Smedes Fine Food

What Smedes Fine Food does

Smedes Fine Food BV is a family-owned Dutch private limited company founded in 1972 and headquartered at Voltaweg 22, Bunschoten-Spakenburg, Netherlands. It produces and distributes approximately 2,300 SKUs of non-fresh-fish goods — including visbakmeel (fish batter flour), visbakolie (fish frying oil), viskruiden, sauzen, marinades, packaging, display equipment and promotional materials — to the Dutch fish-specialist (visspecialist) channel, comprising retail fish shops, ambulant vendors, fish restaurants and traiteurs. The Smedes house brand is supplemented by the Wilba brand (private-label batter flour and spices) and by A-brand distribution, with production handled through the adjacent Smedes Food Production subsidiary.

The business is built on a sales-led B2B go-to-market: culinary advisors (culinair adviseurs) provide on-site consultation on recipes, vitrine display and food cost calculation; orders are fulfilled through weekly route delivery with own drivers (€500 minimum), 48-hour express delivery (€300 minimum, €25 supplement) and a 24/7 self-service pickup point at headquarters. A recurring revenue stream of professional services — Easy Chef Sessions (€195 per session), on-site tastings from €125, and vitrine display advice — is layered on top of wholesale. The marketing stack includes a monthly inspirational magazine "Smaak," a YouTube channel of recipe videos, Facebook, online catalog and order portal, plus the Smederij cooking studio on the first floor of the HQ for workshops. Margin and recipe calculators are delivered through the company's Margemaker digital tool (300+ recipes); Belgium is served via a wholesale partnership with Verbiest NV in Antwerp at higher frequency and a €1000 minimum order.

Revenue mechanics combine a transaction-fee core (B2B wholesale across the full non-fresh-fish stack) with attached service revenue. The company is owner-operated by the Van Twillert family — currently led by next-generation proprietor Melis van Twillert following the 2014 passing of Otto van Twillert — with no external investors, public listing, or PE involvement indicated. Operational investment is continuous: facility expansion was initiated in autumn 2022, and a steady cadence of product launches (Dark Smoke Vitrine 2024; EcoLux sugarcane-fiber packaging 2024; Pinsa line 2024; premium salmon packaging Dec 2025) is broadening the assortment into higher-margin merchandising, sustainable packaging and menu-extending categories.

Name

Smedes Fine Food

Legal name

Smedes Fine Food BV

Website

https://smedesfinefood.nl

Company type

Private

Founded year

1972

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Smedes Fine Food is a Dutch family-owned B2B wholesaler and producer supplying approximately 2,300 products — batter flour, frying oil, spices, sauces, marinades, packaging and display equipment — to Dutch and Belgian fish specialists, retail fish shops, ambulant vendors, fish restaurants and traiteurs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Specialty Food Production

NAICS

Dry Pasta, Dough, and Flour Mixes Manufacturing from Purchased Flour (311824), Fruit and Vegetable Preserving and Specialty Food Manufacturing (3114)

SIC

Miscellaneous Food Preparations & Kindred Products (2090)

akta.pro primary industry

Ethnic & international prepared meals manufacturing (AFAKAHAG)

Keywords

• Fish specialty wholesale
• Batter and coating products
• Frying flour production
• Fish retail supplies
• Food packaging wholesale

Headquarters

HQ city

Bunschoten

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. B2B Product Sales: Wholesale product sales to fish specialists. Product categories include visbakmeel, visbakolie, kruiden, marinades, sauzen, verpakkingen, vitrine-inrichting, and 2,300 SKUs total. Both house brand (Smedes) and A-brands.
2. Professional Services: Easy Chef Sessions at customer location (€195 per session), proeverijen op locatie (tastings/demos starting at €125), and vitrine-advies (display consultation).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Smedes Fine Food is a Dutch family-owned producer and wholesale supplier of approximately 2,300 food and non-food products for fish specialists (visspecialisten) across the Netherlands and Belgium. The company manufactures and distributes its own house brands (Smedes and Wilba) of fish batter flour (visbakmeel), fish frying oil (visbakolie), spices, sauces, marinades, and a complete range of packaging, display materials, and promotional products. Smedes also provides value-added services including display consulting, on-location cooking sessions, tasting events, 48-hour express delivery, and a digital recipe and cost calculation tool called Margemaker.

Product overview

Smedes Fine Food is a producer and supplier offering approximately 2,300 products for fish specialists (visspecialisten) from Bunschoten-Spakenburg, Netherlands. The core offering includes the Smedes private label (visbakmeel, visbakolie, viskruiden, sauzen, marinades), complemented by Wilba brand products, sustainable EcoLux packaging, display case equipment (Dark Smoke series), and professional services (Easy Chef cooking sessions, tasting events, display consultation, 48-hour express delivery, and the Margemaker digital recipe/calculation tool). The company operates as a one-stop-shop for fish specialists, offering products for everything except fresh fish.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Wilba: Wholesale brand of fish batter flour and fish spices delivered to fish specialists
• Smedes Batter
• Smedes Food Production
• Smedes

