Oserian is more than
FLOWERS ENERGY & PEOPLE
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WE ARE OSERIAN DEVELOPMENT COMPANY LIMITED Oserian Development Company, best known as a leading flower producer in Kenya , is located in Naivasha. It is therefore no surprise that when you think Kenya flowers you think Oserian first!
Oserian, a Maasai word meaning Place of Peace, is credited with pioneering the Kenya flower industry that has grown into a global brand since 1982 when the first ornamentals were planted by the company’s founder Hans Zwager. Until early this year, Oserian produced and exported a wide range of cut flowers all over the world, The company has since diversified its operations to create the Oserian Two Lakes Business Park, retained production of roses and outsourced growing of other flowers like carnations and fillers. (to Oserian Flowers Limited) www.oserian.com
The farm has 113 hactares under roses, three under outdoor roses two hectares of spray roses. Oserian was, from the beginning, established on the ethos of responsible growing practices that weave people, planet and profits into an interdependent web guided by principles, commitment and innovation, geared towards sustainability.
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The practices are captured in the slogan, growing in harmony with nature. The farm has consequently remained the trail blazer, having set high standards that define the Kenya flower industry today, tenets that are emulated and sited. Close to every successive flower grower in Kenya has visited Oserian either for mentoring or benchmarking while many of the top management and workers in other farms have passed through the company. Globally, the farm continues to host stakeholders who include students and governments’ leaders keen on seeing the practices employed by the company to establish a world class industry. Nevertheless, we have a high staff retention record with many of our workers having been at the farm for more than 10 years. Likewise, all the local higher institutions of learning that teach horticulture have visited the farm, an accredited trials centre for new products – new varieties and agro chemicals among others.
sustain practices that have made us what we are – A responsible grower. For us it is a responsibility to our business, to the people who work for us, for the community around us, for humanity and for the environment.
It is therefore no surprise that when you think Kenya flowers you think Oserian first! We started the sector, supported it to grow and we are constantly innovating not only to stay ahead of the park but also to maintain and
As a mark of quality we are a heavily audited and certified farm. Our labels include Kenya Flower Council, Faitrade, MPS, LEAF, Superbrands, BSCI, Ethical Trading Initiative, BOPP and GlobalGap www.oserian.com
Oserian invests in
A GREATER TOMORROW TODAY
Within the 1650 acres set aside for commercial development of various types, three distinct areas have been earmarked – The Flower Business Park, the Business Park and the Industrial Park. The process to securing Special Economic Zone status is underway using the international development consultancy SystemiQ.
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WE ARE DIVERSE IN EVERY WAY YOU CAN IMAGINE Oserian Development Company Ltd, has embarked upon a bold plan to diversify its commercial activities. Consequently, the Farm has been subdivided and Change of Use amended to Industrial, Commercial and Residential uses in support of the diversification plans. Oserian is already a small town in its own right, with over 11,000 people living in its Company funded housing estates and benefitting from the Company funded Creches, Schools, Medical Centre and Social Halls. The new strategy will ultimately see the expansion of these amenities in support of the diversification which will see the creation of an industrial park which will be known as Two Lakes Industrial Park. In addition we have already created Two Lakes Flower Park and Two Lakes Business Park – both of these are already up and running with tenants in situ. In order for the Business to be better able to focus upon these diversification plans, we have recently contracted out all our flower packing operations and similarly put
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all our non-rose crop production on a contracted basis. Both providers are also looking to offer their services to the other companies that are moving into the Flower Business Park. All businesses operating from Two Lakes FlowerPark must comply with the accepted flower industry norms. Negotiations are ongoing with additional tenants for both the Business Park and the Flower Park. The new developments are in line with the foundations of green energy and creation of agro-processing businesses that are seeking steam and affordable electricity. Upon completion, the entire Two Lakes project it is expected to create over 20,000 new jobs.
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In order for the Business to be better able to focus upon these diversification plans, we have recently contracted out all our flower packing operations and similarly put all our non-rose crop production on a contracted basis. Both providers are also looking to offer their services to the other companies that are moving into the Flower Business Park. All businesses operating from Two Lakes FlowerPark must comply with the accepted flower industry norms. Negotiations are ongoing with additional tenants for both the Business Park and the Flower Park. The new developments are in line with the foundations of green energy and creation of agro-processing businesses that are seeking steam and affordable electricity. Upon completion, the entire Two Lakes project it is expected to create over 20,000 new jobs. Oserian Development Company has embarked on an ambitious diversification strategy that will eventually grow into a fully fledged Industrial Park in Naivasha. The diversification was entrusted to Oserian Two Lakes, the Park Developer, to help take the idea from a far reaching concept to one of realisation. Their Master Plan encompasses a full spectrum of occupation from factories to logistic warehousing, to schools, hospitals, shops and housing to suit all budgets. Within the 1650 acres set aside for commercial development of various types,
Early on it was clear the opportunity to create a Flower Business Park was the Ęťlowest hanging fruitĘź and initial focus upon getting this up and running has paid off with 5 tenants having already moved in.
