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Channel & partner strategy · Returnable transit packaging · Industrial IoT

Outside-in clarity for connected assets, and the channels that sell them.

Aristeon is the independent practice of Frederik Dejans. Twenty years inside the world’s largest returnable transit packaging manufacturers, five of them spent founding and scaling a connected-packaging programme, and today Head of Channel at an industrial IoT scale-up, building partner-led growth across Europe. I help manufacturers, IoT vendors and pool operators decide where to play, then make it work.

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Frederik Dejans, founder of Aristeon
Frederik DejansFounder, Aristeon BV
20+years in returnable transit packaging
15,000+connected assets in paying service
20,000SKUs under lifecycle governance
5European regions in current channel scope
5partner models designed: VAR, MSP, integrator, referral, technology
Red Dotdesign award, JumboNest®

What I do

Four practices, one thread: turning assets into managed value, and building the route to market that sells it.

Most organisations in this space do not have a technology problem. They have a decision problem: which assets, which use cases, which markets, which partners, and in what order. I bring the outside-in view and the operating discipline to answer it.

01

Channel & partner-led growth

Building a partner ecosystem that scales revenue beyond what direct sales alone can reach.

What’s in it for you

  • Quality over quantity: fewer, deeper partnerships
  • Predictable, repeatable recurring revenue through partners
  • Channel conflict designed out rather than argued about
  • A channel that runs on process, not on heroics

How it works

  • Ideal partner profile and tiering framework, applied without sentiment
  • Partner models matched to intent: VAR, MSP, integrator, referral, technology
  • Enablement first: commercial training, not just technical certification
  • Deal registration, incentive design and QBR cadence that hold up
  • Regional and vertical prioritisation, including what to prune
02

Digitalisation & track and trace

Serialise your pool and unlock active tracking at scale, without locking yourself into one vendor.

What’s in it for you

  • Tracker-agnostic technology, deployed at scale
  • Lower total cost of ownership per asset
  • Digitalised sustainability reporting
  • A rollout sequenced to asset lifecycle, not to hype

How it works

  • Use-case first, then the hardware / communications / software stack
  • An honest buy-versus-build decision matrix
  • Anomalies resolved through predefined KPIs
  • Product market fit defined per asset type
03

Product management & innovation

From portfolio archaeology to a roadmap your commercial team can actually sell.

What’s in it for you

  • Products customers genuinely adopt
  • Business strategy translated into a roadmap
  • Complexity reduced, commercial focus sharpened
  • One shared vision across functions

How it works

  • Taxonomy and lifecycle made visible
  • Portfolio contribution analysis: where do we make money?
  • Value-based prioritisation on highest impact
  • Product data foundations that end local silos
04

Commercial & market growth

Moving from product selling to consultative, solution-driven selling.

What’s in it for you

  • Scalable go-to-market structures
  • Commercial decisions grounded in data
  • Stronger, more differentiated brand positioning
  • Expanded value inside existing accounts

How it works

  • Clear routes to market and high-impact partnerships
  • MarCom, sales and NPD aligned behind growth
  • Resources focused on high-value opportunities
  • Complex solutions translated into business value

Approach

How an engagement runs.

Short, structured, evidence-led. You are not buying workshops; you are buying a result.

1

Outside-in diagnostic

An unsentimental SWOT on portfolio, pool and digital maturity, benchmarked against what the market is actually doing.

2

Where to play

Use cases and asset families prioritised on contribution and adoption potential. Explicit choices, including what to stop.

3

Buy versus build

Hardware, communications and software assessed per layer: time to market and CAPEX against long-term flexibility and control.

4

Rollout and proof

KPI-driven deployment, customer-facing scorecards, and the commercial narrative that turns data into renewals.

“The data generated by returnable packaging holds significant untapped value. Combined with the right third-party context, it becomes both monetisable and actionable.”

Frederik Dejans, Founder

Track record

Twenty years, two industries, no theory.

The through-line is not packaging, and it is not IoT. It is taking something physical and making it commercially manageable, then building the route to market that sells it.

