AAROVA, a social enterprise for customised work
AAROVA has been developing into a multi-disciplinary tailor-made company for years. The former name of "sheltered workshop" has long since ceased to cover the load in Oudenaarde.
Such companies were known for having repetitive and simpler work done by cheaper hands in a locally located workshop, rather than outsourcing it to undevelopped countries or automating it with expensive and/or temporary investments.
However, AAROVA was a pioneer in seeking fuller and more meaningful work with those same employees. Soon, 4 departments were deployed.
1. Internal : Some employees still prefer to do repetitive work indoors. For example, they still produce sample books for several textile companies in the region.
2. External: Those with a more adventurous spirit are integrated into a team and go on daily trips to companies in the neighbourhood. There they carry out temporary assignments in an ever-changing production environment, guided by a Technical leader and his high-performance team.
3. Services : More and more schools, authorities, etc. have their buildings maintained, cleaned, painted, ... by an Aarova team
4. Events : Aarova invested heavily in a brand-new commercial kitchen. Italian cuisine is their speciality. They also converted a building in IZ De Bruwaan into a seminar place with several rentable meeting rooms. A bit further on in the same industrial park they started their restaurant "Eat@12" where you can enjoy a daily business lunch "a la carte" or a quick dish of the day. Together, these activities form the engine for organising small and large events on location. In doing so, Aarova takes care of planning, setting up, cooking and serving.
Recently, visitors can now also register at a Gatehouse® kiosk, in their own language and with a quick online announcement to the right hosts. At Gatehouse®, this can be done by SMS, email, Teams notification and SMS call. As a result, the front desk can now concentrate on the more important administrative tasks and Aarova is ready for the registration rules around Food-Defense !
We would like to thank Thierry Snauwaert (CEO) and Patrick Cnockaert (Facility Manager) for their confidence in Gatehouse® and for this new step in their pursuit of reliability !