Rikilt scales back on office space

Food safety institute Rikilt is giving up some of its office space. The space will be taken over by the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), ‘fellow occupant’ of the Vitae building on Wageningen campus. The NVWA branch in Wageningen needs more room to accommodate an influx of staff due to the closure of the Zutphen and Eindhoven offices. Rikilt’s director Robert van Gorcom expects about five to ten employees will have to give up their individual offices. Others will have less workspace. Van Gorcom: ‘For example, I will be getting a smaller room’. To compensate, there will be more meeting areas and flexible workstations. The Rikilt employees’ council supports the decision and has been properly consulted, says representative Richard Helsdingen. ‘It’s a logical decision. So there’s no protest, just some individual irritation at most.’ Indirectly, the move will mean savings in Rikilt’s expenditure on rent. That is not a bad idea in view of the future, says Van Gorcom. ‘Although we hardly have any problems at the moment, we are expecting revenue to fall next year.’ Rikilt gets a relatively large number of commissions from the government, which is currently downsizing and making cutbacks.