our view not that strong anymore – in fact, only 1-2% of the population have a real gluten intolerance. There is a ge- neral trend that consumers eat more ‘perceived’ healthy food – which is often linked to reducing carbohydrates. In our view, this is the general nutrition-related driver why bread consumption is declining. But overall, we think that higher incomes, more out-of-home eating and the usage of convenience food at home are the main sources for a bread consumption decline in Europe. European consumers have high-quality taste stan- dards. How do you satisfy the consumers’ needs? By listening to what our customers tell us and what they want from our products, and we have done this by investing heavily in high-quality talent across the group in our sales and marketing teams. The sales teams have built over the year’s strong re- lationships with our customers and/or channel partners to ensure their needs are filled in the here and now. The marketing teams are focused on understanding the end-consumer needs, both current and future, to help direct the company toward the segments or cus- tomers where the GoodMills group is best placed to compete. This winning combination of sales and mar- keting, today and the future, in our opinion gives as the ammunition to fully satisfy our customers’ needs. The