Gravel extraction company Steengoed Projecten is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Frank Liebens has been at the helm as director since day one. It is a sector without equal, which also fulfills its entrepreneurial role in a unique way. Liebens talks about the power of networking, earning trust, and being transparent.
In the early 90s, Frank Liebens took the helm of one of the—at the time—eight gravel extraction companies in the wider Maasland region. At that point, it had already become clear that such fragmentation was no longer sustainable.
‘Standardly, it takes five to ten years to develop a new gravel extraction project. That ranges from making the first contacts to the first shovel in the ground. In the early 2000s, the sector consisted of eight companies competing against each other for exploitation permits for new extractions. In the long run, that was no longer socially justifiable.’
‘So we decided to put all properties and interests into one basket. We founded Steengoed Projecten in 2005. From then on, we presented ourselves to the outside world under one name and with one clear face. And that concept was an immediate success. Our projects enjoy broad social support thanks to our very thorough preparation. Furthermore, our shareholders can continue to provide the market with sustainable raw materials in the long term.’
‘As an entrepreneur in this sector, the primary focus is not on short-term or even medium-term commercial success. The challenge is continuity! Naturally, our eight shareholders must be able to continue earning their living. It mainly comes down to creating a social consensus around a new initiative. There are many parties involved, each with their own interests, such as the nature sector, the agricultural sector, local and umbrella governments and—not least—the residents living around such a project. If not everyone is on board, the project has no chance of succeeding.’
‘It is up to us to get everyone moving in the same direction every time. The faster everyone is on board with the story, the better for the continuity of our company. Our biggest challenge remains getting the next project permitted well in time, so that it can seamlessly follow the end of the current project. We are therefore already looking ahead to activities that may only start in about fifteen years.’
‘How do you do that? A strong vision and strategy are not enough; you also have to invest in relationships. And you do that by building close contacts, by networking, by doing things in a correct and compliant manner. We say what we do and do what we say. That is the only way to earn the trust of stakeholders, but also of our direct neighbors. Our current gravel processing site is located barely 100 meters from the first houses. That can only continue to work if you are transparent with each other and show mutual respect. We can literally walk in anywhere; people know where they stand with us.’
‘Since the start of the company, we have received many job applications from people in the immediate vicinity. In my eyes, this proves that we are working on a great story.’
‘To achieve this in the long term, everyone on our payroll must, of course, uphold the same values. This ranges from causing minimal nuisance to neighbors to keeping the site clean and managing it efficiently. They draw that motivation directly from their pride in the project they help build every day. Schools or other interested parties who visit us regularly can testify to this. They walk onto a site that is always tidy and organized and feel the positive vibe.’
‘And as a company, we also do our part by emitting less and less CO2 during our processes, in order to further reduce our ecological footprint. 7,000 solar panels and a battery park are a big step in the right direction. So I think we are succeeding well in our objective at the moment. The fact that we received many applications from people in the vicinity right from the start also indicates, in my opinion, that we are hitting the right chord with people, and that makes me happy.’
What are the most important lessons Frank Liebens has learned as director of Steengoed Projecten and as an entrepreneur? ‘That the patience of a saint and perseverance are invaluable in our sector (laughs). You have to learn to sense when the time is right to ask a certain question, bring up an item, and eventually take initiative. Some moments are high-pressure due to time constraints. But the more you negotiate, the less stressful those moments become over time and the less the frustrations of missed opportunities linger.’
‘A healthy work-life balance is, of course, also very important in this. Negotiations often happen in the evening, so it is necessary to maintain a balance with family life. I am very consciously working on that. People who know me also know that I can be quite a bon vivant, so I am trying to pick up tennis again. And in the meantime, I just continue to enjoy the small, fine, and beautiful things in life, like traveling.’
Frank Liebens and Steengoed Projecten suffered a bit from an “unknown is unloved” problem. What happens to the gravel and sand they extract? And to the extracted areas themselves? It was up to us to highlight the economic, ecological, and social relevance of their activities while simultaneously creating support for potential future projects.
We did this, among other things, through the online campaign Graaf Dieper (Dig Deeper), with a new website and accompanying branding as the central hub. There, we collected stories and video footage of completed projects, which we in turn distributed as much as possible to the intended target audiences via social media campaigns.
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