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three distinct areas have been earmarked – The Flower Business Park, the Business Park and the Industrial Park. The process to securing Special Economic Zone status is underway using the international development consultancy SystemiQ. Early on it was clear the opportunity to create a Flower Business Park was the ‘lowest hanging fruit’ and initial focus upon getting this up and running has paid off with 5 tenants having already moved in. The Flower Business Park is open to investors in the flower industry and associated businesses to lease land for greenhouses and offices to serve floriculture related operations. While the entire project is fashioned along all aspects of a modern Special Economic Zone, there is also an area designated for an Export Free Zone. To ensure potential investors could be confident of Oserian’s commitment to the project it was necessary in 2015/16 for Oserian to consolidate its three large, but geographically separate, flower growing areas.
Today all Oserian’s flower growing activity is contained within a ring fenced area of some 300 hectares. The prime flat land, with existing infrastructure that has now been vacated is being turned over for use in the three new economic Parks of Two Lakes. After the physical consolidation of the flower growing, Oserian’s next step involved the segmentation of the existing business and incorporation of distinct businesses functions deemed critical to Two Lakes’s offer of essential services to the potential tenants of the Flower Business Park. Some departments evolved into new independent companies leaving the ‘old’ Oserian to concentrate only on rose production. These new businesses were the first tenants at the flower park. The pack house Transformed into Two Lakes Packing Services while responsibility for non-rose flower growing transferred into Oserian Flowers Limited. The Integrated Pest Management (IPM) section is now a Joint Venture Company called Madumbi Kenya, while the marketing team migrated to Mavuno b.v. and Oserian’s large engineering department morphed into Oloidien Estate and Engineering Ltd. www.oserian.com
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Two Lakes Packing Services provides a ‘one stop shop’ for not just Oserian, but those tenants within the Flower Business Park that seek to avoid the administration associated with packing and exporting cut flowers. Specialists at Packed At Source bouquets as well as high end roses, Two Lakes Packing are also strong advocates of the new packing system known as CargoLite – an innovative system that reduces labour, reduces wastage and in an era of increasing environmental consciousness,
reduces Carbon Dioxide used to export our flowers. Oserian Flowers is focused upon all non-rose crops and in its first year of operation has introduced two new additions – Hydrangea and Delphinium– to its already considerable stable of summer flowers. The Company’s Board are strong believers in Kaizen and devotees of performance driven remuneration – a ’win win’ for employer and employee alike. As things evolved, Oserian Flowers Limited has acquired Two Lakes Packing Services in a move which has brought further operational efficiency and boosted competitiveness. Considering the importance of IPM, Oserian partnered with Andermatt of Switzerland and South
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he latest addition to its portfolio is the manufacture of electric vehicles for agricultural use – something which Oserian has taken full advantage off with fuel reduction now at over 300,000 litres per year.
Africa’s Madumbi to create Madumbi Kenya, a firm that is producing dudus and other IPM solutions for pests and diseases control across the agricultural sector. Andermatt is a global leader in developing bacteria and virus solutions for pest control and have, for instance, just found a solution for Fall Army Worm that is devastating our Country’s maize crops. Oloidien Engineering & Estate Management on the other hand serves the engineering and building requirements of not just Oserian but all those within the Flower Business Park and the Industrial Park. Spawned from something unlike any normal Farm’s in-house engineering workshop, it has capabilities that also see it heavily involved in the Power Sector and it as successfully delivered numerous large projects associated with geothermal generation. Building on this background in power, OE&E as it is usually referred to, has expertise in Operating and Maintenance of large scale cool chain operations and is an Agent for Carrier, the US refrigeration firm. The latest addition to its portfolio is the manufacture of electric vehicles for agricultural use – something which Oserian has taken full advantage off with fuel reduction now at over 300,000 litres per year. www.oserian.com
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In the initial stages, and in support of the long term diversification plans, the Farm was subdivided and an Extension of Use obtained covering industrial, commercial and residential uses. The strategy has led to an expansion of amenities within the Company funded housing Estate: an upgrade to its hospital, additional classrooms being constructed at its schools and modernization of its social halls. Today Oserian’s Estate is home to over 11, 000 people and it is envisaged that the Oserian population will surge to about 20,000 as the Industrial Park takes root.
