Hillenraad100 edition 2017 English

VOLUME 15 | 2017 JUBILEE EDITION

Hillenraad

100 THE ONE HUNDRED MOST PROMINENT COMPANIES IN THE HORTICULTURE INDUSTRY

Interviews with

Annemieke Roobeek ‘The Netherlands is unique.

But for how long?’

Martine van Zijll Langhout ‘That is the biggest motive: control, living and surviving.’

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GREEN TRADE CENTER

BY WATERDRINKER AALSMEER

I T A L L S TA R T E D BA K IN 1968 WHEN A DUT H PHARMA IST SU EEDED IN AT I N NE LETTU E SEED

THE W

RLD

WES Y

U

NE, DAVID!

Incotec’s history actually dates back to way before

After substantial research, patience and perse-

Incotec was founded. The seed trade began to

verance, he succeeded. This resulted, in 1968,

flourish in the mid-19th century in the Netherlands

in the foundation of Incotec (short for INtegrated

and a company called Gebroeders Sluis was

COating and seed TEChnology) first as a new

established in 1868. In the early 1960s plant raisers

department within the company Royal Sluis.

were increasingly looking to mechanise their

That very same year saw the launch of the first

sowing activities, but that proved difficult due

commercial product: the Split Pill ®, a splitting

to the irregular shape of seed.

pellet for lettuce seed. Now, some 50 years

Cor Vis, a flower breeder at Gebroeders Sluis,

later, Incotec is an independent company and

hit on the idea of replicating a technique used in

has grown to become the #1 global market leader

the pharmaceutical industry. He approached David

in seed enhancement, producing coatings for nine

Dirkse, a pharmacist at the Amsterdam Chinine

arable crops and providing seed treatments for

Factory, and research into coating vegetable seeds

more than 20 vegetable crops. So wherever you

seriously got underway in 1963. David sought a

are in the world, whenever you see a splendid crop

solution to the problem of irregularly shaped seeds,

field stretching as far as the eye can see, you now

and drew inspiration from the technique of turning

know that it is partly thanks to David’s success in

medical pills in a round coating pan.

pelletising a lettuce seed for the very first time.

Contributing to feeding the world, by getting the utmost out of your seed

the seed enhancement company Part of Croda International Plc

w w w. i n c o t e c . c o m

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 3

Colophon Publisher Aldenborg B.V. Westlandse Poort ABC Westland 127 2685 DB Poeldijk The Netherlands

Research Hillenraad Partners Cindy van Rijswick Hans Verwegen Wilco van den Berg

Compilation and review Hillenraad100 Peergroup The Committee of Experts www.hillenraad.nl

Editors Henk de Kleine Miranda Koelemij Anita Bassie Martien Penning

Production co-ordination ANIQ Projectorganisatie

Contents 5 Foreword of Martien Penning, publisher Hillenraad100, in this edition’s theme Powerhouse or Nodal firm

The vision of 8 Prof. dr. Annemieke Roobeek, entrepreneur, professor Nyenrode, various committees including ABN AMRO and KLM and chairman of the Committee of Experts of the Hillenraad100 regarding the competitive strength of the Netherlands 10 Martine van Zijll Langhout, veterinary surgeon for wild animals and zoo animals and European recognised veterinary specialist in Zoo Health Management, about eat or be eaten 14 Hillenraad Partners about the cups of change in the horticultural sector

Hillenraad100 7 12 16 17 62 63

Editorial board MiCOMM

Design and styling Stefan van den Ende Vormgvr

Layout and development Paul Scholte Peanutsch.nl

Photography Fotostudio Gerard-Jan Vlekke

Advertisement bookings Princetown Media +31 6 536 301 20

Translation Tekom Vertalers BV

Production realisation ANIQ Projectorganisatie

© Copyright All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

Explanation of the Hillenraad100 model The Committee of Experts Intro Hillenraad100 The Hillenraad Top 100 Intro Hillenraad500+ The Hillenraad Top 500+

Jubilee special 56 56 57 57 58 58 58 58 59

Top 20 according to the top 100 Top 20 according to the peergroup Top 20 on key business figures Top 20 EBITDA-growth Hillenraad Top 100 all times – Number of years on the list Hillenraad Top 100 all times – Top 10 net increase in ranking Hillenraad Top 100 all times – Top 10 stable players Hillenraad Top 100 all times – Mutations Hillenraad Top 100 all times

Challenging concepts 60 Patrick Hurenkamp of bloomon 68 John Bijl of Vitro Plus 72 Andreas Hofland of HortiKey

Horticultural business worldwide 67 Global players in horticulture 71 The continent Oceania

Horticulture in perspective 74 Composition and division of Top 10 companies in turnover and number of employees Composition and division of Top 100 by category and region Top 10 horticultural countries worldwide in salade vegetables and floriculture Top 10 horticultural municipalties and horticultural products in the Netherlands Composition and division of Top 10 companies in total greenhouse area and number of international branches Composition and division of Top 100 by ownership structure

We handle things easy www.bromeliaspecialist.nl

FOREWORD

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 5

Powerhouse or nodal firm An anniversary is always the perfect moment to reflect and look ahead, which is what this Hillenraad100 is all about. Which companies are at the top this year and will they stay there? What is the strategic basis for growth and continuity? And what makes a company indispensable? If you don’t add any value, you’re out. After all, transaction costs will be minimised wherever possible. Choosing the correct position is, therefore, more important than ever, hence the ‘Powerhouse or nodal firm’ annual theme.

The intention of the Hillenraad100 is to point out the developments in horticulture each year in order to elevate the sector. We draw from different sources to conduct research and prepare an analysis. Input from the companies, an analysis of trends and developments that influence the markets. This year, we added another new, interesting component to the mix, but you will read more about that at the end of this article. Previously, we continuously saw other topical themes rule the roost. We have been writing about disruption, the technological revolution and the network economy since 2012. And when we observe these new Hillenraad100 enterprises from a distance, we see that they are really changing through the application of technology, a different market approach, a renewed innovation process and outside capital. There will be momentum. The changes are having an impact.

In our ranking, we foresee a strengthened volatility in the coming years. Companies could rise, fall or even disappear from the list faster than ever before. Therefore, companies must be more versatile than ever before.

Changing foundation

When we unravel the current fundamental pattern, the basis for future success becomes visible, i.e. distinction between, and the choice for, a powerhouse or nodal firm. This is our theme this year. A powerhouse is big and makes the rules. A nodal firm occupies a crucial position in a larger whole. This ‘node’ is small but essential. Each company’s right to exist is becoming increasingly dependent on the quality of their connection with the market. Because of their size and methods, powerhouses understand the direct market demand and fulfil a directing function. Nodal firms can do that too, albeit it from a unique, indispensable proposition in the network.

The influence of fundamental changes on the sector are continuously increasing; the flow of investment capital, the transition from agricultural production industry to controlled process industry and the connecting platforms between producer and consumer. In essence, there are only two ways to stay in the game: either become a powerhouse or nodal firm. It is a fact that since the 15th century, both ‘frames’ have complemented our business acumen well. Excelling in doing business efficiently and effectively for the lowest transaction costs. The clever organisation of a crosslinked network of suppliers, partners and customers. This principle will never change. What will change is the pace due to all sorts of technological developments. And with it, the need to further determine your position now.

Hillenraad100 renewed

In compiling the Hillenraad100, we aimed our search at a stronger connection within the network on the principle of ‘practice what you preach’. In this respect, a peergroup was added to the Hillenraad100 assessment. This group consists of 40 selected professionals who gave us their well-considered opinion of their ‘fellows’ in the sector.

And, to make the sector even more aware of new challenges, we added ‘challenging concepts’ this year. In this way, we provide a stage for the possible game changers of the sector. To conclude, what doesn’t change is our ambition to collaborate on the establishment of a global top position for Dutch horticulture, with powerhouses and nodal firms, and with a solid position for Dutch horticulture at essential hubs within a global network.

Martien Penning Initiator Hillenraad100

Advice is like air Advice is like a breath of fresh air. It’s like a window that you open to enjoy a new day full of opportunities.

Advice starts with getting things off your chest. By talking to someone who knows the business, who looks at your challenges from a new perspective.

Our solid advice helps entrepreneurs in the horticulture industry to find the answers that give air to breathe.

» Strategy » Organisation development » Finance » Mergers and acquisitions » Business monitoring » Innovation

Martien Penning

+31 6 51016009

Hans van den Ende +31 6 48374322 Jaap Stolze

+31 6 53942125

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 7

The Hillenraad100 model is a simplified representation of a real situation. With this the we aim to reflect reality as accurately as possible, which means we constantly adapt our model in accordance with this reality. We have also added a peergroup assessment this year, which allows the opinions of a select group of sector associates to be considered in the overall evaluation. To clarify this, the infographic below gives a simplified representation of the model.

NE W !

Sources

Company info

Financial

Qualitative

Peergroup

Hillenraad100 Model 1

2

3

4

Qualitative assessment

Quantitative assessment

Growth (EBITDA CAGR)

Industry footprint

3.120 Reviews

520

Company assessments

6

criteria

Model ranking

1

13

Strategy

Companies assessed per peer

2

Growth potential

3

Innovation

Committee of experts

4

Professionalism

5

40

Sustainability

Members

6

Performance

Final ranking

22%

Floriculture

20%

Food horticulture

58%

General (service, supply)

89% Male

11% Female

13%

< 40 year

87%

> 41 year

PEERGROUP COMPOSITION

8|

Prof. dr. Annemieke Roobeek, entrepeneur, professor Nyenrode, various committees and chairman of the Committe of Experts ‘The horticulture cluster is so interesting because it is the Netherlands’ most complex cluster. However, the horticulture cluster as a whole is not operating as a single entity with a shared vision. In my opinion the Dutch horticulture industry functions as a collection of businesses in adjacent sectors.’

INTERVIEW

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 9

‘The Netherlands is unique.

But for how long?’

‘We are sliding down the innovation ladder. We are simply not doing well enough.’ These strong statements were made by Professor Annemieke Roobeek in an interview for accountancy firm KPMG in 2015. Two years later, the new chair of the Committee of Experts still sees little real progress. ‘New players are greedily working to capitalise on our vegetable cultivation and floriculture knowledge, which took us centuries to accumulate. The Dutch horticulture cluster is too fragmented in its operation, and innovation is suboptimal.’

Annemieke Roobeek has built up an impressive CV in the field of strategy and innovation.

Formerly a Professor of Metropolitan Issues, Annemieke has now been Professor of Strategy and Transformation Management at the Nyenrode Business University for many years. She is also a supervisory director at ABN AMRO and KLM. She made the statement at the beginning of this article in her position as supervisory director at ABN AMRO regarding the competitive strength of the Netherlands.

