Food production stands as one of the oldest industries in the world. Yet, it’s one of the freshest fields grappling with soaring digital expectations.

Zwanenberg Food Group, a century-old Dutch company and one of Europe’s leading producers and exporters of deli meats, meat preserves, snacks, soups, sauces, and plant-based products, understands this challenge firsthand. Though their mission to lead globally with innovative, value-added food concepts has never wavered, achieving that vision today demands a fundamental reinvention of how they operate, embracing a bold new digital culture.

“We faced a striking paradox: internally, our operations were rooted in tradition, but externally, we were pressured to be cutting-edge,” explained Eilko Bronsema, Zwanenberg’s IT Manager.

Digital transformation has shifted from being a luxury to an absolute necessity. The old staples of Excel sheets and paper checklists no longer cut it when navigating ever-tightening EU regulations on sustainability, social compliance, and carbon tracking. Zwanenberg needed more than off-the-shelf software; they required a nimble, scalable platform that would allow modernization without sacrificing control.

In 2023, Zwanenberg decided to adopt Mendix. With a lean team, they began rolling out applications in weeks, covering everything from transport planning to risk management, to reduce planning times and enhance compliance with tools built directly by and for the business.

Meeting Digital Demands with Low Code

In a company where most employees work on factory floors and aging machines still power production, digital transformation isn’t just a technical challenge, but a cultural one.

Initially, Zwanenberg considered off-the-shelf software (COTS), hoping to sidestep the challenges of crafting custom solutions. However, with minimal overhead staff and few internal developers, these packaged solutions fell short.

Much of their existing software was written in C#, overly complicated, and dependent on a handful of individuals’ knowledge. “There was no documentation at all, just source code in a folder,” Bronsema recalled. “We could see what an app did, but not why it worked that way.”

Zwanenberg’s ambition was bigger than simply swapping out legacy code. They needed solutions that were scalable, adaptable, and approachable so non-technical staff could understand, adopt, and evolve. That meant a radical rethink of both the tools and the mindset behind software development.

The Mendix platform delivered the structure and consistency Zwanenberg needed, with benefits including:

• Gradual scalability and smooth integration with existing systems
• Accessibility for small teams with limited programming expertise
• A collaborative development model that encourages business-user involvement
• A strong track record with Dutch enterprises
• Dedicated support from a Mendix Customer Success Manager

To help steer their journey, Zwanenberg partnered with CAPE, a Mendix implementation specialist renowned for its sector expertise and agile delivery. With limited in-house experience, CAPE supported Zwanenberg to:

• Align development with industry insights from manufacturing and food
• Replace Excel and legacy tools with scalable Mendix microservices
• Upskill their internal Mendix developer via CAPE’s academy
• Ensure cultural and communication fit within the Eastern Netherlands business context

“We didn’t just want to deliver a solution, but offer comprehensive support,” said Gijs Lemmens, team lead at CAPE.

“They were a great partner,” shared Robert Jan Zwanenburg, QESH Manager. “They understood our needs and vision clearly. Translating quality requirements into IT solutions can be tough, but with CAPE it was easy.”

With Mendix ready and CAPE onboard, Zwanenberg launched its low-code journey with a focused pilot: a straightforward transport app that demonstrated how much time and complexity could be eliminated with the right tools and team.

Optimizing Production Planning

Zwanenberg’s first Mendix project wasn’t the most complex, but it addressed a fundamental planning tool that hadn’t been touched in over twenty years.

“We began by reviewing existing apps in our ecosystem to decide what to rebuild or replace,” Bronsema said. “The transport tool was simple, but vital, used by a small team.”

Transforming Logistics with Ease

The goal was to modernize internal transport planning – coordinating movements between factories, warehouses, and cleaning centers – while retiring outdated Excel sheets and a fragile Visual Basic system. Delivered in six weeks, the new Transport Tool introduced crucial improvements:

• Default route templates, cutting repetitive data entry from 20 times per day to just a few clicks
• Planning time reduced by 90%, from 1.5 hours to just 10 minutes
• Standardized workflows and audit trails to replace manual planning
• Integration with Zwanenberg’s on-prem ERP, laying the groundwork for broader connectivity

Every transport now gets a unique assignment number, simplifying tracking, invoicing, and reporting. This helps teams precisely identify who moved what, when, and where, while streamlining cost allocation by linking activities to the correct business units.

