West Flanders frozen fries giant builds fourth production line

Solid foundation for further expansion

West Flemish frozen fries producer Agristo remains committed to further growth. At its home base in Wielsbeke, major investments are being made in a fourth production line with a fully automated high-stack frozen food warehouse. The new line should be operational from 2026. In addition to Wielsbeke, the fries giant also has sites in Harelbeke, Nazareth and Tilburg. It also has a production site in India, where 120 employees make potato flakes, and is currently expanding with new production facilities in France as well.

This latest expansion involves an investment of 350 MIO euros. From France, Agristo will supply the French and Southern European markets. The company currently employs 300 people in Wielsbeke. In total, it realizes a turnover of more than 1 billion euros with just under a thousand employees.

With the recent investments, the family business aims to advance to the top five fries and potato specialties producers in the world. The fourth production line in Wielsbeke will provide more than 50 additional jobs. Franki Foundations was responsible for the foundation works, commissioned by general contractor Alheembouw.

Founded on long experience

Franki Foundations was founded in 1910 as "Pieux Franki" and the company has been a member of the Besix Group since 2008. Meanwhile, it has become a major national and international player in the field of general contracting and foundation subcontracting. These activities place it among the top 10 in Europe. Its expertise lies in the field of pile foundations, walls and soil improvement. Pile foundations include soil displacement piles, driven piles, micropiles, Avegaar piles, etc. Frank Foundations also installs various types of walls, including diaphragm walls, pile walls, soil anchors, shored trenches and soilmix applications.

Assignment of format

Piet Kindt, Head of Projects at Franki Foundations said, "On this site, we were responsible for installing the pile foundations, sheet piles for a construction pit, drilling the necessary anchors, micropiles and driving tubular piles. The project held more than one challenge for us. For example, we searched for the optimal bearing capacity for the pile foundation in consultation with the Vector engineering firm. To prepare and execute the phasing and production planning, our engineers as well as workers on site had to give their best."

Once the investment is approved and the works are started, the client naturally wants to get to work efficiently as soon as possible. "At Franki Foundations, safety is in the DNA," Kindt emphasizes. "On this job site, we found the right partners with Agristo, Alheembouw and DORO, the safety coordinator, to thoughtfully organize and follow up on the co-activity with the side contractors. In such a project with a high degree of co-activity, weekly safety meetings and meticulous organization of the production flow on a daily basis were therefore not a luxury. We managed to complete all the foundation work here in barely three months. That this was an order of magnitude, I would like to explain with a few figures: we installed no fewer than 2,500 screw piles here, drilled to depths of 15 to 20 meters depending on the pile load and with a maximum bearing capacity per pile of up to 2,950 kN."