The complete quote is specifically applicable to the horticulture industry. ‘In my view the top sector policy is not the right approach.

It is the wrong way to deal with this issue, as I demonstrated years ago in my thesis.

What is the right way? As is the case elsewhere, establishing good connections is a determining factor in the horticulture industry, such as between innovative, established businesses, fast growers and start-ups, supplemented with enterprising scientists and progressive consultants.

Together they form the innovative ecosystem.’

Recently, Annemieke Roobeek has focused increasingly on the Dutch horticulture industry.

Together with her strong statement, this provided the incentive to ask her to succeed Willem Vermeend and lead the Committee of Experts. Her current professorship is her reason for meticulously analysing and filtering the Dutch horticulture cluster. ‘I discussed the subject of clusters, ecosystems and networks with a group of international MBA students.

We originally planned to use a Harvard case from 2011 called “The Dutch Flower Cluster” as a case study. Even though it was a fairly new case study, I thought it was dated, as developments move so quickly. I have therefore spent the past years conducting an in-depth investigation into what is really going on in the Dutch horticulture cluster, focusing specifically on where the risks and opportunities lie.’

Suboptimal innovation

‘The horticulture cluster is so interesting because it is the Netherlands’ most complex cluster. It is a rich collection of businesses, sectors and subsectors. Propagation material, cultivation, sales, auctioning, logistics, technology, ICT - the industry has

everything. These pillars can also be found in the Committee of Experts. However, there is a flaw within that great diversity and vastness. If you look closely, there is no fundamental driving force behind everything.

I believe that the opportunities lie in a new collective vision of production and sales, with data driven, sustainable and remotely controllable processes.

We can see that a number of businesses are taking individual steps in this direction.

Among the Hillenraad100 businesses, we are seeing the first cases of remote growing, sensor deployment, data analysis for cultivation and data research into consumer behaviour. However, the horticulture cluster as a whole is not operating as a single entity with a shared vision. In my opinion the Dutch horticulture industry functions as a collection of businesses in adjacent sectors. Although there is some crossover, and some contact between like-minded organisations, as a whole it is suboptimal. One way or another the sector should work towards a strong IT-driven foundation under this cluster of clusters. That is the first thing. In addition we should aim for greater synergy in the supply.

With niche players acting in conjunction with the major players, and with the digital support structure, we can come up with collective answers to the global issues. We can be the frontrunner who controls the market on the basis of data and variety.’

‘Establishing good connections is a determining factor.’

Genuinely new concepts

Annemieke Roobeek has not really seen any genuinely new concepts come from the Dutch horticulture industry for many years.

‘All things considered it is really just more of the same. It may be larger, more international, with a greater use of technology, but just consider that in 2030 or thereabouts over two thirds of the global population will live in cities or megacities. That puts new cultivation

techniques such as vertical and urban farming in a different light. Individual businesses in the Hillenraad100 are working on this, but I believe that it could be tackled far more intelligently. Where are the consortiums that act together? Where are the links with the urban planners, policy makers, and mayors of these megacities? Where are the connections with the emergence of smart cities? As an entrepreneur, I would be scratching my head in bewilderment if I heard that the brother of Elon Musk plans to get involved in the world of urban farming, or if I heard that countries such as Korea were gearing up in the field of vertical farming, or if I noticed that the Amazons of this world have discovered the food trade.’

Different speeds

‘I of course realise that major enterprises in particular will not suddenly change course overnight. And of course, I realise that the predictions of people like me sound like fantasies in the here and now. I know that we can praise everything that start-ups do through the roof, even while they sometimes fail to generate returns as existing large enterprises continue to rake in profits. But we need both. The senior who says “Let’s wait and see,” is just as valuable as the kid who says “I’m going to give it a shot.” We cannot allow ourselves to be lulled to sleep by the great results many businesses are generating at this high point in time, or by the seeming stability of the composition of the Hillenraad100.

So much is going on, and outsiders at home and abroad are getting ready, which is why this year, the Hillenraad100 is so focused on so-called Challenging Concepts - ideas that could fundamentally change the horticulture industry. These appeal to me because in them, I see businesses increasingly reasoning from the perspective of demand. I also see new blood, fresh faces and new insights on the Committee of Experts. But despite all this, I still miss a shared sense of urgency across the cluster. So, now that I am in the position to meddle with the horticulture industry, I would say: get your act together.’

10 |

Martine van Zijll Langhout, veterinary surgeon for wild animals and zoo animals and European recognised veterinary specialist in Zoo Health Management ‘Animals exist. We humans, however, can reflect on what we are doing, helped by spoken and written language. We are able to make more or less conscious choices. That is both our strength and our weakness.’

INTERVIEW

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 11

Nothing animal is alien to us In our human world we like to look for analogies in the animal kingdom. Society is a jungle.

Survival of the fittest. Those are the terms that immediately spring to mind. And, of course, eat or be eaten. What better person to comment on this comparison than Martine van Zijll Langhout, a veterinary surgeon specialising in wild animals. She has travelled all over the world since 1992, in wildlife reserves, wild animal shelters and zoos and also spending lengthy periods on her own in the rainforest or African bush. ‘On my own? That’s amusing. It is a typical example of a view from the human perspective!’

Wild animals live in an environment that most people - and definitely entrepreneurs - feel uncomfortable in because they have no control over it. You could even say that danger is lurking at all times of the day and night. ‘No,’ says Martine, ‘let us get rid of that perception first. Wild animals focus on their own lives, as in finding a partner, reproducing and surviving.

It’s not that animals approach me when I travel through a South African nature reserve or the Gabon rainforest. Why would they?

On the contrary, wild animals - apart from those that need something from us, such as insects needing our blood - have the natural inclination and intuition to avoid the unknown.

Most wild animals know instinctively that those weird two-legged animals are very dangerous. When in such an environment, survival is the first thing that comes to mind.

You have to be wide awake, all senses on edge, continuously alert and paying attention to every sound. It is also essential to blindly trust your body to see, smell and hear everything and to run without stumbling. In a dense rainforest, where you can barely see ahead, you could suddenly be confronted by a herd of elephants or step on a snake. I regularly find myself in fairly dangerous situations, but that’s all part of the job, so you accept it.

And then, when you return to Schiphol and touch down in a western society, you suddenly notice something. In my opinion we live in the safest and most prosperous conditions ever experienced in human history. And yet we are scared. I sometimes wonder if we still trust our instincts, our own senses and body. Do we cherish life at all? Many of us are trapped inside our heads. We don’t perceive, we think.

Homo sapiens, the thinking man. This way of living does something to organisations, to countries, to the world.’

Survival strategies

‘Fear is a guiding principle in organisations and societies with dominant and physically strong leaders,’ observes Martine. ‘Look at some of the ape species, where the alpha male resorts to control through violence, causing himself a great deal of stress. In addition, for many ape species, including chimpanzees, good social skills are essential to be accepted as leader. Animals do what has proven to be effective to survive, reproduce and care for the survival of their young. Animals exist.

We humans, however, can reflect on what we are doing, helped by spoken and written language. We are able to make more or less

conscious choices. That is both our strength and our weakness. An animal trusts its own strength, knows how far it can go, because it has learned this through trial and error since birth. Living in a group is essential for social animals. Some even live in huge groups, such as beehives and ant hills. Ant hills may consist of millions of individual insects but are, in fact, one large organism. Elephants live in herds of females and calves as this offers their vulnerable offspring maximum protection. The elephant bulls, however, can afford to live alone thanks to their strength and size. As I understood it, the terms powerhouse and nodal firm are used in this Hillenraad100. Perhaps you can compare the bull to a powerhouse and the herd to a nodal firm. They can’t, however, survive without each other. So they live accordingly. For 35 million years, or even longer for other animal species.

In comparison, modern man has only walked this earth for 100,000 years.’

‘That is the biggest motive: control, living and surviving.’

Connection

‘What makes it so hard for humans,’ says Martine, ‘is that we have to make so many choices. As organisations we could opt for setting up our businesses as powerhouses or nodal firms to maintain or restore our control over the work and living environment. After all, that is the biggest motive: control, living and surviving. This starts by being awake, knowing your environment, knowing yourself, your talents and also your limitations. Connection is what it’s all about. That is what I liked so much about relying on myself in the rainforest.

You almost automatically connect to your environment, your senses, body, strengths and weaknesses. A physically healthy animal is in harmony with itself and will only confront another living being if it has a good reason for it as an attack could also go wrong for the animal. Confrontations take place for a reason, such as scarcity or hunger. In unspoilt nature, such as rainforests, oceans or on the polar caps, all life is connected. These ecosystems

are incredibly important. There is so much we can learn from nature. Your biggest chance of survival is when you’re connected. This can be done in several ways. The only reason why animal species all live in their own unique way is that this greatly increases their chances of survival and that of their young.

Diversity

While wandering the earth and through her adventurous work and life in natural surroundings, Martine has learned how essential diversity is as regards that connection. ‘Whether you are big or small, you are ultimately always part of an even greater whole. An ecosystem cannot exist of one species, and the same applies to organisations and enterprises. The great tragedy for the human race is that we think we are independent and not part of that bigger ecosystem. We see ourselves and our own individual self as central, even though we are nothing more than a very small link in a very big chain. We exist by the grace of diversity, flexibility and connection. That is where my focus would be, if I was leading an enterprise.

Fear limits your flexibility. You cannot build the strongest societies and companies on fear.

Animals in fear flee and undertake nothing.

You could do that for a while, but at some stage you would have to move on. Faith will ultimately get you further. Faith in yourself and your team, in what you can and cannot do, and faith in the added value of the other.

Humans tend to approach matters from a dominant point of view and sometimes forget that dominance in itself is not a goal.

For animals, dominance always serves a function: the survival of the strongest genes and maintaining the group within the borders of the ecosystem. By nature, each animal occupies its optimal place; it either contributes to a greater whole or can fully support itself.

However, even in that last scenario it will still be part of an even greater whole. To stay with Hillenraad100 terminology: ultimately, the entire world seems to be one big nodal firm that we are all a very small part of. Aren’t we?’

12 |

a

Silke Tijkotte

Lead & founder Let it Grow

Innovation in our sector’s companies is more important than ever, not just for companies doing B2B but also towards the consumer.

Which company is adapting best to the changes that impact our sector? Which companies also have the sound financial basis to adapt? I am of the opinion that innovative power and entrepreneurship are more important than ever! The right leadership is awarded with a position on the Hillenraad100.

