In the last 15 years, Astra Sweets has focused onto the production of a large variety of quality sweets (gums, liquorice, peppermints, marshmallows, flying saucers, etc.). These products are marketed under several own brand names (Frisia, Astra Sweets, Astra Kids and Faam) but also under a number of private labels from various retailers. This is why the company has become one of the most important players in its sector in the Benelux and in various European countries (Germany, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom), even as far as the United States and New Zealand.

Apart from its head office in Turnhout, Astra Sweets also has a second Belgian site (Dour) and two sites in the Netherlands (Breda and Harlingen).

In 2008 Astra Sweets chose the Objective.MES platform of De Clercq Solutions to pilot its production. The system was implemented in the factory in Turnhout. In a first phase the GS1 labeling of boxes and pallets (pallet queue) and the registration of machine stops and OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) were implemented.

Since then other functionalities have been added to the Objective installation at Astra Sweets, such as the management of electronic instructions.

In 2008 Astra Sweets started with the implementation of SAP at the administrative level. By the end of 2009 this implementation was operational. At first there was no integration between SAP and Objective. Production orders created in SAP, had to be introduced manually in Objective. The same applied to the production data registered in Objective: these could not be automatically transferred to SAP. In order to optimise this data exchange De Clercq Solutions was asked to realise an automatic link between the production orders in Objective and in SAP.

This link has been live since May 2010 and has been the key to an optimal collaboration between SAP on the administrative level, and Objective on the workfloor.