Charlotte Renson - Participant 2018-2019
“On a professional level, my Prince Albert Fund project taught me how to keep all the plates spinning at once.”
Role
Charlotte’s assignment was to help Ardo’s Frozen Vegetable and Fruit divisions to position their third division – Frozen Herbs – in the North American market.
Responsibilities
At the start of the project, Charlotte had to define three crucial elements that would serve to promote and sell frozen herbs in the North American market, namely marketing material, local storage and local distribution. Charlotte gathered the necessary market information and developed a clear go-to-market strategy, with a local distribution model.
How she benefited
For Charlotte, this Prince Albert Fund year was the perfect opportunity to evolve from a specialized consultant towards a business developer in the field. “I was able to leverage my expertise in project management, my analytical skills and the strategic thinking that I developed as a consultant”, she explains.
Additionally, this project taught her how to take on challenging negotiations, not to back off too easily in a commercial context, to continuously reach out to more experienced people for advice. Above all, however, it taught her to take ownership and keep pushing.
The company – Ardo
Ardo is a dynamic family business with headquarters in Belgium. The company supplies markets around the word with high quality frozen vegetables, herbs and fruit. It has 21 production and distribution sites located in Europe’s most fertile crop growing regions. Ardo, which has sales offices in Europe, the USA, and China, exports its products to more than 100 countries.
“Charlotte has been able to map the full road-to-market for our Frozen Herbs category in the North American market as agreed when we set the initial objective.”