What's Cooking
- Type
- Food & Ingredient Manufacturer
- Location
- Sint-Denijs-Westrem, Belgium
- Industries
- Alternative proteins, Food ingredients & products, Food safety & quality, Out-of-home, Sustainable packaging & plastic alternatives, Supply chain monitoring & traceability, Waste efficiency, Food reformulation
- Domains
- Ready-to-eat meals, Processed food products
- Technologies
- Physical modification, Processing
About What's Cooking
What’s Cooking? is a European fresh savoury food group focused on freshly prepared ready meals. It serves retail, butcher/caterer, and foodservice customers across 26 countries, with production in six locations and sales offices in Belgium, France, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The company positions itself around quality, convenience, and innovation, aiming to help customers meet consumer demand for tasty, ready-to-eat meals while making food consumption more sustainable. Its portfolio includes branded and private-label ready meals, and it emphasizes craftsmanship, responsible sourcing, packaging innovation, and continuous product development.
Core Values
- Crafting with care: The company stresses craftsmanship, quality, and attention to detail in everything it makes, with equal focus on taste, convenience, and safety.
- Confidence and courage: What’s Cooking? presents itself as ambitious and willing to try new things, encouraging creativity and learning through experimentation.
- Day by day, side by side: Collaboration is central to its culture, with an emphasis on teamwork across countries, business units, and external partners.
- Sustainability and responsibility: The company links its values to reducing environmental impact, improving nutrition, and supporting employee well-being and safety.
Unique Aspects
- European footprint: What’s Cooking? sells in 26 countries and operates production sites and sales offices across several major European markets, giving it broad regional reach.
- Family ownership: Following the 2026 delisting, the company is once again 100% family-owned by the Coopman and Van der Pluym families, supporting a long-term ownership horizon.
- Sveltic acquisition: In 2025, the company acquired Sveltic, a French producer of fresh and frozen ready meals near Rennes, adding complementary products and strengthening its position in France.
- Portfolio transformation: The company sold its savoury cold cuts business to Aurelius in 2025, sharpening its focus on ready meals and branded/private-label meal solutions.
- Sustainability recognition: What’s Cooking? holds an EcoVadis Silver Medal and received the Belgian Award for the Best First Sustainability Report, underscoring external recognition of its sustainability efforts.