ZOUTMAN reveals new head office
ZOUTMAN, the Belgian family business which specialises in the production and processing of sea salt, is unveiling its brand new head office on the Roeselare-Leie canal, on Thursday 28 February, with an ‘office-warming’ for the employees. As a result of the substantial expansion of ZOUTMAN over the past few years, the previous premises in the centre of Roeselare had become too small. The new building, which is located on Schaapbruggestraat and along the Roeselare-Leie canal, represents an investment of around 2.5 million Euro. “We are now ready to create dozens of new jobs in the coming years”, explains COO Bert Lamote.
ZOUTMAN's ambitions are reflected in the splendid new building, which is a real eye-catcher along the Roeselare-Leie canal.
Modern and energy-efficient building
The increasing success of sea salt has breathed new life into ZOUTMAN. In order to realise its growth ambitions, the company, whose head office is located in Roeselare, has already invested 18 million euros in various expansions, including a new production tower along the E403. “As a result of this investment and other factors, the number of employees within the group has grown by 60% over the past 5 years. We have not only welcomed many new production operatives, but also quite a few new office workers too”, explains COO Bert Lamote. “As a result of our new head office, which covers an area of 1350m2, we can double the number of office workers in the future.”
ZOUTMAN's ambitions are reflected in the splendid new building, which is a real eye-catcher along the Roeselare-Leie canal. “We deliberately opted for a modern and energy-efficient building with large windows, which makes it a lovely place to work”, adds CTO Jan Cerpentier. “The ergonomics for our staff were given due consideration in all of our decisions. The acoustics and lighting is perfect and we even have our own welcoming bar called ‘BARSEL’, a nod to the name of our kitchen salt ‘MARSEL’. We also chose materials with a limited ecological footprint to finish our new building, such as ash.”
We deliberately opted for a modern and energy-efficient building with large windows, which makes it a lovely place to work.
Family business on an international stage
Despite the huge international expansion of ZOUTMAN, the sea salt producer aims to retain the family business atmosphere. “At ZOUTMAN, there is a culture of open communication and the decision-making chain is kept deliberately short compared to many other international companies. It's something that our employees really appreciate,” says COO Lamote. “This approach has led to the number of people wanting to work for us increasing year after year. The appearance of our new head office will only serve to confirm this trend.”
ZOUTMAN, led by the brothers Bart and Peter Sobry, has specialised in sea salt for the past 30 years and now processes 300,000 tons of the substance for various applications every year. It supplies table salt and salt for water processing, livestock feed and agricultural applications, road salt and technical salt. ZOUTMAN has the largest salt terminal in all of the European ports, in the port of Ghent. It offers covered capacity for over 300,000 tons of sea salt.