“The new tool is less error-prone and much more efficient for daily recurring transports, saving time and letting us focus on anomalies instead of repetitive work,” shared Remond de Lange, a logistics manager at Zwanenberg.

Thanks to the low-code foundation, Zwanenberg can now flexibly expand or tweak the system in-house without starting from scratch.

But what really set the project apart wasn’t just speed or efficiency gains. It was the user buy-in. Employees immediately recognized its value and started proposing new use cases. Product owners led demos during rollout, linking new features directly to daily tasks and encouraging adoption and feedback.

“Replacing tools is challenging due to high user expectations, but we not only matched the existing functionalities but improved them,” Lemmens emphasized. “Giving users extra value motivated their involvement and helped with successful implementation.”

Cooking up Compliance

Following logistics, Zwanenberg targeted a higher-stakes challenge: food safety compliance. To meet strict EU and U.S. regulations, the company needed a superior way to manage raw material risk assessments.

The original Excel-based system became overly resource-intensive, especially for complex ingredients like multi-component spice mixes. It couldn’t scale across sites or keep pace with evolving needs.

“The process was too resource-heavy and inefficient,” said Zwanenburg. “We had data in multiple systems that needed to connect seamlessly. By building a centralized, user-friendly Mendix app, we saved time, reduced manual effort, and made audit readiness much easier across all sites.”

With a clean data structure and reusable components, the team finished the project in just two weeks. “It was the fastest project I’ve seen,” Bronsema added.

Since launch, the new risk management tool has supported five successful audits.

Encouraged by the results, the team is now looking to extend the approach from raw materials to production processes.

“With three of our four sites producing similar canned products, we aim to standardize process steps so we can eventually build a similar Mendix-based system for process risk assessments,” Zwanenberg noted.

Extra Ingredients for Success

Riding the wave of early Mendix wins, Zwanenberg tackled yet another Excel-heavy process: financial planning.

The company rolled out a new budget app to 25 users.

“After the budget tool, more teams started coming with ideas for new Mendix apps,” he added.

The budget tool’s success sparked further momentum. Phase two of the finance app is underway to address more complex planning needs, with other departments following suit.

From complaints management to master data and factory process tracking, Zwanenberg is building a growing pipeline of Mendix applications, each one chipping away at manual work and spreadsheet overload.

The goal isn’t just app development, but business modernization. By replacing outdated tools with scalable, maintainable Mendix apps, Zwanenberg is streamlining operations and laying the groundwork for long-term digital agility.

Promoting Internal Efficiency and Change Management

As a traditional organization stepping into the digital age, Zwanenberg knew that adopting low-code alone wouldn’t drive meaningful change. It required a broader cultural shift that encouraged collaboration, transparency, and continuous improvement.

“We will remove Excel from every computer. Challenging people to think, ‘What have I made in Excel that only I understand and isn’t transferable if I leave?’” Bronsema shared.

This mindset led to the launch of DOEN, a strategic program focused on preparing the company for the future, from sustainability and product strategy to modernizing operations. Mendix became a keystone of that transformation, offering a scalable platform with built-in governance that empowers small teams to build big.

Onboarding new hires is now smoother thanks to resources like the Mendix Academy and CAPE’s structured support. “Access to these platform resources has been a game-changer,” Bronsema said.

Driving change in a family-owned company also required clear communication and executive backing, something Mendix helped secure through visible wins in time savings and compliance.

Now, Bronsema challenges teams to present their toughest problems. “We tell them, ‘Show us the processes you think are too complex, and we’ll figure them out.’ It’s my personal challenge to prove Mendix can handle not just small tools, but demanding areas like finance.”

Whether a project succeeds or sparks iteration, he added, “the learnings always move us forward.”

Serving Digital Innovation at Scale

Low-code innovation isn’t just for big enterprises. Even traditional, family-owned companies can make real progress with limited resources.

“The biggest advantage of low-code and Mendix is its adaptability,” said de Lange. “It lets us evolve solutions to meet future needs, rather than forcing us to bend our processes around rigid software. It’s a solid, flexible solution for a changing world.”

From CAPE’s perspective, working with a customer open to a multi-app, microservices strategy instead of a single monolith has been refreshing. “Many low-code starters want everything in one app, but Zwanenberg is different,” Lemmens explained. “They’re open to using the right tools for the job.”

Bronsema’s advice to anyone starting low code is straightforward: start small and solve real business problems. When business users lead as product owners and ideas align with outcomes, adoption flows naturally.