As good
as the best
Fruit
for thought
Looking ahead
Secret Service II
Rabobank plays host
to German dairy sector
Holland in brief
CD
Staff communication magazine
for the Rabobank Group
Rabobank's central banking
division is currently in the pro-
cess of improving efficiency and
the quaiity of its service in order
to meet targets established by
the Strategie Action Plan. The
how and why are reported on
page 3.
1994 is Rabobank's 'Year of
Fruit'. The indepth research re-
ports on fresh and processed
fruits designed as marketing
and back-up tools for account
managers are now available
from the marketing services de-
partment, telephone: +31 30
902804.
Utrecht hosts a corporate fi-
nance seminar on October 6 to
8. The seminar brings together
Rabobankers from all over the
world to discuss products and
internationalization.
Two 'country' days have been
organized in Utrecht for mem-
ber banks' clients. The aim is to
inform clients on the oppor-
tunities available in specific
countries. The focus was on
Italy on October 13, while Spain
is covered on October 19.
'Invest in Britain' is the title
given to a seminar organized by
the bank in cooperation with the
British Embassy. It takes place
on October 28.
Reports wiil be appear in the
next issue of Raboband Inter
national.
see page 4
Recently, more than 35 top managers of the main German
dairy companies responded to an invitation from Rabobank
Deutschland to attend a unique seminar on strategy development
in the industry in Germany.
The prime movers behind the
seminar were Manfred Biehal
and Frank Epple of the bank's
Stuttgart office. They had estab
lished contacts with professor
Werner Grosskopf of the Univer-
sity of Flohenheim, Germany's
leading argicultural educational
institution and together the two
organizations developed the
seminar program.
'I think the fact that Hohenheim
was involved was significant for
the seminar's success,' says
Kim Egger of Marketing Services
which assisted in the project's
organization together with Flans
Reusch of Agribusiness Re
search. 'Rabobank is a relative
newcomer in Germany and the
support of a well-known and re-
spected institution like Flohen
heim was probably instrumental
in attracting such a large number
of executives in the industry.'
The two-day seminar focussed on
two main issues - future strategy
in the dairy industry and the
packaging problem. At present,
there are few big players in this
sector; it is still dominated by me-
dium-sized operators. 25.6 mil-
lion tonnes of milk are proces
sed annually by 260 German
companies. If the Netherlands is
taken at comparison, these
figures are 10.4 million tonnes
by 22 companies. In other words,
the average intake per company
is 74,000 tonnes in Germany
and 474,000 in the Netherlands.
Fiowever, there is already a clear
trend towards upscaling and
companies are now in the pro-
cess of determining future de
velopment strategies.
Lively discussion was generated
by a group of speakers which in-
cluded Rabobank's Flenk Visser,
Cor Broekhuyse and Albert
Sonntag. Perhaps the hottest de-
bate emerged during the second
day of the seminar when packag
ing was the focus. New German
legislation developed over the
past years has led to a minor re-
Continued on page 2.
CDs for savers Since time
out of mind, October has been
Rabobank's 'savings month'.
Numerous local member banks
reward loyal savers with small
gifts. This year, around
140,000 clients received com
pact discs under the slogan
'Getting the savings rhythm'.
Parental opportunity For
the past 16 years, Rabobank
has supported the charitable
work of the Foster Parents Plan
organization, which recruits
adoptive parents for children in
developing countries. On Octo
ber 22, Dutch television wiil be
broadcasting a whole evening's
entertainment in an attempt to
recruit even more 'parents'.
Post party Recently, the
bank's inhouse postal service
celebrated its silver anniver-
sary. For the past 25 years, cars
have collected and delivered
mail to all local member banks
twice daily. As electronic distri-
bution is used increasingly, this
service wiil probably be reduced
to once a day in the near future.
Prize in print A good idea
earned two Rabobankers NLG
25,000. They came up with a
plan to re-ink the printer ribbons
used in cash dispensers. The
'ideas committee' made the
award because it wiil save the
bank NLG 500,000 every year.
The bank goes pop Hol
land has a new commercial tv
channel - RTL5. Rabobank is
amongthe sponsors and wiil be
the name behind a program
called the Rabo Top 40 (they're
pop songs, of course, not agri
business targets). The program
wiil also provide information on
banking services aimed at
young people with the aim of im
proving Rabobank's image with
the teen generation.
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