When Jérôme Van de Velde set up a shop as a butcher back in 1953, he specialised in calf's head and black pudding. He never intended to start a sauce-empire, and yet, that is exactly what he did. Keen to provide his customers with a simple and efficient service, he created a mayonnaise-based sauce for preparing steak tartare. Soon, Jérôme introduced fish, chicken and meat salads to his assortment. With these entirely new and original products, he started a revolution in the Belgian meat industry in the early 1960s.
Today, the third generation of Jérôme’s family has taken the helm at Jermayo, the ambitious business he once started. The modest butcher’s shop has turned into a modern and innovative company, specialised in the development, manufacture and distribution of sauces, salads and ready meals. With a range of over 600 products, a facility of 10,000 m² and an international customer base of supermarket chains, food product manufacturers, wholesale butchers, caterers, hotels and sandwich bars, Jermayo has become an important player in the market.
Being flexible and playing into customer’s requests is what Jermayo does best.
What the customer wants, the customer gets
Due to the consistent quality and guaranteed freshness of its products, Jermayo is still a leading food manufacturer after 60 years. Jermayo’s ambition is to keep well ahead of other manufacturers, which means innovation is a priority. Involving customers in innovation processes, turning their specific requests and requirements into reality and playing into the newest trends is at the heart of Jermayo’s mission.
The company’s R&D department creates new products on a daily basis in order to meet customer’s demands and play into new trends. Engineering recipes to contain less allergens, salt, sugar, artificial additives without compromising on flavour has become a core competence. Innovation in terms of packaging is another important topic for the team.
State-of-the-art infrastructure
Over the last decade, Jermayo has invested heavily in infrastructure and machinery. Continuous improvements in production lines include automisation of large parts of the processes and the use of robots. The company also has its own technical department, which manages and maintains its cutting edge machinery. This is also where the company’s bespoke high-tech equipment is developed. Moreover, the company is working hard to limit its ecological footprint, by covering its entire roof with 2400 solar panels. Clearly, the company is gearing up for the future.
