Next stop: world domination

We may have started out in the USA, but our roots have always been international. With our R&D department in Belgium and our first customer in Australia, it was only natural for us to set our sights globally. Now we’ve got big ambitions for the European market, and are experiencing all the local differences with customers and partners. Here’s a little rundown of our international evolution:

Born in the USA

We started in the American market because it just made sense: I was already based in California, focusing on almond production, and about 80 percent of the global almond market is based there. So it was a natural decision: we just followed the market.

Being where the customers were made it very easy to involve them in the development process. We would take the very first prototype and put it in? the car with duct tape and zip ties to take around to customers and get their feedback. Weaving customer feedback into our machine design is our essential philosophy, and it helps to have our customers just around the corner.

International is in our DNA

We may have started developing our machines in collaboration with processors in California, but funnily enough our first customer was Australian. It was clear from the start that Qcify was going to be an international company. Our R&D was already based in Belgium anyway, so we knew we were going to be global.

Being international from the start also had its challenges. Development always takes longer and costs more than expected, it’s kind of a startup cliché. But because we had our R&D in Belgium the operational costs were also higher compared to having everything in the same place. Over the long term though it did mean that we had an international perspective from Day One. We were closely focused on the almond industry, but with the world as a potential market.

So at the end of the day, our international nature meant more expenses in the short term, but a more robust approach in the long term. We wanted to hold off on exploring the European market until we had the right person on board who could navigate it. That’s why we brought Simon Kerkhofs in to be our sales director.

The European market: vive la difference

Simon is currently focused on Italy, Spain and Turkey, and we see a lot of differences. He himself has moved to Spain to experience a full nut season there. The idea is to get through the processing and budgeting season for 2022, to go through the whole cycle. And then introduce Qcify on steroids in Europe. Because being close to the customer has been at the heart of what we do from the start, we want to keep embodying that as we expand in Europe.

Another value of Qcify’s is working together with partners. In Europe they are a bit more reserved and don’t communicate as openly. There’s the party that purchases the products from California, and the parties that process them. They tend to want to work together with a supplier directly instead of a distributor or agent. For that reason, it’s crucial to look for strategic partners with in depth market knowledge.

Generally speaking, the speed of innovation and entrepreneurship is better than expected. But you do notice the smaller scale operations. Which makes sense, considering that California dominates such a large share of the almond market. In terms of automation in Spain, we’ve seen that it’s also not going at an inferior pace. So there is certainly a lot of potential. And we’re ready to put Qcify on the world map.