Cera Coop Event 'Yes, we coop' - Franky Depickere

Dear cooperative friends, I would like to warmly welcome you to our biennial congress on cooperative entrepreneurship, the Cera co-event, the sixth edition already. I admit it is still a bit strange to address you in this somewhat distant way, but necessity breaks the law and we gladly adapt to the circumstances. Cooperatives have done that over the years and that proves to be one of their strong assets.

Secondly, I would like to confide in you that every weekend I go to buy my drinks at Brouwerij Rosseel. Perhaps that name means nothing to you unless you are in the Meulebeke area. This drinks retailer has been a family business since 1837 and even after 200 years it is still an independent business that offers my full range of drinks with attractive promotions and especially with perfect service. How can a family business in these times still hold its own against such strong supermarket chains and fast-growing and concentrated e-commerce players? How can Brouwerij Rosseel still withstand that competition after 200 years? First and foremost because each successor knew that their ancestors' excellent business could not win the competitive battle against those large players and that they therefore had to unite with similar independent drinks retailers. In 1984, they founded Prik & Tik, and today this operation is in the hands of about 80 drinks retailers. They are not only the sole shareholders of that operation but also the customers, and together they find answers to the scaling up of competition, logistical challenges, e-commerce issues, etc. Together they ensure that they can remain locally rooted enterprises even as small independent family businesses, providing local supply, good service, and local employment.

The story behind Prik & Tik shows us the power of cooperatives and their social and economic added value. The same experience, by the way, at Euro Pool System, where I am vice-chairman of the supervisory board. Perhaps you have never heard of this company, but you know our product: the blue fruit and vegetable crates with which the food stores are supplied. This too is the result of a successful collaboration. In 1992, three packaging companies, part of the cooperative auction organizations in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, wanted to put an end to the logistical inefficiency of product packaging. They joined forces and came to a standard packaging for fruit and vegetables. This collaboration resulted in the strong blue reusable packaging in four sizes and meant an enormous leap forward in the distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables in Europe. The packaging was a great success from the start. The crates are strong, stackable, beautiful, durable, clean, always available on time in the many European service centers, and most importantly, the standard. Euro Pool System is Europe's largest logistics service provider for reusable standard packaging in the European supply chain, and above all, it is still fully owned by the cooperative auctions in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. We cherish that. In fresh and return logistics, countless challenges still lie ahead. This requires close cooperation between Euro Pool System and other chain partners, and together we ensure a circular, safe, efficient, and sustainable system. By 2025, we want to reduce our CO2 footprint by 20% compared to 2017. With the description of this company, I have shown for the second time that the power and the economic and social added value of a cooperative model really exists. As chairman of BRS Microfinance Coop Trias and the International Raiffeisen Union, I could tell many more stories about cooperative banks, microfinance, and insurance institutions.

And as managing director of Cera, I can of course not ignore Cera, our cooperative in the hands of 400,000 members. I thereby invite you to become a Cera member. Don't be deterred, you can already become a member from 50 euros. Our cooperative Cera has three core activities. We started almost 130 years ago as a cooperative bank and since 1998 we are the anchor of the KBC group. Thus we keep the decision center of a Belgian red bank and insurer in Belgium. Secondly, we realize, thanks to the strength of our 400,000 members, various benefits and discounts on unique products, services, and events for all our members who have more than 600 euros in Cera shares. And thirdly, as a social service provider, we create a positive impact in our society by supporting more than 700 projects annually in various domains. Cooperative entrepreneurship is at Cera also a very important theme that we focus on. Through inspiration, training, coaching, and guidance of cooperatives, we do this in all sectors and in every life stage of a company, because strengthening cooperatives, their directors, and staff is extremely important. We are therefore very pleased that we may welcome more than a hundred participants here today from very diverse sectors. With a rich and diverse program, it will undoubtedly be a learning experience. But not only education and training are important in cooperative entrepreneurship; also a facilitating government that recognizes the importance and added value of cooperative enterprises and supports them is a condition for the success of cooperatives. Therefore, I am very pleased to now give the floor to Hilde Crevits, Vice Minister-President of the Flemish Government and Flemish Minister for Economy, Innovation, Social Economy, and Agriculture. All coincidental or not, very important top picks for cooperatives. I am therefore very grateful that she wants to break a lance for the cooperative enterprise. Finally, I wish you all a pleasant and interesting afternoon. Hopefully we can meet each other physically again in a few months and toast with a nice cooperative wine or beer. And I now gladly give the floor to Minister Hilde Crevits.