Products and services

• Smedes Visbakmeel Fish frying flour in five variants: Basic, Traditioneel, Licht, Krokant, and Goudgeel, providing consistent quality for crispy fish coating at fish specialist businesses.
• Smedes Visbakolie Fish frying oil, a house brand product for fish specialists, added to the product line in the mid-1980s.
• Smedes Viskruiden, Sauzen en Marinades House brand fish spices, sauces (oil-based and water-based marinades), added to broaden the product range for fish specialists.
• Wilba Visbakmeel en Viskruiden Wilba brand products including Extra, Mix, Speciaal, MM Bloem, MM Bloem zoutarm, Caribbean Mix, and Crunch visbakmeel variants, plus viskruiden and Tortuga kruiden, delivered to fish specialists.
• Smedes Batter for Chefs Batter products for chefs, including a gluten-free batter mix, distributed under the Smedes Batter brand.
• Dark Smoke Vitrine Series New display case line with matte black finish for optimal presentation of fish and fish dishes, featuring trays and bowls.
• EcoLux Sustainable Packaging Sustainable packaging made from sugarcane fibers, a renewable material with a luxurious appearance combining black laminate with fish shine, suitable for oven and microwave.
• Pinsa Product Line Rome-style pizza alternative (pinsa) based on rice, wheat, and soy flour, with three new recipes in the Margemaker database and special insertion cartons.
• New Salmon Gift Packaging New gift packaging line for salmon including salmon box and salmon sleeve with artisanal, robust appearance and gold accent lettering.
• Verpakkingsconcepten en Promotiematerialen Packaging concepts including Fish & Chips boxes, branded paper bags, luxury packaging, and promotional materials such as beach flags, banners, and demo furniture for point-of-sale visibility.
• Vitrine-inrichting (Display Consulting Service) Display case consulting and styling service for fish specialists, providing free expert advice on display layout, decoration, and product presentation.
• Smederij Cooking Studio Fully equipped on-site cooking studio for workshops and inspiration sessions where new entrepreneurs and customers learn fish frying techniques and recipes.
• Easy Chef Sessies (On-location Cooking Sessions) On-location cooking sessions with chef Klaas providing hands-on training and recipe development at fish specialist businesses, priced at €195 per morning session.
• Proeverij op Locatie (Tastings and Demos) Tasting sessions and demonstrations at customer locations, including BBQ expertise, with 3-hour weekday sessions starting at €125.
• 48-uurs Sneldienst (Express Delivery) 48-hour express delivery service for rapid product supply to fish specialists, with a €25 transport supplement and €300 minimum order for euro pallet delivery.
• Margemaker Recipe & Calculation Tool Online recipe database with 300 fish recipes and a calculation tool for pricing and cost calculation, available via margemaker.nl.

Quantifiable outcome

• Smedes Visbakmeel maintains consistent quality batch after batch
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Verbiest NVminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorBelgian fish wholesaler based in Antwerp enables higher delivery frequency for Belgian customers with lower minimum orders. Smedes standard 48h service requires €1000 minimum to Belgium; Verbiest offers more flexible arrangements.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Heiploeg: Dutch shrimp and seafood processor selling branded and foodservice seafood products. Adjacent rather than directly competitive — operates in the same Dutch seafood ecosystem and serves some of the same visspecialisten, but in fresh/frozen seafood where Smedes explicitly does not compete.
• Thai Union Group: Global seafood company (Chicken of the Sea, King Oscar, John West). Thematically relevant as a global seafood supplier whose customers include European foodservice and retail, but operates at vastly larger scale and in fresh/frozen seafood rather than in fish-specialist non-fish supplies.
• Pescanova: Spanish-origin seafood processor and distributor with European foodservice and retail reach. Adjacent comparable as a European seafood company supplying downstream retail/foodservice channels, but focused on fresh/frozen seafood where Smedes does not operate.

Broad incumbents

• McCain Foods: Global frozen-food manufacturer with strong Dutch/European foodservice presence after acquiring Aviko. Comparable as a broad incumbent in frozen, coated and convenience foodservice products, operating at a very different scale than Smedes but addressing overlapping foodservice end customers.
• Aviko: Dutch frozen-potato and coated-snack manufacturer with deep foodservice distribution across Europe. Comparable as a Dutch incumbent supplying coated/cooked foodservice products, though its portfolio is much broader than Smedes' fish-specialist focus.
• Farm Frites: Dutch-headquartered frozen potato and coated-foods supplier to foodservice and retail worldwide. Comparable as a Dutch-rooted incumbent producing coated/cooked foodservice SKUs that compete for the same foodservice customers Smedes' batters and oils serve.
• Lamb Weston: Global supplier of frozen potato products and battered/coated foods to foodservice and retail. Comparable as a much larger incumbent operating in the same battered/coated-foods foodservice category where Smedes' visbakmeel competes.

Direct peers

• Verstegen Spices & Sauces: Dutch-origin B2B spices, sauces and marinades supplier historically serving foodservice and retail customers. Highly comparable to Smedes on product format (sauces, marinades, spice mixes), Dutch heritage, family-business DNA, and B2B foodservice sales motion.
• Ad van Geloven (Mora): Dutch family-owned manufacturer of battered and coated foods (snacks such as kroketten and loempia's) with a foodservice B2B arm. Closely comparable to Smedes in terms of Dutch heritage, batter/coating production know-how, and B2B foodservice distribution channels serving the same fish/fast-food customer base.
• Euroma: Dutch spice, seasoning and sauce manufacturer selling to foodservice and retail. Directly comparable to Smedes' viskruiden, sauzen and marinades lines for fish specialists and broader foodservice operators in the Netherlands.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCB4AiMH_OxFCf3mQ1HhKLoA
• Facebookfacebook.com/Smedesfinefood
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/smedes-fine-food-b-v-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Smedes Fine Food