The strength of this list is that it encompasses the entire horticulture sector, which enables us to learn a lot from each other’s entrepreneurship. Let’s make even better use of it, because we can all be proud that these companies make corporate Netherlands so strong! b

Harm Maters

Chairman of AVAG

In the current economic climate, profit growth and rapid application of innovation are prerequisites. For this purpose, strategy is important, but not as important as the almost simultaneous execution of the strategy. More and more, this is making the difference for the companies in the Hillenraad100. c

Lars Boellaard

Managing partner & civil-law notary at Westland Partners

With its 14 previous editions, the Hillenraad100 has proven itself to be a valuable tool for ranking the leading horticulture companies. Where in the past the list mainly attracted attention from within the sector, the 15th edition also announces the sector’s strength to the outside world. The 15th edition stands for innovation, and with its undiminished thorough approach, evolving insights into the weighting factors were developed. They challenge the horticulture industry to embrace innovation itself as well.

As a result of innovation, the Hillenraad100 is future-proof. And by innovating, the Dutch horticulture industry will remain leading. d

Cees Uitbeijerse

Accountant, horticulture specialist for BDO Accountants & Adviseurs

The Hillenraad100 is an excellent arena to present the most renowned companies in the horticulture cluster both nationally and internationally. To that end, the assessment by an composition of the Committee of Experts is evolving, resulting in an annual and sharp ‘3D picture’ of this dynamic sector.

That is the strength and value of both the Hillenraad100 and the sector. e

Gert Mulder

Director of GroentenFruit Huis

‘It’s a subjective list. I refuse to cooperate.’

That’s how a company described the Hillenraad100 to me. It’s everybody’s choice to participate or not but as far as subjectivity is concerned, I know better by now. An extremely

meticulous assessment process including final assessment by a versatile and experienced Committee of Experts ensures optimal objectivity. In addition, the Committee of Experts mainly discusses companies in terms of their impact, their exemplary position with respect to new developments, their passion, and their impact on the Dutch horticulture industry and economy. New companies are added to the list every year. These are all leading companies. I think that’s the true value of the Hillenraad100. The ranking is a nice detail but the fact that you’re on the list is a testament to the importance of your company. I have one wish for the future though, and that is to have a Hillenraad100 for emerging companies and start-ups. f

Arnold Hordijk

Administrator, Adviser and Supervisory Director

The great value of the 15th edition of the Hillenraad100 is that it has evolved, both at home and abroad, into an institution that visualises the strength of Dutch horticulture.

It’s the individual companies and their mutual collaboration that make Dutch horticulture as strong as it is. The Hillenraad100 is compiled using indicators that develop along with the times. Continuous attention to strategy, performance, growth both in size and financial result, innovation, reputation, employer involvement, and client orientation are important for a good ranking in the Hillenraad100. The list is a good indicator of the developments in the business world.

This is what makes the Hillenraad100 so valuable. It gives entrepreneurs the incentive to compare themselves with the competition and therefore stimulates improvement. And that is exactly why Dutch horticulture has become so successful. It’s a challenge to remain successful, however, one that can be overcome by not overestimating our positions as individual companies in the international playing field and sales chain, and by dealing with issues through collaboration. g

Martien Penning

Founder Hillenraad100

To us, the Hillenraad100 is and remains the annual quest to unearth the large movements in horticulture, based on the developments of the sector’s star players. The Hillenraad100 visualises the developments and profiles the sector as a professional and inspiring global player in food, flowers and technology. h

Annemieke Roobeek

MeetingMoreMinds, Nyenrode Professor, several supervisory board posts, including ABN AMRO and KLM

The Hillenraad100 is a dynamic benchmark.

You don’t get a ranking on that list without a reason. Every company on the list should feel special. The strength of this 15th Hillenraad is that, in addition to objective facts and figures on the performances of the companies, more weight was attached this year to the

qualitative input from peers, colleagues who qualitatively assess who is really special.

A list such as the Hillenraad thrives on increased dynamics. Otherwise it becomes rather predictable. Now that more value is attached to innovation, sustainability, special contributions to the sector, and innovative entrepreneurship, the list has more punch.

Of course, this is the first year of this new approach but it is expected that innovators will be more in the limelight in coming years.

This is important as the sector is in need of many new people with different knowledge, technical views and marketing abilities. People who want to work for companies that look beyond revenues and are also actively involved in innovation and new markets that will provide a sustainable and strong foundation for the sector. i

Nico van Ruiten

Administrator LTO Glaskracht/former entrepreneur

The companies in the Hillenraad100 reflect the importance, the innovative power, and growth of the horticulture industry in the Netherlands. Companies are ranked based on various aspects. The fact that this happens in a competitive but at the same time amicable atmosphere is unique, and characterises the sector. Companies are driven by their ambitions and by the market. The feeling of pride to be of societal significance that an entrepreneur gets is reinforced by a ranking on this list. j

Niels Louwaars

Managing Director of Plantum

The strength of the Hillenraad100 is that it shows the unique, collective power of horticulture in the Netherlands. After all, entrepreneurship in individual companies expresses itself in relationship to the other enterprises in the various chains. It’s not just about ranking excellent companies, but rather about the entire list that is announced to the outside world! k

Jan van den Heuvel

Entrepreneur, founder of Hagé

The strength and value of the Hillenraad100 have been firmly established over the past 15 years. Every year, we long for the new edition. The initiators’ bold approach has been rewarded with broad national and international interest. Providing insight into the relationships within the sector, whereby listing and delisting are the order of the day, is a complex assignment and a major challenge. Horticulture and trade are dynamic sectors. To take a snapshot of the sector and, on top of that, anticipate the success of top entrepreneurship in the future is a daring undertaking, not in the least because the longlisted companies do not always excel in transparency. The Hillenraad100 can persevere on the path it has taken, even after 15 years, because it delivers an essential contribution to the sector.

COMITTE OF EXPERTS

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 13

The Dutch horticulture industry is unique, but it must be continuously challenged to innovate and prove itself With the Hillenraad100, we chart the movements of the sector on an annual basis. We look at the moves made by the leading horticulture companies in the Netherlands over the past year and where this has led them. But Hillenraad100 is also a crossroads where yesterday, today and tomorrow meet. With the theme, the vision article and in a number of profiles, we take a look ahead and so do the member s of the Committee of Experts. What trends do they expect to be important in the years to come? Naturally, each member of the committee answered that question from their own perspective. The following quotes give a varied picture of what the sector can expect and what we will have to do.

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

14 |

Martien Penning, Hans van den Ende en Jaap Stolze, Hillenraad Partners ‘Exponential organising is required to remain agile and among the winners.

Companies are at a crossroads: they must choose to become a powerhouse or a nodal firm.’

VISION

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 15

Horticulture on the cusp of change Each year, Hillenraad Partners offers a perspective on the developments in the hortisector. As the changes are gathering momentum, there is an increasing need for entrepreneurs to take a decision: ‘Powerhouse or nodal firm? That is the critical issue for the coming years.’

‘We are a tech company contemplating the future of food.’ These are the words of Irving Fain from an interview with Forbes in January 2017. Irving Fain is the CEO of Bowery Farming, an American producer of ‘post-organic produce’ in ‘local vertical farms’. This fairly new company received a kickstart because General Catalyst, GGV Capital and GV (formerly Google Ventures) jointly invested 20 million dollars in it. In Japan, we are witnessing companies such as Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Panasonic becoming increasingly and intensely interested in what is called ‘agricultural technology’. Much closer to home, in Poeldijk, many more examples like this are brought to the table in our discussion with the three Hillenraad Partners.

Each year, Martien Penning, Hans van den Ende and Jaap Stolze present their vision on the major developments in the hortisector.

The recent years, the subtext of their analyses was: ‘Horticultural entrepreneur, be aware of the rapidly changing global market, the impact of new technology, and the choices that you can make in this sector.’ This year, they are seeing these dynamics accelerating enormously, which is emphasised by numerous examples. Hans van den Ende kicks off: ‘We are seeing a great number of developments from outside the sector that are going to change it beyond recognition, e.g. the influx of loan capital, management without ‘green fingers’, and IT. This requires a different kind of expertise and therefore employees with new knowledge.

Finally, you see that exponential organising is required to remain agile and among the winners. Forget about doing everything yourself and build a network instead.

Mitsubishi has been doing this for years with their cars: control the market using your scale, and then make your products using a flock of small specialists. Mitsubishi is already applying that MO. to the agricultural sector. Mind you, the technology giants are approaching rapidly.’

Powerhouse or nodal firm

Martien Penning continues: ‘We believe that if you want your agro enterprise to have any sort of market footprint you will have to make a fundamental choice. Companies are at a crossroads: they must choose to become a powerhouse or a nodal firm.

Potential powerhouses are undergoing major professionalisation at present, in combination with serious upscaling. In the old economy, that development was mainly commercial, as scale resulted in cost advantages and efficiency. In the new economy, scale has a

different aim and necessity. It allows you to acquire the right people, such as data, marketing, and ICT specialists. Without that new expertise, the professionalisation battle cannot be won. Already, we can see the winners emerging, as they chose that path a long time ago.

They have achieved a scale that makes it almost impossible to catch up with them.

Furthermore, they are using all that new knowledge, expertise and more to accelerate.

For instance, if a floriculture company says: ‘We definitely should try to improve our sales,’ they are way too late. They need to realise that, in time, they may be producing under licence from a large player that made the moves a lot earlier. It’s easy to name the powerhouses in the Hillenraad100. But we are also seeing companies that have consciously opted to become nodal firms. These are the companies that make something unique, that are essential nodes in the network.’

Platforms are game changers

Another major development plays a role in being either a large key player or small but indispensable, explains Martien. ‘In the old economy, it was the powerhouses, the sales cooperatives, the growers’ associations or the export trade companies that got the products in the pipeline as efficiently as possible. In the new economy, the starting point has shifted 180°, as it’s all about who is in control on the demand side. So it’s just a matter of ‘backward reasoning’ and properly organising your sourcing and logistics. He who controls the leading platform on the demand side will win.

That’s why parties such as Amazon and Google are entering the arena. In the Netherlands, newcomers such as Picnic and bloomon have grand plans.’

‘Make sure to be indispensable or inescapable.’

Private equity as a turbo compressor

This whole development is very much interlinked with the increasing influence of loan capital. That is the main driver.

Jaap Stolze: ‘Although still in its infancy, you can see that companies are being divided into property and management. The influx of loan

capital and new ownership is going to change a lot. The present director-owners often have no personal interest in expanding internationally, for instance. Why do in the US what you are doing successfully in the Netherlands? For a new, external party, this is different. They are working with investments and profit, resulting in a totally different drive to further roll out the concept worldwide. Increasingly, new players will enter the arena: venture capitalists.

