Great news from our Dutch distributor, Welland Nederland BV: they are now supplying our products to the Belgian market. In light of their new opportunity in Belgium and the way Covid-19 has forced us all to change the way we do things, we checked in with the company’s Sales Director, Robin Engels, to see what challenges they are facing and what is helping them succeed.

Given Covid-19, how have things been going in 2020? What have you as a company found particularly challenging and how have you had to adapt to overcome those challenges?

Actually, we are very satisfied how things are going. There is still a lot of demand for the Manuka honey stoma products, which is good.

Challenging of course is the lack of contact we currently have with nurses in hospitals and with ostomates. To contact these groups, we’ve organised digital meetings and phone calls. Also, we’ve found that old-school mail is a very good instrument to keep in contact.

Other more familiar challenges we face as a business are of course the pricing pressure from the medical insurance companies and the fact that there are less new stoma patients each year. For these reasons, we are very happy to be the official distributor for the Belgian market right now.

It’s a pity that we haven’t had the start we wished for in Belgium because of the Covid-19 developments. But hopefully we can start visiting Belgian hospitals and medical supply companies after the summer holidays, and we look forward to building up our relationships there.

From the feedback you’ve had recently from healthcare professionals and ostomates, what do they appreciate about Welland Medical products?

The skin-friendliness and the high absorption capacity of the Welland flanges mean they have a very high success ratio for ostomates. The added ingredient of Manuka honey makes it an ideal flange to keep the skin in an optimal condition.

Also, the fact we have a very wide range of pre-cut sizes and different pouch sizes is seen as positive. It makes it easier for the ostomate to change from a flat flange to a Profile or Convex flange because there is such a wide variety in pre-cut sizes.

If you are in Belgium and are interested in ordering a product, requesting a free product sample, or talking to a representative of Welland Nederland, email info@welland.be or www.welland.be