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Currently the Two Lakes Flower Park is home to 5 tenants – Dudutech, Select Rose Breeding, George Delbard Roses, Madumbi Kenya and Selecta. Negotiations are at various stages with four other tenants for whom Oserian’s Flower Business Park ‘pix and mix’ offering of a wide array of services along with its ability to provide geothermal heating and cheap electricity, are proving a strong combination to lure businesses in. The expansion of vital infrastructure will entail the installation of grey water treatment plants, rainwater harvesting as well a sizeable expansion to the existing in-house power generation capacity. This year the Company aims at maintaining and enhancing the momentum accumulated since 2015 and, in conjunction with Premier Solar, Solarise and OE&E, Oserian has just installed its first 1MW solar system to complement its 3.2MW of geothermal power production. Further expansions are already planned which may include installation of a Hydro plant – meaning Oserian’s own Grid will harness three different forms of renewable energy.
One thing is for sure, Oserian is committed to only using power from renewable sources and this was recently recognized by lifting the Crown at this year’s Energy Management Awards. Key to the success of Oserian Two Lakes is its ability to supply tenants, especially those within the Industrial Park, cheap and reliable power. 2019 has witnessed a surge in interest from businesses looking to move into the Industrial Park – and crucially over half the advanced discussions are with businesses looking to move into Kenya for the first time. When the Oserian Industrial Park is fully occupied , it is estimated that an additional 20,000 jobs will be created contributing hugely to the Country’s Big 4 Development Agenda. Little wonder then that at both County and National level is well known and promoted as a flagship development project.
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Oserian believes that
FAIRTRADE IS THE ONLY TRADE
Oserian Development Company, best known as a leading flower producer in Kenya , is located in Naivasha. It is therefore no surprise that when you think Kenya flowers you think Oserian first!
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WE ARE CONCIOUS AND RESPONSIBLE WITH PROFIT AND SOCIALLY Oserian Development Company, best known as a leading flower producer in Kenya , is located in Naivasha. It is therefore no surprise that when you think Kenya flowers you think Oserian first!
Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR) Our Corporate Social Responsibility programme ( CSR) is elaborate and a trendsetter, often picked as a model of excellence and set within the Sustainable Development Goals programme. The baseline is Take care of your people. Our workers enjoy amenities such as free medical care, free housing, water, electricity, library, social halls and stadiums among other social welfare establishments.
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Health
Education
Our modern health centre, crèche and HIV Aids policy have been earmarked by the Ministry of Health and United Nations as centres of excellence. Our Breast Feeding model, set up more than ten years ago is currently being ‘copied’ as employers rush to set up replicate centres to support new mothers exclusively breastfeed newborns for six months. Oserian babies from three months have access to our crèche where trained providers take care of the infants as mother’s work. Our workers are entitled to free medical care, 24-hour ambulance, VCT and family planning. We are continually upgrading our health centre facilities and now an ultrasound machine and a dental chair have been installed therefore we no longer need to refer patients for these vital services. We also support community dispensaries, hospitals and drill boreholes.
Our other unique CSR programme is our schools. We have seven institutions ranging from pre-school to college within our premises catering for the various levels of learning. Some of our employees were born at the farm, schooled here and came back to work. The schools programme extends outside the farm as we also assist with community educational development by building and equipping public schools surrounding the farm. Our schools are wholistic in the sense that we encourage and support extracurricular activities to produce an all-rounded individual and help young minds identify talents outside the classroom. It is for this reason we introduced an orchestra to teach music last year to expose those talented in this art to grow. This is in addition to participation in drama festivals and sports at local and national level.
IPM Oserian is probably one of the most intensive IPM flower farms in the world. Recently we partnered with Madumbi of South Africa and Andermatt to create Madumbi East Africa, an IPM company that will produce natural solutions to pests and diseases management. Initially we produced beneficial insects at our IPM unit that feed on predators. We are big in this area, a development that has contributed greatly to our carbon footprint reduction. www.oserian.com
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Food Security Under our Food Security programme, we have extended farming support to the neigbouring community by proving hybrid sheep developed by cross breeding Doper and the Maasai local breed to create a ‘doma’. The farm uses the sheep to maw grass and vegetation achieving two goals. Feeding the sheep that are later slaughtered for mutton, eradicating use of motorized lawnmowers and saves on labour. The grass habours and breeds pests therefore the sheep takes care of the unwanted insects contributing to IPM. We are also introducing other farming practices by availing clean planting materials of potato and banana among other higher yielding disease resistant seeds and seedlings in addition to training farmers on good agricultural practices such as soil analysis, crop husbandry, pests and diseases management. Our latest at developing farming is our Nutrition Garden, initially established to supplement staff feeding with high nutrition vegetables that has quickly evolved into a training centre for our staff and community on modern farming technology. Our bracelets programme has been instrumental in supporting Maasai women earn some money, empowering them financially to support themselves. The money earned from selling a bouquet of flowers at a higher cost goes to support their families through food, education and other basic needs.