They are able to offer the enormous sums that are required for R&D, market penetration and international growth.’

New order

The three partners realise that their story resembles the one from previous years: everything will change. However, they emphasise that this time, the change will be fundamental. The entire foundation will change. ‘You really have to take your position now. Is it going to be powerhouse or nodal firm? Subsequently, the approach needs to be further specified, applying the Treacy and Wiersema triplet: customer intimacy, operational excellence or product leadership?

So, make sure to be indispensable or inescapable one way or the other. Ask yourself the question, more than ever before: ‘Which network do I belong to? Am I positioned at a crucial junction, a node? Of which market or part of it do I want to become champion?

Can I still participate?’ If you find it difficult to answer these questions then remember, there are always specialists that can help you make these choices.’

16 |

The Hillenraad100, 2017 edition

Things are heating up again for Dutch horticulture and far beyond. Huge investments are being made in people, resources and markets while takeovers, additions and innovations take place. It resembles the anniversary year of 2007 when the sky was the limit for Dutch horticulture. This all happened 10 years ago, which means that the seven lean years lasted almost a decade. Are we now in for seven prosperous years? Who can say? We will, however, try to clarify the developments with this Hillenraad100 and present a ranking that stirs the imagination. Leading companies that are growing faster than ever before. Growth is and will remain essential to maintaining the lead and growing with the market and customers, which allows one to recruit and pay for the right talent.

This is horticulture in 2017. A match played very much on the cutting edge and of which the end is rather uncertain. The future seems less predictable than ever before. Those that now position themselves well may eventually win first prize, which is why we would like to encourage some healthy competition and again present the top 100 as representative of the developments in the horticulture industry.

The horticulture cluster and corporate Netherlands

The companies in the Hillenraad100 are the leading companies among the approx.

20,000 that make up the entire Dutch horticulture cluster. This cluster is of great value to the Dutch economy and is regarded by the government as one of our top sectors.

Innovation and competition are fierce, and they are essential to the Dutch economy.

The horticulture industry employs approx.

100,000 people. Collectively, the Hillenraad top 100 companies in this edition have a turnover of 10.37 billion euros and provide employment for 60,250 people, of which 17,255 are in the Netherlands. If we add the 500+ companies to that, the collective turnover will be 21.19 billion euros with employment for 72,875 people, of which 22,108 are in the Netherlands.

Recognition for entrepreneurship

The selection of these top 100 businesses goes beyond a ranking. We also try to capture and clarify the latest developments. We not only see emerging businesses, but also those that have had to reinvent themselves after some excellent years to reconnect with changing market conditions. Getting to the top is hard, but sometimes it is even harder to stay there. A place in the top 100 is recognition of strong entrepreneurship. All honour to the 100 that made it.

Assessment

In making the assessment, Hillenraad employs a multi-disciplinary business model based on broad categories. See the diagram on page 7.

The model is based on four pillars: a qualitative assessment (six factors), a quantitative assessment of key business figures, the average EBITDA growth (CAGR) and finally, the nature, size and chain position of the business (i.e. its industry footprint). The key business figures describe how the trend developed over time. The â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;industry footprintâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is all about absolute figures. The qualitative assessment is based on a Hillenraad assessment complemented with the results of the new peergroup.

Committee of Experts

The Hillenraad100 is composed according to a careful procedure. The point of departure for the assessment is the research by the editorial team of Hillenraad100 and the consultants of Hillenraad Partners. The results of the research model are then presented to the Committee of Experts. It is an intense process of balancing the scales. The final listing is the combined result of facts, noteworthy information and the expertsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; opinions.

This makes the list vital and at times a touch self-indulgent.

Open competition

The Hillenraad100 is an open competition for companies in the knowledge and capitalintensive horticulture industry. We take a broader view than just greenhouse products.

The list contains companies from the horticulture cluster with a firm foundation in the Netherlands and a wide international perspective. Hillenraad closely observes no fewer than 250 of them. We look for the leading companies in the horticulture industry.

The Hillenraad100 is therefore the leading monitor when it comes to developments and dynamics in the sector. As we wish to offer a complete image, businesses can also be placed on the list without first being asked. By doing so, we create a list of companies that matter.

Rising or falling

The sector is constantly evolving thanks to internationalisation, scaling-up, chain reduction, mergers and acquisitions, and this affects the rankings. To stagnate is to decline, and companies that are performing well rise on the list, while those that have stagnated fall. Our aim is to achieve a stringent assessment but to always put it in a positive light. Together, we can make the sector stronger.

Accountability Statement

To discover how the assessments are made, what the entry criteria are, which assessment criteria have been chosen and how a stratified cluster model works, visit our website at www. hillenraad100.nl/verantwoording.

Top 100 legend

Since 2003, the Hillenraad100 has provided an overview of the leading businesses in the knowledge and capital-intensive greenhouse and horticulture industry. We assess companies throughout the cluster, because the power of the industry lies in its internal coherence. The company profiles have been carefully compiled by our editorial team from a variety of sources. A short description of the company is accompanied by various figures relating to its size. The editorial team used information provided by the companies and gained from public sources, and took developments into account up to midAugust 2017.

Category Category within the horticulture cluster Total turnover Total group turnover Turnover, H100-Q Turnover relevant to the Hillenraad100 assessment Employees, total Total number of employees Employees, NL Employees on the payroll in the Netherlands International Number of branches branches outside the Netherlands Figures marked Estimates by with * Hillenraad100 due to lack of public sources

TOP 100

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 17

98 Bromelia Specialist

100

new

Dijk van Dijk

Category production Total turnover € 7,704,000 Employees total 60 Employees NL 23 www.dijkvandijk.nl

‘Within the trade, we are the Hydrangea pot 14 market leaders.’ Dijk van Dijk wrote this sentence in its application to enter the Hillenraad100.

It’s a line that will only make the trade happy - more than happy.

Towards the consumer, Dijk van Dijk–fortunately–uses a much warmer register. We read the slogan ‘Masters in Hydrangea’ and watched a truly beautiful online presentation, in which Robin van Dijk’s portrait, including cap and full beard, caught our attention. We see a good attitude, and passion and enjoyment in making the best Hydrangea.

This company simply oozes enjoyment. Following an intense strategy project, a clear course has now been set until 2020. This entails a greater focus on breeding, as well as collaborating in this respect with Sjaak van Schie, that other specialist. This is exactly what distinguishes the leader from the follower. Dijk van Dijk has a greater presence in the market, and image is very important in the new economy, whether we like it or not. Dijk van Dijk has a strong position and there are developments on all fronts based on the new strategy: digitisation, new MT positions, and even new headquarters. There’s a reason why Decorum elected these specialists ‘Best Plant Breeder of 2016’. This is the kind of company that we like to see on the list; one that is closer to the consumer.

99

new

Van der Lugt Lisianthus

Category production Total turnover € 15,000,000 * Employees total 35 Employees NL 35 www.vdlugtlisianthus.nl

Van der Lugt Lisianthus is one of the companies in our list that depend on an extremely high degree of specialisation. In its case, it’s the lisianthus, the flower that has the beautiful nickname ‘silk rose’.

The lisianthus has American roots and was refined into its current delicate appearance in Japan. It’s a very vulnerable flower, a product that requires highly skilled cultivation professionals and serious care during distribution. Van der Lugt sells 16 different varieties of lisianthus, totalling 600,000 stems per week. In other words, this company mastered a specialism that cannot be copied easily; here, expertise and professionalism go hand in hand with a unique product.

Florists or online suppliers that wish to carry the lsianthus in their assortment will not be able to ignore Van der Lugt. This is partly where the future of Dutch horticulture lies, namely to become a hyperspecialist and make sure that your position in the network is firmly and thoroughly secured. A great future will be in store as a result.

Category sales cooperative Total turnover € 22,004,000 Employees total 12 Employees NL 8 www.bromeliaspecialist.nl

According to Bromelia Specialist, its employees are so passionate about this plant that they live on a Bromelain diet. This franchise and sales organisation is European market leader in the production, marketing and sale of… bromelias! This non-profit institution aims to enable chain parties to be successful in the market. For this purpose, it follows the 2020 Strategic Roadmap, which states that Bromelia Specialist wants to evolve from product specialist to consumer specialist. The idea is that if you know what makes the consumer tick you can reverse engineer it back to production. The marketing concept of the anti-snoring plant is an example of this. A pineapple plant in the bedroom will allegedly suppress certain snoring reflexes. In order to monitor whether this and other novelties are successful, the company is working on data driven chains, whereby each step between production and sales is mapped.

The heart of the matter is to fathom the consumer in order to arrive at optimal product/market combinations. Currently, Bromelia Specialist isn’t the most exciting company on our list but it is certainly prominent in its own segment, which is something that the company will find more important than anything else.

97

new

Saint-Gobain Cultilène Nederland

Category supplies Total turnover € 28,180,000 Employees total 2,150 Employees NL 70 International branches 5 www.cultilene.nl

Cultilène is back in the Hillenraad100. Apparently, the Dutch part of the large multinational is just on the right side of prominence.

The peergroup’s positive take on Cultilène was a major reason for the company’s return. Cultilène sees itself as the market leader in the combined substrates (rock wool) and horticulture glass market.

This assumption is open to debate as this combination is so unique that market leadership was established rather soon. Talking about rock wool only, Cultilène Nederland should rather be seen as the challenger of the big player in the Netherlands, which is also on this list. That the company’s portfolio also contains diffuse glass is the result of strategic choices made in 2010, when one didn’t want to be depending on a single product group. At present, the sales of diffuse glass are benefiting from the increasing demand for newly built greenhouses. Cultilène Nederland sees plenty of market opportunities for both rock wool and glass in Western Europe, Asia and North and South America. In order to take advantage of them, the company is participating in numerous innovation networks and projects, such as the Smart Materials for Greenhouses Project and the collaboration within HortiConnect. We are curious whether their ranking is stable now.

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TOP 100

96

new

PB Techniek

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 19

Category supplies Total turnover € 16,306,000 Employees total 67 Employees NL 47 www.pb-techniek.nl

This technical supplier has a high level of comparability with the other newcomer, Stolze (no. 94). Both are specialists in electrical and water engineering, and in the case of PB Techniek, also automation.

Both companies were not extremely well assessed by the peergroup in terms of quality. Apparently, engineering companies are less capable of convincingly presenting their strengths. This is remarkable, as many companies in the Hillenraad100 do business with PB Techniek.

