Katrien Haegeman - Participant 2017-2018
Experiencing the macroeconomic consequences of politics first-hand has shown me how interconnected our world truly is.
Role
Katrien Haegeman assisted LC Packaging on various projects, mainly growing sales of their Big Bag products by developing marketing tools in Southern Africa.
Responsibilities
The main aim of the project was to increase exports of Big Bags to the Central and Eastern African region, with a focus on the Copperbelt area (Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Tanzania). Katrien developed relationships with customers and key departments within the global structure of LC Packaging, conducted a market survey and performed a competitive analysis, and managed the logistics tender for South Africa.
How she benefited
Thanks to this project, Katrien was able to gain extensive knowledge and experience in international sales. In addition to the explicit knowledge that she acquired of the sales process, finance and global supply chain planning, she also acquired several soft skills. Being exposed to the mining industry in Africa also taught her a lot about globalization and how a trade war between two countries can have an acute impact on other places around the world.
The company – LC Packaging
LC Packaging provides sustainable packaging solutions for different manufacturing sectors and key industries. The company has 14 different subsidiaries across Europe and Africa, organized in three main divisions: agricultural packaging, FIBCs (flexible intermediate bulk containers, also known as bulk bags) and Cardboard. The head office is based in in Belgium.
“Katrien was the right woman in the right place to witness the cobalt boom in the DRC. She managed to ensure LC Packaging was well positioned to take advantage of the sudden uptick in demand for quality packaging for the cobalt mines. Her efforts were instrumental in strengthening the company’s reputation as the leading quality supplier of FIBC’s in the region, despite selling them at a premium price.”