Deeleenkoe
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Deeleenkoe
Meat processing industry
Private limited company
Belgium
100% pure meat, cut the meat themselves.
David De Keyser, founder of Deeleenkoe.
Yoshi Janssens
David De Keyser
Summary
At ‘Deeleenkoe.be’ you buy a cow online on the very first ‘crowdbutchering’ platform in Belgium. You don’t buy the whole cow alone, each cow is divided in 30 to 35 parts. Every part represents 10 kilogram of meat. When all parts of the cow are sold, the cow is slaughtered. Every step of the process, from cow to steak, is done with respect for the animals and their farmers. (Deeleenkoe, 2016)
Because of the fact that the cow is slaughtered only when 100% of the cow is sold, ‘deeleenkoe.be’ doesn’t have wastage of meat and animals aren’t slaughtered unnecessarily. Deeleenkoe doesn’t use additives in their meat and cut the meat themselves one day before delivery, so they are 100% sure the meat stays pure and fresh. More so, each customer can track and check the data of the cow they will buy / have bought.
Background
David’s grandparents were butchers and his father had a salami business. He knows the meat business from when he was little. After his training as a pilot, he started to work out a concept with chickens. It’s important for him that the chickens weren’t held in little spaces and were running freely outside. He didn’t find any chicken farms that were operating in this animal-friendly way.
So in 2013 he began to work on a concept with cows. There was a similar concept launched in the Netherlands. He first looked if the Dutch concept got attention. On the first of May 2014, deeleenkoe.be was launched in Belgium. For their first deliveries they didn’t have a courier service yet, so he was obliged to rent a small van to deliver the meat packages. Now it would be impossible because they sell 2 to 3 cows a week, quite a lot of packages to bring to the customer’s door.
On the first operational day, he didn’t have any financial resources. He estimated the starting capital about €375. Deeleenkoe didn’t necessarily need starting capital. It’s customers finance everything. Deeleenkoe didn’t have to deal with stock, the purchase of a cow or outstanding bills, because customers pay directly when they buy a part of a cow. This is distinctive for the e-commerce business.
David describes deeleenkoe as: “we don’t want to be the biggest player on the market, we want to be the best.”
Mission
Deeleenkoe wants to bring new life in an old tradition with the help of the internet. They want you to get to know the real taste of pure meat, that’s why you get background information about the cow you buy. David knows you can’t eat meat without butchering an animal, but deeleenkoe can make sure they lived a great life.
Vision
Deeleenkoe wants people to eat more meat from local origin. They want 100% pure meat and want to indicate that after each piece of meat, hides an animal. Deeleenkoe has respect for animal and farmer.
Values
Sustainable with respect for both animal and farmer, which gets a fair price. Honest and delicious 100% pure meat is a trademark of deeleenkoe. They want you to eat less meat, but if you eat it, eat meat from a cow that was grazing in the Belgian pastures.
Business Model
When deeleenkoe started, sharing a cow was done for over a century, but crowdfunding was completely new. They combined these two aspects and gave an old tradition a twist. Sharing a cow through the internet was completely new in Belgium. More so, they were going to sell something that you couldn’t find anymore, except for 3 specialized butchers in Belgium who offer the same 100% pure meat. They worked out a new business model, based on the sales of one cow a month. Further they didn’t pay much attention to what their business model should look like.
What you see above is the business model of deeleenkoe.be. The cow isn’t bought and butchered and then hung in a freezer, no. It works like this: the offers cow is divided in 30 to 35 parts. Each part costs around €130 to €150. Deeleenkoe doesn’t buy the cow till every part is sold on their ‘crowdbutchering’ platform, so the customers finance everything. So after the cow hits 100%, Deeleenkoe goes to the Belgian farmer, gives him/her a fair price. They butcher it and let it mature for one week, then they cut it and deliver the 100% pure meat packages at home.
Deeleenkoe gets their profit margin after cutting the meat. They don’t know in advance how much profit there will be, there no fixed margin. This is dependent on the price of the cow and the abattoir fees. There’s just one ground rule: if there’s no profit in it, they don’t sell.
Deeleenkoe didn’t use nor need any help from outside their company. There was enough help available but it’s a lot of administration. Because of their business model, they didn’t require help. They got some slight guidance from ‘Netwerk Ondernemen’ to keep track of data for example.
Growth
Growing organically is for David much more interesting and sustainable. He prefers staying small than getting big and have a lot of pressure of the banks. The growth comes from the customers. Deeleenkoe grows 30 to 40% per year. Deeleenkoe started on the first of May 2014 and on the 14th of May they were already in each magazine and newspaper in Belgium. They got some interviews on the radio and in some television programs they used meat from deeleenkoe. E.g. Jeroen Meus. They just started and were lucky they got a lot of response and media attention.
Customers
Deeleenkoe primarily reaches the young generation (from 18 years old onwards), they pass on the word to the older generation. Then the younger generation places an order for their parents, grandparents, etc. But actually there’s no target group. But deeleenkoe mostly reaches two-earner households who don’t have time to go to a specialized butchery to buy meat.
Competitors
People who have the same idea but do this concept in a different way. Deeleenkoe only uses the meat from one cow without adding anything, while other companies use several cows that may not even be of Belgian origin and add water and other additives.
Deeleenkoe also delivers in the Netherlands, where there exists a similar concept called koopeenkoe.nl. they also do this in a fair and sustainable way, with respect for animal and farmer. This is a direct competitor. Indirect competitors are the butchers in Belgium who sell 100% pure meat.
David knows one company who copied their whole concept, texts, website layout, etc. It’s called kuhteilen.ch, but it’s not a competitor because they are not active in Switzerland.
Conclusion
David wants to continue doing like they were doing. A treat for deeleenkoe could be that if for example Colruyt starts the same project they can’t compete. A weakness of the company is that the logistic aspect is difficult. The meat has to be cooled and delivered at home. An external party does the deliveries so they are dependent on them for those deliveries and a fault can have a negative effect on the image of the company. They are looking for improvement in this area and as a first step you can track you package online. Another weakness is that they are investing in a cooling box with logger and cooling monitor, which takes a big bite out of their budget. As a strength David tells that they are one of the few in Belgium who offer 100% pure meat.
We will sum up two things David learned from starting up a business. He says: “If you have an idea, you have to execute it, don’t wait because otherwise someone else will do it before you. When you execute, make sure the risks are limited.” A second thing he learned is that people won’t buy meat online except if there’s a story behind it.
He also has some tips. If you have an idea and the risks are limited, execute! You learn by doing. It’s okay to make mistakes, but you have to make it right when you make them. You have to think as a customer, would I buy it again if I were a customer.
The biggest obstacles for David were finding the right people on the right place. Meaning finding an honest farmer and meat cutter.
The ambitions of deeleenkoe are simple. They now make and deliver 200 meat packages a week, the goal is to reach 1000 packages a week while maintaining the same quality. They didn’t pin a date on when to achieve this.
Posted on 25/03/2016