And PB Techniek is most definitely on our radar because there is a lot of potential and acceleration in the engineering segment. PB Techniek has been involved in expanding Dutch horticulture for years now, often being the initiating party. Major players Royal Pride Holland and Agro Care also have PB Techniek to thank for their acreage and technological progress. Recently, the company founded PB Invest II, a vehicle to participate in promising start-ups. It’s an indication of how eager PB Techniek is to keep pace with the most innovative frontrunners.

You only have to look at the development of the CressOmatic together with Koppert Cress, or the state-of-the-art nursery on top of the Amstelkwartier hotel in Amsterdam. We have high expectations for this interesting newcomer.

95

Somewhere on the Internet, SV.CO is described as ‘the colourful innovators’, also because of its recognisable vintage house-style.

It was a refreshing experience indeed when this producer of pot plants, including potted chrysanthemums, entered the Hillenraad100.

But other companies now have lovely house-styles as well and also present themselves to the world in an increasingly attractive and striking way. In that sense, they’re sort of catching up with SV.CO. Growth has been solid for years and yes, the company shows good entrepreneurship. It’s market leader in potted chrysanthemums and it aspires to acquire that same position for kalanchoe. There is nothing wrong with SV.CO’s entrepreneurship, but right now, we don’t see true innovations emerging here. Possibly, the merger between SV.CO and Vreugdenberg will be the next strategic step. It looks like SV.CO is in the process of stringing together specialised pot plant nurseries. Hopefully this will result in the intended colourful palette.

Stolze

93 Kreling Chrysant

Category production Total turnover € 20,479,000 Employees total 95 Employees NL 75 www.krelingchrysant.nl

Kreling Chrysant entered the Hillenraad100 last year and has moved up a few places this year. We are seeing nice growth figures and a firm role within the Dutch chrysanthemum sector. This is a familyrun business that has grown into one of the largest chrysanthemum nurseries in the world. More than a hundred million chrysanthemums are delivered to retailers in the Netherlands, Germany, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom each year. Apparently, this has whetted the company’s appetite for more, since 12 hectares were added to its 23 hectares last spring. Kreling Chrysant obviously sees enough market for the enormous extra production that this acreage will yield. A remarkable detail is that the latest (and 8th) location of the company is run by son Koen, who at 22 is the Netherlands’ youngest independent chrysanthemum grower. Kreling Chrysant is looking at our list and their place in it with reservation. The company took note of it and for the rest, the family focuses on the thing they’re good at: growing chrysanthemums and taking them to market in large numbers.

Category production Total turnover € 15,400,000 Employees total 269 Employees NL 42 International branches 1 www.svco.nl

SV.CO

94

important. Stolze is delivering ever more added value in a way that suits the specific customer. This is a newcomer that most definitely belongs here.

new

Category supplies Total turnover € 74,003,000 Employees total 119 Employees NL 101 www.stolze.nl

‘What is Stolze doing in de Hillenraad100?’ asked the Committee of Experts after seeing the poor peergroup assessment. Apparently, Stolze is less proficient in promoting its image both nationally and internationally, than it is in water engineering, electric engineering and lighting. But it would be unfair to assess a company only on its image.

Image may be important for companies in the new economy, but at the end of the day, there’s money to be earned and that’s exactly what they are doing at Stolze. Stolze is taking the many opportunities that present itself both in the Netherlands and internationally. Domestically, the company does so in the area of multilayer cultivation, air treatment, LED lighting, automation, and other technologies that further intensify horticulture. This has not gone unnoticed abroad. Stolze is realising projects in Europe, North and South America and the Middle East in collaboration with greenhouse builders and consultancy agencies.

Also, the often complex engineering that Stolze delivers is increasingly

92

new

Beekers Berries

Category production Total turnover € 10,000,000 * Employees total 155 Employees NL 155 www.beekersberries.nl

The highest newcomer this year is a Dutch top company in strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. Beekers Berries is active in a market that is thoroughly challenging. Dynamics in this product group are huge, there is a lot of (inter)national competition, and production costs are high. Nevertheless, there are quite a few businesses that are not put off by that as is shown by the Dutch production of berries, which has grown considerably since the start of the century. Soft fruits are doing well and the consumer simply loves them, also because they crave ever more healthy products. In this growth market, Beekers Berries succeeds in realising healthy results, which is one of the reasons that this company from the province of Brabant made it into the list.

Another reason is the lovely product innovations that characterise Beekers Berries. Critical consumers want to be surprised all the time and Beekers Berries is meeting that demand, for instance with the raspberry-strawberry and the pineapple-strawberry. Beekers Berries is fully on our radar now and we are excitedly watching their progress in this rapid growth market. Berries have permanently become part of the knowledge and capital-intensive horticulture industry.

Together to another dimension

PB Techniek, the supplier of electro- and water technology solutions and automation PB Techniek | Honderdland 170, 2676 LT Maasdijk | +31 174 623 200 | www.pb-techniek.nl

TOP 100

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 21

89 Moerings

91 Bosman Van Zaal

Category technique Total turnover € 52,626,000 Employees total 205 Employees NL 178 International branches 3 www.bosmanvanzaal.com

Bosman Van Zaal has shown remarkable resilience in recovering from the fire that destroyed a large part of its De Kwakel-location in May this year. One week later, the company was already up and running again!

It meant a frantic start for the newly appointed Marco Braam and Kees van Grieken, CEO and COO respectively. And there is lots more work to do. The market in which this technical supplier of, among others, greenhouses, electrical installations and logistics systems operates changes quickly. Bosman Van Zaal’s clients are increasingly larger ‘green cooperates’ with international strategies. This requires a lot of flexibility as the technical level of the desired solution greatly differs per country and region. Bosman Van Zaal is increasingly adapting its organisation to be optimally adaptive. The company designs and builds custom hardware and software for each client, which is no mean feat. We are witnessing splendid innovations such as the Mobile Climate Room, and a PhenoGantry for Bayer CropScience in the US. Fine products for fine clients. But to climb in the ranking, the growth indicators could be somewhat greener.

90 KP Holland

Category youngplants Total turnover € 22,010,000 Employees total 515 Employees NL 125 International branches 1 www.kpholland.nl

KP Holland is doing excellent business propagating and growing kalanchoe, spathiphyllum and curcuma. The 2016 results were its best in 30 years. This is the result of choices that were obviously made long before. One of them is the focus on growth markets such as the United States, Brazil and China, where the company has shown strong turnover growth. These were partly brought about by maintaining good relationships with local partners but also by the choice to produce the genetics locally. Another good decision turned out to be the one to switch to smaller pot sizes. Bullseye! The trend has been towards small and flowering for years, and KP Holland is successfully tapping into that together with fellow entrepreneurs. On the Florisoft platform, customers are offered a complete assortment of mini-plants.

That approach is in line with the way KP Holland likes to work, namely to assess what the market wants and then organise breeding based on that. This has resulted in no less than 20% growth. The company is hungry for more and is investing several million in breeding, innovation and production. In addition, KP Holland is branching out to e-commerce, as is evidenced by the company offering subscriptions to plant decorations. Nice work.

Category production Total turnover € 8,344,000 Employees total 56 Employees NL 21 International branches 1 www.moerings.nl and www.sempergreen.com

According to Moerings, the company is entering a new era now that its brand new greenhouse is finished. Essentially, their core business remains the same: being the ultimate specialist in supplying water plants to garden centres, exporters, wholesalers and gardeners.

Although water plants always had the reputation of being a product for a limited target group, Moerings has opened up the market. To a large extent their marketing is based on the so-called table concept, which means that Moerings places tables with all the required information, accessories etc. with retailers. Consumers find this approach accessible and its ideal for the retailer since Moerings basically does all the work, and the retailer only has to settle the bill. Therefore, the company will stick to this principle but on a different scale. The new building has seriously improved logistics, and more efficiency positively effects earnings and turnover. It’s good to see that the company is doing well under its new leadership. It’s also good to see that Ronald Moerings’ memory is kept alive by the establishment of a special cancer research foundation within the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital.

88 Biobest

Category supplies Total turnover € 58,194,000 Turnover H100-Q € 5,752,464 Employees total 870 Employees NL 14 International branches 17 www.biobestgroup.com

If we were to assess Biobest Nederland purely on growth, the company would be higher up in the ranking. Although growth in terms of percentages is easier for smaller companies, it is nonetheless indicative of the development at this young enterprise. Biobest helps growers and breeders treat their products as sustainably as possible using pollinators, useful insects and organisms. By producing locally and cherishing local customers, Biobest is growing in countries such as the Netherlands, France, Mexico, Argentina and the United States.

Biobest is looking for markets ready for sustainable, organic production.

The opportunities in organic crop protection as part of an integrated pest management system are ‘exponential’, according to the company.

In the meantime, it is working hard to attract more staff, including consultants, engineers and ICT workers, and on digitisation. Regarding the latter, Biobest is working on a portal that is designed to fully elevate customer intimacy, in addition to providing personal attention. Thanks to the strong financial position of its Belgian mother company, Biobest is capable of developing plenty of strength in both areas. Good, better, Biobest.

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TOP 100

87 JEM-id

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 23

Category services Total turnover € 2,551,000 Employees total 33 Employees NL 33 www.jem-id.nl

While the whole world is raving about breakthroughs in the field of ICT, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, we see relatively little of that in horticulture. Yes, people use process and climate computers, and yes, businesses utilise ERP suites, but where is the first Amazon-like platform? JEM-id has tried valiantly to develop such a platform in recent years. We saw the introduction of the GreenCommerce trade platform and of a floriculture trade platform, FloraXchange. However, this has not been so successful that it has become the norm. A true platform is the one with the vast majority of users. It looks like JEM-id is onto it now. The merger of Royal FloraHolland’s FloraMondo 2.0 and JEMid’s FloraXchange digital initiatives could very well become that norm.

It was baptised Floriday and we will closely monitor it. The ‘new style’ sector needs this type of initiative. And it better move quickly, because there are rivals on the horizon.

86 Onings Holland

Category youngplants Total turnover € 49,212,000 Employees total 41 Employees NL 41 www.onings.com

Onings Holland is still doing well in a very specific niche of the sector, the bulbs trade. Not much news can be reported. It’s business as usual.

After a number of lean years, all lights are green and results are looking very good. In terms of EBITDA over the past three years, the company ranks in the top 20. Because of its rather specific expertise, this also is a typically nodal firm. Onings Holland knows exactly what’s going on in the market, who the players are, and how supply and demand relate in the international market. This enables this bulb specialist to offer exactly the right product all the time. The bulb trade may not be the sexiest business but it allows you to earn a good living and to share yourself among the hundred leading enterprises in the Dutch horticulture industry. We are curious how long it will take before an investment company knocks at their door, but we don’t think the family will open it.

