Vandemoortele wanted one digital home for a hugely diverse audience: from Michelin-starred restaurants to chip shops, from hotel kitchens to artisan bakeries. The challenge? Inspiring, activating and supporting all those professionals with content that truly matters to their specific situation. Together we built a b2b inspiration platform for the food industry that takes personalisation to the next level. The result: one scalable Drupal platform now rolling out across multiple countries and audiences.
Advanced personalisation based on audience and channel
One platform for bakers, chefs and hospitality entrepreneurs
Drupal and HubSpot integration for seamless data synchronisation
Mobile-first design for professionals on the go
Splash Award winner: Website of the Year 2023
The challenge
How do you inspire and activate thousands of food professionals with vastly different needs through one digital platform?
The solution
An all-in-one inspiration platform with a personalisation algorithm that tailors content to audience and channel, fully integrated with HubSpot and Bynder.
Vandemoortele x iO: personalisation for the food industry
Vandemoortele is a leading European food group with Belgian roots. With more than 4,600 employees, operations in 12 European countries plus the US and Asia, and a turnover of approximately €1.7 billion, they inspire food industry professionals daily with bakery products and plant-based food solutions.
Our partnership extends beyond this platform alone. We think strategically about how Vandemoortele can strengthen their digital presence and expand into new markets. This case highlights one part of that journey: an award-winning inspiration platform now rolling out to more countries and audiences.
One audience does not exist: the complexity of food professionals
Vandemoortele serves food professionals in the broadest sense. A chef in a Michelin-starred restaurant has different needs than a chip shop owner. A hotel cook seeks different inspiration than an artisan baker. The traditional approach, separate websites for bakers and chefs, would lead to fragmentation, duplicated effort and a diluted brand experience. The strategic choice: one powerful b2b inspiration platform smart enough to serve every visitor relevant content.
Personalisation as a strategic foundation
Why personalisation? Because generic content does not truly resonate with anyone. Food professionals have little time and high expectations. They want to see immediately what is relevant to their kitchen, their business, their challenges. That is why we developed a personalisation algorithm combining two variables: the audience (chef, owner, barista) and the channel (bakery, company restaurant, chip shop). That combination forms a persona. And every persona receives tailored content: from recipe inspiration to business tips, from product information to masterclasses.
Under the bonnet: how Drupal enables personalisation
In Drupal we built an architecture that supports personalisation down to the smallest detail. The more a visitor navigates, the more complete our picture of that visitor becomes. As soon as we can assign a concrete persona, the content adapts. Overviews of blog posts, videos and recipes are sorted based on preferences. Even media and paragraphs are assigned to specific personas via custom media entities. One image for the restaurant chef, another for the baker, but always a strong default for those we do not yet know.
HubSpot as a personalisation layer for known users
For visitors who give permission, personalisation goes a step further. All category preferences exist as attributes in HubSpot. Once a user identifies themselves, Drupal and HubSpot synchronise with each other. We retrieve properties in HubSpot and incorporate them into Drupal. The result: a seamless experience where the platform becomes smarter as the relationship grows.
Bynder and Elasticsearch: the technical backbone
An inspiration platform for the food industry relies heavily on visual content. That is why we connected Bynder, Vandemoortele's DAM system, directly to the platform. Our team wrote additional logic to expose Bynder media in the Drupal media library and automatically generate images via Bynder CDN. For the search function we chose Elasticsearch, with custom logic for optimal results. Everything is configured once; the rest happens automatically.
Mobile-first for professionals on the move
Food professionals do not sit behind desks. They work in kitchens, bakeries and hospitality venues. That is why the platform is designed fully mobile-first. Subtle micro-animations enhance the user experience without distraction. And for the content managers on Vandemoortele's side, we created an intuitive backend that makes filling and managing content straightforward.
The numbers
1
contacts reached during the first year
1
new countries rolled out for 1 audience in 2023
1
rollout in 3 additional countries + bakery sector added
An award-winning platform that keeps growing
In 2023 vandemoorteleprofessional.com won the Splash Award for Website of the Year and the Corporate category. That recognition confirms what we built together: a platform that is not only technically strong but also delivers real value to its audience. The story is far from over. We are rolling out personalisation features step by step and expanding the platform to new countries and audiences. For Vandemoortele this means a scalable digital foundation that grows with their international ambitions. For food professionals worldwide: an inspiration platform that becomes more personal and relevant every day.
