INTERVIEW ▶▶▶
“Continuously improving the golden standard”
BY FABIAN BROCKÖTTER I
n its 100 year history hatchery manufacturer Pas Reform developed from a local incubator producer to a world- wide operating company. It more or less followed the trends in the industry itself, scaling equipment for the
larger numbers of chicks required, venturing out over borders to cater to internationally operating companies and focusing on performance in the quest of profitability. From the very beginning of the business in 1919, founded by Gerrit Pas, the main focus was on the needs of the poultry industry. That fo- cus made the company follow the trend by being one step ahead of it. In the early days after the first World War, with poultry pro- duction developing from back yard farming to more profes- sional operations, incubators were sourced from abroad. Gerrit Pas imported 35-egg capacity Glucke-brand incuba- tors from Barmen-Elberfeld in Germany. However, the hatch- ing results with these imports were not to Gerrit’s satisfac- tion and ‘reformed’ them and this gave the company its original name, ‘Reform’. The development of a new industri- al-scale incubator was neither simple nor easy. In order to study the hen’s brooding behaviour, Gerrit positioned a glass plate in an attic floor and placed a brooding hen over it. In this way he was able to study the breeding behaviour of the mother hen and see how often she turned her eggs – learn- ing from nature. “This quest for innovation is at the heart of our company, it is in our DNA”, says current CEO Harm Lan- gen. The company really took off in the economic boom pe- riod after the second World War. “The international growth of our business started some 70 years ago and we are still in the process of improving our worldwide coverage and service.”
Change of ownership During the years, many things have changed within Pas Re- form, while still honouring its history. “Some 25 years ago ownership moved from the Pas family to Hydratec, a listed company with the Dutch Ten Cate family as a majority share- holder. One would expect that short term goals would be- come more important that the long term outlook, but I am happy to say that is not the case. Opposed to many listed companies, ours still has a long term plan and that suits us
▶ POULTRY WORLD | No. 2, 2019
Exactly 100 years ago hatchery automation started in the small Dutch village of Zeddam, at Pas Reform. Since then continuous improvements and clever innovations led to the modern hatcheries of today. Pas Reform’s CEO Harm Langen says: “Even after 100 years, further development and innovation is still our core business. We are far from done.”
Pas Reform’s CEO Harm Langen envi- sions the next big leap for hatcheries to be full connectivity.
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