85 Wesselman Flowers

Category production Total turnover € 25,208,000 Employees total 72 Employees NL 17 www.wesselmanflowers.nl and www.tulpen.nl

Wesselman Flowers performed well in our assessment. No outliers, just a stable enterprise specialising in a very Dutch product: the tulip.

The Tulpen.nl website plays an important role in its sales, as we have mentioned before. The franchise organisation of the same name is the vehicle par excellence to achieve the desired operational scale and market reach. ‘On your own, you won’t get very far,’ Wesselman Flowers accurately observes. To achieve and maintain optimal economies of

scale, a Process and Quality Manager has been appointed. Their task is to further optimise staff commitment, production planning and fine tuning between production sites. The products from the various locations are bundled and offered as one product. Instruments such as BulbStoreManager and Hortidash enable total production to be monitored and controlled better than ever. This is a successful approach because it makes Wesselman Flowers and Tulpen.nl grow faster than the market average of the (Dutch) retail channel. In order to (even) better reach the European market, a new collaboration was entered into with an exporter that supplies both retailers and wholesalers and florists. This way, this enterprise and franchise holder enters a market segment in which it wasn’t active before. That’s healthy dynamism.

84 Anco pure Vanda

Category production Total turnover € 8,100,000 Employees total 61 Employees NL 26 www.anco-pure-vanda.nl

Anco pure Vanda is one of the darlings of the peergroup and if we had allowed ourselves to be guided by them, this remarkable niche player would have ended up higher on the list. With its hip marketing and innovations, Anco pure Vanda is shining. This orchid specialist has opened up new markets and has been happy to put the lessons learned from the Hillenraad Partners’ Lean Startup program into practice. This resulted in the development of individual Vandas in elegantly designed retail-ready packaging. It’s a very special way to give a flower as a present, with an attractive margin for Anco pure Vanda.

Another new development is the enhanced focus on e-commerce.

The importance of the auction clock had already declined for the sale of special orchids, and with the launch of the webshop, this process will only continue. The webshop enables Anco pure Vanda to quickly and easily reach very affluent customers in the United States, and elsewhere. In order to not be dependent on one pillar, the company is working on a broader ‘fan base’ for a wider audience. With an exclusive product like theirs, it will have to manoeuvre delicately.

83 Fachjan Project Plants

Category production Total turnover € 12,680,000 Employees total 53 Employees NL 31 International branches 4 www.fachjan.nl

Fachjan Project Plants specialises in tropical and subtropical ornamental plants and trees for companies and consumers. To give you an idea of the market this niche player is active in: in the summer of 2017, Fachjan Project Plants delivered 189 plants that were 12 metres tall to Villages Nature, a holiday park near Paris. Around the same time, Fachjan Project Plants took care of the new mangrove forest at Burgers’ Zoo. These are appealing assignments. Main growth in 2016 however, came from the day trade, one of the three pillars on which Fachjan Project Plants is built. Growth was so good that Royal FloraHolland assessed Fachjan as the most successful trader in green houseplants for 2016. Interior plants went nicely uphill as well. The projects market’s results lagged behind although Fachjan doesn’t think that opportunities have been missed in this respect. This segment simply did poorly. In the meantime, the course has been set for the coming years, meaning that Fachjan Project Plants will focus even more on the niche markets.

After all, large interior clients are starting to have more money again for buying more and more exceptional plants. Fachjan wants to take advantage of that boom. Sounds fine.

24 |

82 Gipmans Planten

Category youngplants Total turnover € 40,929,000 Employees total 113 Employees NL 113 www.gipmans.nl

Gipmans is the hidden force from the south of the Netherlands, despatching hundreds of millions of plants into the world from the province of Limburg, so it’s too busy to provide us with information.

We understand that. We know from public sources that turnover is growing steadily, as are earnings. Our insight into the value of its product and market innovations is less clear. We mainly know Gipmans from its vegetable plants, herbs and strawberry plants. But how the commercial rollout of Sprout of the Box is developing remains a black box to us. We assume that the four Gipmanses who run this Euregional enterprise have full confidence in their products and market position, otherwise they wouldn’t invest 40 million euros in new property development. The peergroup has a better view on Gipmans than we do, and gives it a 7 out of 10. To become more prominent in the sector however, more visibility and transparency are required.

81 De Jong Verpakking

understands the necessity of accepting this development, and Proeftuin Zwaagdijk is pointing them in the right direction. Research is also being conducted into LEDs in combination with vertical farming and closed cultivation without daylight. In short, Proeftuin Zwaagdijk is involved in all major innovative developments. Proeftuin Zwaagdijk will soon also operate from the World Horti Center in Naaldwijk in combination with co-initiator Demokwekerij (demo nursery) Westland. In order to manage this growth effectively, the business is taking a closer look at the quality of its personnel and organisation. The organisation had been rather dependent on a number of employees in key positions, but this has now been addressed, partly by creating a management team to support the directors. All that is now needed is a catchy new name that captures the essence of the business.

Category supplies Total turnover € 138,900,000 Employees total 489 Employees NL 189 www.dejongverpakking.com

De Jong Verpakking owes its ranking especially to its relative high score in what we often call the ‘Industry Footprint’: how important is the company to the Dutch horticulture industry? With an annual production of 300 million packages for the fruit and vegetable sector, this is a major player and a familiar name for many companies in this list. Since its establishment in 1995, De Jong Verpakking has dynamically developed into a company with–at the season’s peak–almost 500 employees and a constant stream of product varieties. With 30 million packages in stock, it never has to decline a sale. These achievements are noticed by other sectors as well, such as industry, which holds the best promise of growth for De Jong Verpakking. That is good news for the company but unfortunately of no consequence to its ranking. All in all a wonderful company, albeit somewhat invisible.

79 Holstein Flowers

80 Proeftuin Zwaagdijk

Category services Total turnover € 6,205,000 Employees total 56 Employees NL 52 www.proeftuinzwaagdijk.nl

Proeftuin (experimental garden) Zwaagdijk is active in the field of cultivation research and technology, making it an indispensable link in the Dutch horticulture industry. Its activities provide a basis for plant health, the authorisation of new plant protection products and cultivation systems. Leading seed breeding businesses from Seed Valley know where to find their neighbour Proeftuin Zwaagdijk and the growth they generate is massive. The Dutch leaders are moving faster and faster, and Proeftuin Zwaagdijk is keeping pace. Green chemistry is also emerging fast. Every self-respecting horticulture business

Category production Total turnover € 12,372,000 Employees total 108 Employees NL 48 www.holsteinflowers.nl

Holstein Flowers is on a clear mission. This gerbera specialist depends heavily on its own varieties and sells increasingly more of them directly. The company boasts more than 100 varieties, more than any competitor in this product group worldwide. Concerning its sales, the auction clock is lessening in importance. The company is striving to make the Holstein Flowers brand ‘top of mind’ with direct traders and consumers. Partnerships with companies such as Flower Factor, Premium Flowers, Floral Fundamentals, and Coloured by Gerbera are designed to improve brand awareness and positioning. By providing online inspiration for consumers and collaborating with top arrangers, the Holstein Flowers name is popping up everywhere. The company has been collaborating with Bloomon for some time on direct deliveries, and fresh flowers are finding their way from the nursery to the consumer every day. In addition, there is the VMP (virtual marketplace) link, providing exporters with a real-time overview of stocks and enabling extremely small deliveries to be organised more quickly, among other things. In this dynamic environment, employees are stimulated to look out for opportunities, as success originates as early as possible in the organisation. The participation in Hillenraad Partners’ Lean Startup programme helps the company to chart new terrain and truly grab new opportunities.

TOP 100

78 Van der Ende Groep

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 25

Category supplies Total turnover € 21,096,000 Employees total 78 Employees NL 78 www.vanderendegroep.nl

Like many other technical suppliers, Van der Ende Group is riding the cyclical wave. Buyers are starting to invest again, sometimes even having to catch up, and the technology is also undergoing impressive development. As a result this group experienced a 20% turnover increase in 2016. This provides the incentive and resources to look further, across the border and towards new revenue models.

The group has also redefined its product. ‘We don’t sell ventilation pumps, frequency controllers or ventilators. We sell solutions.’

Service consequently takes precedence over straightforward sales.

One successful product in this regard is the Phyto-Drip machine, being marketed by Van der Ende Group together with Syngenta. This machine places a drop of pesticide on the seed immediately after sowing.

The costs are now calculated according to the pay-per-use concept.

The initial investment is minimal–just what the customer wants. While Phyto-Drip is quickly finding its place on the market, other novelties are in the starting blocks. Examples include the drain water purification installation Poseidon and a technology that enables the remote monitoring of pumps. In recognition of its growth and innovative drive, Van der Ende Group received the ‘Strategy and Innovation’ Enterprise Award from the MKB Westland Partners (small and medium business association) in the autumn of 2016. The advance continues.

77 Floricultura

Category youngplants Total turnover € 55,702,000 Employees total 527 Employees NL 527 International branches 3 www.floricultura.nl

In the previous Hillenraad100 we announced our intention to visit Floricultura for a cup of coffee. Such a solid business and an impressive specialist in six different orchid varieties should definitely be on our radar. Unfortunately Floricultura experienced incredible misfortune in 2016. The nightmare of every plant material supplier is to have its young plants infected by a murderous virus, bacterium or other pathogen. Rigorous action is the only option. Floricultura was faced with the sad task of disposing of its plant material and quickly informing its customers. It then had to tighten hygiene and other protocols, and rebuild the business step by step. That cost a great deal of time, money and effort. Director Ronald van Geest explains that they lost an entire year due to this calamity, but they are now back to the desired quality level. Although customer confidence was not affected, Floricultura had to contend with a loss-making year due to this misfortune. The drop in revenue ensuing from such calamities naturally has an effect on our model and therefore on the ranking. However, we would not be surprised if Floricultura bounces back strongly next year. Volatility is more than ever a sign of the times. Sometimes things go well, sometimes not.

