Interview with Tim Labberton, Group Director Control at De Heus

De Heus Animal Nutrition is a globally operating animal nutrition company headquartered in Ede, the Netherlands. The company develops and produces feed for livestock and aquaculture and is a leading supplier of compound feed, premixes, concentrates, and specialist nutritional solutions for farmers worldwide.

With operations in dozens of countries and a growing number of business units, De Heus faces increasing complexity in finance and reporting. To future-proof its consolidation and reporting processes, the company partnered with cpmview to implement CCH Tagetik.

We spoke with Tim Labberton, Group Director Control at De Heus, about the drivers behind the change, the implementation journey, and the impact on the organisation.

“Our team is the connecting link between numbers and business”

Tim has been with De Heus for six years and is responsible for group consolidation, statutory reporting, and management reporting.

“Within De Heus, we work with business controllers responsible for different regions such as Asia, North-West Europe, Iberia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. They ensure that reporting from the countries is delivered correctly, but their role goes far beyond reporting alone.”

Controllers work closely with regional management and support strategic decision-making.

“Ultimately, it is about the story behind the numbers. Our job is to translate data into insights for the board.”

Growth requires a future-proof system

For many years, De Heus used a consolidation solution within SAP. While the system functioned well, the company’s rapid growth pushed it to its limits. In addition, the SAP version in use had reached end-of-life, which became a key driver for change.

“De Heus is continuously growing. That means more business units and more users in the system. Especially around month-end close, we noticed performance issues and bottlenecks when everyone was reporting at the same time.”

Although the system was still operational, the organisation decided to look ahead.

“You never really look forward to replacing a consolidation system unless it is necessary. But we saw that a more modern solution would allow us to work much more efficiently.”

Following a selection process, De Heus chose CCH Tagetik.

“What stood out was how well prepared they were and how well they understood our organisation.”

Building a new finance environment with cpmview as trusted advisor

For the implementation, De Heus once again partnered with cpmview, a long-standing advisor to the company.

“When you start such a large project, it is reassuring to have one constant factor. cpmview knows our organisation and understands how we work.”

The collaboration was intentionally hands-on.

“We did not just want to have the system built; we also wanted to learn how it works ourselves. That is why we delivered the project together. It helps us build internal knowledge and ensures we remain in control of the system.”

According to Tim, the value of a trusted advisor goes beyond technology.

“The most important thing is having a partner who thinks along with you. About priorities, sequencing, and what is realistic. Sometimes you need someone to say: ‘Have you considered this already?’ Those conversations improve the project significantly.”

Adoption across the organisation

A key focus during the project was user adoption.

“We have around one hundred users in the system. Most of them are based in the business units rather than at head office. That is why it is crucial that they find the system easy to work with.”

To support this, significant effort was invested in collaboration and training.

“We organised training sessions with cpmview for teams in Europe, Asia, and Africa. We also invested time in team dynamics within the project. That really helps in achieving success together.”

Faster reporting and higher data quality

Since early 2026, De Heus has been fully running CCH Tagetik for consolidation and reporting.

The key improvements include:

• Faster consolidation and reporting cycles
• Improved data quality through built-in controls and validations
• Greater focus on analysis instead of technical issues

“Because we have introduced more checks, we know the data is more reliable. That makes a huge difference. Our controllers can now focus more on analysing figures rather than solving technical issues.”

One platform for global reporting

The system now supports several critical processes:

• Monthly consolidation across all business units
• Weekly margin and volume reporting
• Daily cash and bank position reporting
• Reporting across both legal and management structures

“This flexibility is very important for us. We can now view the same data from different perspectives. Even though we analyse data from multiple angles, the financial figures remain consistent when we cross-cut legal and management structures.”

The next step: planning and budgeting

De Heus continues to grow and is already looking ahead to the next phase: planning and budgeting.

“We want to simplify the budgeting process for users. At the moment, they sometimes need to go through the process twice, even when no changes are expected. The goal is to reduce that to a single cycle.”

The company also aims to eliminate manual Excel uploads.

“In the future, we want everything to be done directly in Tagetik. That will make the process faster and more reliable for colleagues in both the business units and head office.”

Advice for other organisations

Finally, Tim shares advice for organisations considering a similar transformation journey.

“Think carefully about who you choose as your trusted advisor. That decision has a major impact on the success of the project.”

Equally important:

“Make sure you clearly define what you want to achieve upfront. With a clear goal, you can work towards it together.”