1

Sell it

Twelve years selling and developing returnable packaging across the Benelux and the EU recycling market. I learned what customers actually pay for.

2

Structure it

Built the global product function: taxonomy, lifecycle, portfolio contribution, complexity reduction. I learned where the money is.

3

Connect it

Founded and scaled a connected-packaging programme from zero to a recurring revenue stream. I learned how physical assets become data products.

4

Scale it

Now Head of Channel in industrial IoT, building the partner engine that takes it to market faster than direct sales can.

Career

  • 2025 to presentHead of ChannelSensolus, industrial IoT asset tracking. Owner of the channel strategy: partner tiering, enablement, incentive design and regional focus across five European regions.
  • 2020 to 2025Global Digital DirectorIPL Schoeller / Schoeller Allibert. Founded and scaled the SmartLink® digital programme
  • 2018 to 2025Global Product DirectorBuilt the product management function from the ground up; lifecycle governance across 20,000 SKUs
  • 2017 to 2018EU Business Development Manager, RecyclingLed a 12-person EU recycling team; UN ADR certification for three products; Li-Ion returnable packaging
  • 2007 to 2017Senior Key Account Manager, BeneluxFood, food processing and recycling; wood-to-plastic fleet conversions; supply chain audits
  • 2005 to 2007Account Manager, BelgiumAllibert Buckhorn & LINPAC Allibert, ahead of the 2012 Schoeller Allibert merger

Signature initiatives

  • A channel strategy built to scale

    Authored and put forward the multi-year channel strategy for an industrial IoT scale-up: an enablement-first model, a redesigned tiering framework, five distinct partner types with their own commercial logic, deal registration to remove channel conflict, and regional plus vertical prioritisation. Quality over quantity, with the discipline to prune.

  • SmartLink®

    Founded digital innovation under the SmartLink umbrella: device-agnostic track and trace, actionable supply chain insight, and a recurring revenue stream built on more than 15,000 connected boxes for paying customers.

  • JumboNest®, Red Dot Award

    The first space-saving rigid stack/nest box of its kind for the EU food industry, delivering material savings on return transport.

  • CircuLine®

    Founded the recycled-materials proposition and served on the steering committee for the group’s strategic recycled materials agenda.

  • “Cornerstone” Roadmap 2030

    Portfolio strategy built around one question: where do we want to play? Supported by matrix category management and product P&L accountability.

  • Product data as a single source of truth

    PIM taxonomy and data management implemented to eliminate local data silos across a business operating 24 factories in 50-plus countries.

About

Frederik Dejans

I have spent my career on one problem seen from every side: selling physical assets, developing them, structuring their portfolios, digitalising them, and now scaling them through a partner channel. Along the way I navigated three company mergers and a management buyout, grew a product team from two people to nine, and reported directly to C-level throughout.

My method is methodical, data-driven and analytical, with a bias for finishing what was started. I know the EU RTP market, its innovation drivers and its regulatory horizon: Digital Product Passport, PPWR, UN approvals. I have a working network across the packaging industry, the IoT ecosystem and the European reseller and integrator landscape.

Values: trust, own, deliver. Based in Lendelede, Belgium; working across Europe.

  • Dutch native
  • French fluent
  • English fluent
  • German working
  • Spanish basic

Ways of working together

  • Channel diagnostic

    An honest read on your partner ecosystem: who is actually producing, who should be pruned, where enablement is missing, and what the tiering and incentive model should look like.

  • Strategic diagnostic

    A time-boxed outside-in assessment of portfolio, pool or digital programme, ending in a prioritised set of decisions.

  • Programme leadership

    Hands-on interim leadership of a digitalisation, product or go-to-market programme, with defined KPIs and handover.

  • Advisory retainer

    Ongoing sparring for leadership teams and boards on RTP, serialisation and IoT strategy.

Engagements are delivered as an independent contractor. I also consider selected executive and leadership mandates where the scope genuinely fits.

Contact

Let’s find out in one call whether I can help.

Tell me where your pool, portfolio or digital programme is stuck. If Aristeon is not the right answer, I will say so.

Email Frederik Connect on LinkedIn