76 Horticoop

Category supplies Total turnover € 170,372,000 Employees total 462 Employees NL 309 International branches 9 www.horticoop.nl

This horticultural supplier is dropping important points both in the peergroup assessment and in its growth figures, which, of course, affects the ranking. Sure, this horticulture cooperative develops great products. In 2016 for instance, the Nitrate Recovery Unit and the Sodium Reduce Unit were launched to respectively filter nitrogen and sodium from discharged water. With these products, Horticoop is helping growers and breeders to comply with new and increasingly strict environmental standards. And if Horticoop cannot make the

products itself, a company is acquired, such as Agrozone, in February of this year. This company has innovative technology to rid drain water of pesticides, which is exactly Horticoop’s business. Another good extension is the takeover of the supply activities of Holimco SAS, a former French subsidiary of Beekenkamp. This provides Horticoop with an excellent opportunity to move on to a stronger international position as a horticultural supplier. It’s clear which course Horticoop is on. For the coming years, it will mainly focus on Horticoop Substrates, Horticoop Technical Services, organic crop protection, and strategic participations, both nationally and internationally. All that remains now, is for real acceleration of growth and results to set in.

75 Viscon Group

Category technique Total turnover € 40,632,000 Employees total 246 Employees NL 208 International branches 2 www.viscongroup.eu

The variety of business units carrying the Viscon flag is impressive.

Within the group, various companies are focused on Dutch horticulture, specifically on the automation of processes; a business that is booming at present. In order to take full advantage of the opportunities, the most important machines that the Viscon companies are delivering have recently been re-examined and, in some cases, completely redesigned.

This resulted in almost all Viscon’s client-oriented product lines doubling their capacity. Another great development is Viscon Fresh Produce; a new branch, which delivers complete turnkey packaging halls, including the logistics software. Viscon Hydroponics is showing strong growth with new deep water culture systems. ViVi Verte is an almost science-fictional product developed in collaboration with Vitro Plus, in which lettuce is grown in its packaging already. Remarkable as well is the establishment of a new subsidiary called Viscon Aimfresh, which focuses on packages, marketing concepts, and brand construction. The list of plans and innovations is much longer than we can mention here. So, is everything going smoothly? No. Every familyrun business faces a brouhaha every now and then.

DEVELOPING GROWTH IN HORTIBUSINESS WWW.YEALD.NL

TOP 100

74 Berg Hortimotive

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 27

Category technique Total turnover € 12,565,000 Employees total 41 Employees NL 41 www.berghortimotive.nl

During the past year, Berg Hortimotive proved to be as versatile and agile as the logistics and mobility solutions that it’s providing to the horticultural sector. More and more products were added to the assortment over the past years, always including new technology, until the moment came to make a clean sweep. The portfolio was thoroughly reassessed and everything uneconomical was removed from it. In the process, high stock costs, unsaleable stocks and inefficient procedures were dealt with as well. This spring cleaning considerably improved earnings and created the opportunity to market new solutions with a far shorter time to market. One of these new applications is an advanced crop vehicle with which growers can retrieve a wealth of data from their crops, providing them with extremely valuable control information. This data collection will be expanded in the short term, meaning that the company will head into a new direction. This is in line as well with the introduction of the Greenhouse Positioning System and the BergDrive Operating System. Very clever is that the new data services are being offered as a subscription, lowering the threshold for growers and breeders considerably. Berg Hortimotive has been cutting and pruning, and is ready for new growth in new directions.

73 Arcadia

Category production Total turnover € 17,914,000 Employees total 53 Employees NL 23 www.arcadiachrysanten.nl

It was the strong developments of Arcadia’s operational results that landed the company in this spot in the Hillenraad100. Arcadia is unique in the disbud chrysanthemums market. It is no surprise that exporters want to conclude fixed arrangements with Arcadia about price and volume to make sure that they are supplied. These clients see Arcadia as a chain partner rather than a supplier. The retail sector has its own reasons for knocking on Arcadia’s doors: only they can deliver the large amounts of disbud chrysanthemums they require. In addition, Arcadia makes use of harmless pesticides, a proposition that is becoming increasingly important for the consumer. At the commercial level, progress has been made with the extension and professionalisation of the sales teams, while the website is now online. That move towards digitisation is the first one that Arcadia hasn’t made together with Royal FloraHolland. For the new online activities, they are looking at a different role for the exporter, an exercise about which we will no doubt hear more. Arcadia’s ambitions outstrip the capacity of the company itself and for that reason, they have entered into very close collaboration with external growers. Things are budding well at Arcadia.

72 AAB

Category services Total turnover € 4,615,000 Employees total 36 Employees NL 35 www.aabnl.nl

AAB owes its ranking in the new model to the peergroup’s great appreciation, recognising aspects such as AAB’s inoperative power, vision, and growth potential. And these are exactly the qualities that AAB wishes to see in its customers, because this company prefers to do business with top entrepreneurs in the horticulture industry that know where they’re going. They are increasingly looking for opportunities in sustainable energy, scaling up, and the use of new techniques. The value of both their property and the enterprise is a key element in this. AAB is at home in both engineering and company valuation. This hands-on specialist doesn’t even hesitate to take the government to court if it stands in the way of a project, and therefore a customer. And successfully at that! This knowledge and decisiveness is appreciated in countries such as China, Canada, Germany, Australia, Brazil and the US. A lot of growth is generated in construction management for big breeders and legal guidance of horticultural entrepreneurs in obtaining permits for their expansion plans. AAB acknowledges that companies and company interests are becoming bigger, and leverages its expertise to ride on that bandwagon.

71 Schoneveld Breeding

Category youngplants Total turnover € 11,366,000 Employees total 204 Employees NL 107 www.schoneveld-breeding.com

This breeder and cyclamen specialist is experiencing excellent international growth, despite its name, which must be unpronounceable for Chinese customers. Not to worry, because under the motto of ‘Revival of the Cyclamen’, their products are shipped to increasingly more countries. Schoneveld Breeding’s share of the Dutch market was already 90%. Worldwide, this has now increased to 45%. And the company from Twello sees plenty of opportunities to thrust ahead to North and South America, the Middle East, Japan and China. The region managers keep striking new sources, continuously reinforcing Schoneveld Breeding’s international network and bringing countries into sight such as India, Vietnam and Iran. Schoneveld Breeding’s is being realised by collaborating with local growers: an international local-for-local approach, you could say. The growers know that they are supported by the intensive marketing activities and advice from Schoneveld Breeding, e.g. in relation to their growing plans.

The new construction in Wilp shows that things are going at a good pace. This had been on the cards for a while but is now inevitable, as Schoneveld Breeding wants to move forward. A good example of a nodal firm.

28 |

70 Delphy

Category services Total turnover € 27,030,000 Employees total 224 Employees NL 162 International branches 13 www.delphy.nl

This year, Delphy owes its ranking to its fine results and growth.

The specialist teams of this knowledge and expertise company are active in increasingly more countries to help growers and breeders optimise their production. They are looking to grow the perfect rose using 100% LED lighting, but they’re also into LED applications for tomatoes, energy-neutral paprika cultivation and optimally watering pot plants.

The Delphy experts go into every detail and, together with the customer, search for exactly that refinement that brings in a little bit extra. In the Netherlands, their expertise has been eagerly utilised for many years, and by now, many growers and breeders in Poland, Iran, China, Japan, Kenya, and South Africa also know where to find Delphy. In other words, the company is going international. Also, Delphy is going digital and can advise clients in countries such as Iran, China and Estonia using the digital highway. Of course, the new Cultivation Engineer plays an important role in the digitisation process. The idea is that all knowledge that is in the heads of the various specialists at present will be available through the digital Quality Management System knowledge platform.

It will enable cross-fertilisation between entrepreneurs, suppliers and users on several continents. Delphy is dynamic.

69 Adomex

Category trade Total turnover € 106,000,000 Employees total 122 Employees NL 104 International branches 1 www.adomex.nl

Adomex specialises in an essential element of any flower creation: decorative greenery. After four decades, Adomex still hasn’t run out of steam. On the contrary, interesting things are happening.

In organisational terms, we saw a management buyout combined with an investor by-in in 2016. Van Lanschot Participaties came on board, an external financial party that will enable many ambitions to be realised.

For this purpose, Adomex is aiming at a combination of customer intimacy and operational excellence. Buyers are pampered and unburdened with e-commerce, stock linkage, just-in-time delivery and promotional support. The employees underwent sales training because Adomex wants to be even closer to the customer. This demands a great deal from the employees as it is easy to make a mistake dealing with such a huge assortment and such finely-meshed deliveries. But the fact is that we are heading towards an economy that completely revolves around one-onone contact and in which the client has increasingly higher expectations.

Adomex is strongly anticipating that development. It’s a good thing that Adomex is able to measure the CO2 footprint of every bouquet, because the customer wants to be informed about sustainability. A strong enterprise that has been of great value to the sector for 40 years.

68 Staay Food Group

Category trade Total turnover € 402,228,000 Employees total 290 Employees NL 291 www.staayfoodgroup.com

‘Never a dull moment,’ is the phrase that springs to mind when talking about the Staay Food Group. This group has often been in the news in recent years. It has been active since 1946, operating in various combinations and under different names, and more than 70 years later, its enterprising spirit is still alive. With a broad range of fruit and vegetables sold all over the world, the opportunities are plentiful.

For instance, a joint venture was set up by Almex and the Staay Food Group in Kazakhstan in November 2016. This joint venture aims to establish trade in various ‘stan states’ based on cooperation with local growers. Another major development concerns the rapid progress made

in vertical farming. In Dronten, an immense farm has been built for FreshCare in conjunction with Philips and Rijk Zwaan for the cultivation of lettuce. The group is clearly demonstrating its desire to be a frontrunner in the most innovative and promising developments. However, not everything is going according to plan. Substantial turnover from Russia has been lost and compensating for that shortfall will not be easy.

If results continue to improve structurally, this will push the Staay Food Group farther up the list.

67 Royal van Zanten

Category youngplants Total turnover € 66,416,000 Employees total 1,531 Employees NL 241 International branches 8 www.royalvanzanten.com

Royal van Zanten boasts several commercially highly successful products. With products such as Bouvardia, Alstroemeria, chrysanthemums, asters and lilies, this family business has achieved selective product leadership in specific segments of the international floriculture industry. The success factor is the in-house genetics technology. Royal van Zanten believes it is almost impossible to come up with pioneering innovations using classic breeding techniques. However, it is possible with innovative technology. For instance, with marker technology it is possible to optimise and accelerate breeding. Royal van Zanten operates in a field that is increasing in complexity almost daily and is becoming driven by bits and bytes. Employees are challenged to maximise their potential and responsibilities are delegated to lower levels. In order to keep up with rapid developments in technology and consumer insights, Royal van Zanten expressly seeks partnerships with other chain operators. After all, it is important to know what moves consumers and what retailers need. That is how a winning product like Alstroemeria Charmelia was developed. The questions is whether this can be achieved with other universally popular plants like lilies and chrysanthemums.