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Environment Our green policy is probably one of the most visible achievements. Our farm forest cover is the highest in Naivasha, supported an a deliberate aforestation practice. We have established a tree nursery of indigenous and exotic trees and donate seedlings to surrounding communities. We are on a mission to be a carbon-free grower by 2020, guided by our green footprints. Reduce, Re-use, Recycle guide our environmental practices. We grow our flowers on hydroponics, reducing water and fertilizer uptake substantially. Growing on soil less medium reduces soil borne diseases and pests leading to a healthier plant that is less susceptible to diseases therefore less application of pesticides. The benefits of less pesticides are multipronged, translating to safer environment, safer working environment
for staff, less spending on chemicals and universally, reduction of carbon. Owing to Oserian green footprints we developed geothermal energy that powers our operations. We run the world’s largest geothermal greenhouse, the only flower farm in Kenya to tap this energy, that also powers our other operations. Increased utilisation of geothermal resources for heating and production of carbon dioxide is about making the most of the unique natural resource at its disposal. The company has introduced electric cars used for transportation of flowers from the greenhouses to the packhouse, reducing use of petroleum fuelled vehicles. Cargolite In pursuit of efficiency Oserian has adopted the latest technology in flower packaging, the Cargolite that has proven capability to increase pack rate and reduce freight costs, increase quality, increase unpacking efficiency, reduce cardboard in total and reduce on use of plastic maximising utility of sleeves. Cargolite is a a light but sturdy box which increases carrying capacity, reduces the weight of the box and exhibits superior integrity when stacked on an aircraft pallet. www.oserian.com
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WE ARE ECOSYSTEM AND ECONOMY OF OUR OWN Oserian is as close to an independent entity as one can get, a mini-government of its own with a have a population of 11,000 people who live within the company premises. These are our employees and their dependants. Oserian has been numerously feted as a best company in various activities of its business undertakings. Examples include the Renewable Energy Awards 2019 champion, by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, International Grower of Year by the International Association of Horticulture Producers, and the Employer of the Year by the Kenya Federation of Employers. Others are Kenya National Farmers Awards 2014, most innovative African www.oserian.com
Producer (Sainsbury’s Supermarket of the UK). Oserian wins awards for level of commitment to environmental protection, working environment for staff and contribution to national economic development. Sitting on 200,000 acres, the 47-year-old farm currently employs 4,100 people, has nine educational institutions for its employees children (ranging from day care centres to kindergarten, primary to secondary schools), a healthcare centre with ambulances, housing for staff.
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These are our employees and their dependants. Oserian has been numerously feted as a best company in various activities of its business undertakings. Examples include the Renewable Energy Awards 2019 champion, by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, International Grower of Year by the International Association of Horticulture Producers, and the Employer of the Year by the Kenya Federation of Employers. Others are Kenya National Farmers Awards 2014, most innovative African Producer (Sainsbury’s Supermarket of the UK). Oserian wins awards for level of commitment to environmental protection, working environment for staff and contribution to national economic development. Sitting on 200,000 acres, the 47-year-old farm currently employs 4,100 people, has nine educational institutions for its employees children (ranging from day care centres to kindergarten, primary to secondary schools), a healthcare centre with ambulances, housing for staff, electricity independently sourced from geothermal energy and roads the company has built and tarmacked for itself. To really walk the Oserian journey, The Flowering Dutchman, a memoir about the life of the founder Hans Zwager and his wife June is a recommended read. Oserian challenges its management team to be better each and every day, to see what can be developed, improved, made more efficient, or performed more effectively. The Company has also consolidated its widely spread farm into a much smaller area within the geothermal production jurisdiction. Additionally, new offices have been built, enhanced warehousing, storage and packing facilities have been introduced, and the Company’s distribution channels have also been refined. We have acquired seven electric vehicles from the Netherlands to transport flowers from the greenhouses across a much shorter distance to the packhouse for grading and packing. The capacity of our cold storage has been increased by 25 percent to enhance cooling and strictly observe the sub-five degrees optimum temperature for quality assurance. Inevitably, with such equipment, space, facilities and industry knowledge in-house, Oserian can stick to a truly vertically integrated business model; complementing its internal capabilities with external specialists across areas of logistics, cool chain management, and supply chain management in order to improve the experience levels contributing to the business, as well as the overall economy of scale enjoyed by the Company. www.oserian.com
Head Office, PO Box 2010, Naivasha 20117, Kenya Email info@oserian.com www.oserian.com