About the client
The brand Winnaz, produced by Hollanda Fairfoods is Rwanda’s first commercial potato crisp brand, founded in the heart of Musanze. What started as a small-scale operation producing just 200 bags a week has grown into a thriving food production company, with a factory that reached two million bags annually by 2024. The company mainly serves the Rwandan market but is rapidly expanding into neighboring countries, including Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, and the eastern DRC.
But Hollanda Fairfoods is more than just a business. Founded by Thijs Boer, the company has a strong social mission: supporting local farmers and communities by sourcing locally and providing stable jobs, even when harvests are low. Today, approx. 2000 farming families supply potatoes to the company through several cooperatives, generating stable income for thousands of households in the region.
The challenge
As demand for Winnaz products grew and regional expansion accelerated, it became clear that their existing planning approach was no longer sustainable. The team managed purchasing and production reactively, often waiting for shelves to empty before placing new orders. This led to product availability issues, flavor inconsistencies, and an unpredictable supply chain.
For Thijs and his team, this caused unnecessary stress and led to missed opportunities. Responding to market demand, optimizing procurement, and planning production efficiently became a constant challenge.
With ambitions to scale further across East Africa, gaining better control over demand forecasting and supply chain planning became urgent. Without it, achieving sustainable growth while continuing to support local communities would be a significant challenge.
The project
The connection with EyeOn began in an unexpected but meaningful way. As part of the executive MBA program of TIAS School for Business and Society, Pascal from EyeOn, visited Rwanda and was introduced to Thijs during a company visit. What started as a walk through the warehouse (and a striking moment of “oops… the shelf with seasonings is empty”) sparked a conversation around improving planning practices in a fast-growing, high-impact business.
Recognizing Hollanda Fairfood’s unique mix of social mission and commercial ambition, EyeOn stepped in via the EyeOn Foundation, which supports education and development in e.g. emerging markets. The solution: a training program focused on demand forecasting and supply chain fundamentals, tailored to the realities of operating in East Africa.
Through a mix of interactive training sessions and a demand planning simulation game, EyeOn helped the local team:
- Understand the basics of demand planning and why it matters
- Connect demand signals to purchasing and production decisions
- Identify data bottlenecks and planning challenges
- Begin shaping a more structured, data-driven planning approach
The EyeOn Academy team trained key team members at all levels, providing tools and insights to start building a planning culture from the ground up.
Results
The training was a success. Not just in terms of knowledge transfer, but in empowering the Hollanda Fairfoods team to think differently about their operations. Key take-aways:
- The training helped key team members align on the importance of demand planning and work more collaboratively.
- Staff quickly saw the value of good data and its impact on identifying bottlenecks and planning ahead.
- With regional expansion on the horizon, Hollanda Fairfoods now has the planning fundamentals in place to support growth into new markets.
- By improving forecasting, Hollanda Fairfoods can better support its local farmers, ensuring more stable and predictable purchasing, even during challenging seasons.
In the words of the client
“The training and game were very helpful and a good team exercise. EyeOn helped us to understand the importance of demand planning as a team. All key players on different levels of our organization quickly learned the importance of good data to understand bottlenecks better and shape data to improve demand planning.
As we are acting in East Africa, it is important to identify all this factors and determine how to use this for our planning, from purchasing a kilo of potatoes to a bag of crisps in the shelf.” — Thijs Boer, Founder of Hollanda Fairfoods
EyeOn’s take
This project was a perfect example of how small, targeted interventions can create meaningful impact. Not just for one company, but for an entire community. By supporting Hollanda Fairfoods, EyeOn contributed not only to smarter planning, but also to a mission that touches lives through fair trade, local employment, and sustainable food production.
We’re proud to have played a role, and excited to see where Hollanda Fairfoods grows next.
Get in touch with our team or explore the EyeOn Academy for practical training programs.