66 Van Dijck Groenteproducties

Category production Total turnover € 41,929,000 Employees total 571 Employees NL 101 www.groenteproducties.com

Van Dijck Groenteproducties (vegetable productions) knows how to add value to products such as iceberg lettuce, leeks, various cabbage varieties, bok choy and spinach by chopping them up. After all, today’s consumer wants to be able to just open a bag of vegetables and throw them in the pan. Convenience combined with health is booming business. In that segment, Van Dijck Groenteproducties is well on its way to earning a place among the top 5 chopped vegetable producers in the Netherlands. This is helped by the business’s impressive scale of operations. The vegetables come from an area covering 1,500 hectares close to the Dutch town called America. However, size isn’t everything, as a business has to be profitable, too. Van Dijck Groenteproducties has got this covered. Turnover and EBITDA are showing promising development. This complete business has control over the entire process, from cultivation to delivery, enabling a considerable reduction in chain length. A strong enterprise in a healthy and viable market segment.

TOP 100

65 Hessing Supervers

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 29

Category processing Total turnover € 314,481,000 Employees total 1,618 Employees NL 977 International branches 2 www.hessingsupervers.nl

Hessing Supervers is extremely busy with the preparation and packaging of fresh and ready-to-cook vegetables, fresh juices, prepared fruit and main-meal salads. We have again seen a considerable rise in turnover, which currently exceeds 300 million euros, but this rapid growth is affecting the returns. Returns were lower in 2016 than in 2015, although 2015 was actually a record year. This 100% family business no longer restricts its activities to processing products for the retail market in various European countries. Data analyses and food shopper insights have provided Hessing Supervers with an increasingly accurate impression of consumer wishes, on the basis of which it can advise its customers. This is exactly the type of partner that retail organisations want–not a docile producer but an enterprise with which they can join forces. In spite of all this praise, Hessing Supervers has not been given a higher ranking because a number of businesses have performed even better, overtaking Hessing Supervers in the list.

63 Artemis Nurseries

64 Delft Research Group

Category youngplants Total turnover € 66,298,000 Employees total 142 Employees NL 66 International branches 6 www.artemisnurseries.com

Artemis has lofty ambitions. ‘We want to be, and remain, the best bulb company in the world.’ This global market leader occupies a strong position, with branches in five countries and a range of (semi) exclusive licences in four segments. Artemis has 572 lily varieties, plus dozens of freesias, calla lilies and rose lilies. In each of these segments, Artemis is growing faster than the market. Its focus clearly lies on the continents outside Europe, particularly South America and Asia. In order to meet the expected growing demand, cautious efforts are already being made to increase storage and processing capacity in the Netherlands and production capacity in Chile. Furthermore, Artemis is increasingly deploying digital resources such as an individual customer portal. A new arrangement with Kwekerij Curaçao (located incidentally in a town in the Netherlands) aimed at setting up a joint ‘lily supermarket’, also characterises the ambitions of Artemis. The aim is to be able to supply every type of lily to customers ranging from the top market segment to wholesalers and supermarkets. Just before the editorial deadline, we heard that investment company Foreman Capital had acquired 60% ownership of Artemis. We expect strong growth in the coming years, and further takeovers could create a lily powerhouse.

Category services Total turnover € 10,922,000 Employees total 86 Employees NL 86 www.agrocontrol.nl

The high ranking of the Delft Research Group this year is mainly due to the excellent peergroup assessment score. The business is on the way up and is moving at lightning speed. Whereas the laboratories of subsidiary Groen Agro Control handled 5,000 samples in 1995, this figure had risen to 50,000 in 2015. This is a clear indication that the horticulture sector is becoming increasingly high-tech. All over the world, people are seeking optimum plant production, improved product quality and food safety. In this case, all you have to do is call Delft and you will also get FytoConsult (for advice and training) and Agro Expertiseburo (for technical expertise) on the line. The power of the group lies in the link between technology and practical advice.

This is becoming even stronger with the sensor technology of budding newcomer Sendot. In order to manage growth without becoming rigid and sluggish, the group has switched to self-managing teams. A new step in open cultivation has also been taken with the acquisition of the Eijkpunt laboratory. Marketing is very well organised, too, with agents in several countries and a webshop. This group is clearly riding a wave as the horticulture sector moves increasingly towards process technology.

62 Afriflora

Category trade Total turnover € 104,152,000 Turnover H100-Q € 43,000,000 Employees total 9,273 Employees NL 44 International branches 2 www.afriflora.nl

Afriflora is a rose superpower from Africa, but at the same time this makes it an unknown factor in the Hillenraad100. Like last year, we received no input, and the 2016 annual figures have not yet been published. So why the inclusion in this list? That is because we do know that it is a powerhouse in (African) roses, incomparable with any business in the Netherlands. With such immense size and power, this is an enterprise that cannot be ignored. The figures show a considerable leap in turnover to over 100 million euros in 2015. It is therefore no surprise that with regard to qualitative aspects, such as growth potential, the assessment is very positive. However, in terms of sustainability and innovation, the business is not a frontrunner.

Afriflora seems to be moving towards a classic, powerful position in the rose market – large, unprepossessing, a grey elephant. There is nothing wrong with this image, but it is too ambiguous to give the business a high rating according to the new method.

Groenland contributes to the succes of its business, by facilitating in mutual cooperation..

Each Groenland Brand has a unique specialty and can develop at their own discretion.

The mutual cooperation creates innovation, which allows Groenland to guarantee the added value of her companies.

Groenland bv Japanlaan 15 1432 DK Aalsmeer

+31(0)297-303 020 www.groenland-bv.nl

Making the impossible possible.

For more than 35 years we have provided our customers with organic solutions for rooting and growing. In all our activities we have always been motivated by our constant search for new solutions, in short: innovation.

ObturoÂŽ

Fibre-NethÂŽ Twin 3.0

Substrate

Propagation cube

Van der Knaap group of companies Kwintsheul - Holland T +31 (0)174 296606 www.vanderknaap.info o r g a n i c

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TOP 100

61 Rockwool GRODAN

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 31

Category supplies Total turnover € 403,512,000 Turnover H100-Q € 100,000,000 Employees total 1,275 Employees NL 150 * International branches 2 www.grodan.com

For Rockwool Grodan, 2016 was a record year in which all growth from previous years was surpassed. In the United States, this was due to spectacular growth after the legalisation of cannabis cultivation, for which Rockwool Grodan supplies specialist raw materials. In other segments, such as Home Gardening, progress was also impressive.

In the home markets of Western Europe, North America and Central and Eastern Europe, the business did well with several popular innovations.

One example is GroSens, which gives growers round-the-clock insight into their substrate through sensor technology. The new app e-Gro also enables optimum crop control. When a rock wool substrate is used, this app provides continuous insight into the development of the crop. These examples indicate that Rockwool Grodan is focusing on the combination of growth media and new technology. The deployment of the Internet of Things, sensors and cloud applications leads to a product that helps growers in a completely new way. Such a product not only improves growth but also helps to achieve more sustainable enterprise.

Employees are encouraged to utilise the opportunities offered by these innovations. All the efforts made in previous years are now yielding fruit. Rockwool Grodan has anticipated developments in good time and is already on the right road.

60 Groenland

Category trade Total turnover € 135,000,000 Employees total 163 Employees NL 161 www.groenland-bv.nl

The name Groenland will not sound familiar to everyone in the horticulture sector, but the name Celieplant is a different story.

Groenland is the name of the holding company, which has a number of well and lesser-known subsidiaries, including Bouquetnet, Green2B, GreenChain and Greenpackers. Bloominess was added to the group one year ago. Each of these businesses operates autonomously in the market. For instance, Bouquetnet is the direct (online) link between growers and retailers, whereas Greenpackers, GreenChain and Celieplant offer a broad range of houseplants and garden plants.

This nicely covers the entire chain. By its own account, the group’s turnover exceeds 130 million euros. The consolidated figures for 2016 are not yet available, and Groenland has not provided us with any input. The high rating for Groenland is due to the growth figures that we know about and the high score from the peergroup. We envisage ample opportunities for a combination such as this and believe the group has the potential to develop into a strong player in the Hillenraad100.

The general business model is in keeping with the times, with tightly controlled production, strong logistics, a smart online strategy and appealing sales concepts.

59 Syngenta Seeds (NL)

Category youngplants Total turnover € 316,440,000 Turnover H100-Q € 289,366,000 Employees total 781 Employees NL 781 www.syngenta.com

Regarding Syngenta Seeds, we must first mention ChemChina’s recent takeover of the Syngenta mother company. It brought the long battle between the giants to an end and Monsanto drew the short straw.

Moving from the world stage to the Netherlands and the activities in Enkhuizen: we hear the words ‘from divestments to investment’, which exemplify the year 2016 for Syngenta Seeds. Initially, the company was in the process of downscaling Vegetable Seeds and Flowers Seeds but after a strategic reorientation in 2016, the company retraced its steps.

Now, said activities are again an important part of its worldwide future plans. In order to increase its market share, it was decided to house Vegetable Seeds and Flower Seeds in separate business units within Syngenta. Within the framework of a phased, multi-annual programme, 21 million euros was invested in a new R&D Technology Centre in Enkhuizen. Sustainability will play an important role in these global plans, a movement that was already initiated with the Good Growth Plan in 2013. The Operation Pollinator program to stimulate biodiversity and provide the necessary support to bee populations is also in line with these developments. We are very interested to see where this change of course will take Syngenta.

58 Noviflora

Category trade Total turnover € 81,000,000 Employees total 143 Employees NL 118 International branches 2 www.noviflora.com

On paper, Noviflora’s story makes complete sense. We see a robust position in Scandinavia and Switzerland, where Noviflora manages to land the most beautiful (cut) flowers and plants on the shelves, thanks to its confident approach. This means: no discussion about price, but about concepts and quality. Noviflora positions itself as a partner for the retail sector that knows what is good for the consumer. In its own words: ‘We determine the assortment, the consumer price, and the shelf positions, and in exchange we offer retailers fixed margins.’ Noviflora only wants to do business with like-minded parties, so it carefully chooses the buyers of its plants and flowers. Increasingly, consumeroriented entrepreneurship is prioritised. Therefore, various new tasks and roles have emerged: Key Account Manager, Data Analyst, E-Commerce Manager and Account Manager for Non-Traditional Sales Markets.

Another important change is that the Sales and Sourcing Teams have been integrated per country and per segment. Noviflora wishes to operate quicker and with more market focus, and to make specific offers to customers via e-commerce and data tracking. In short, development is underway on all fronts to get closer to the consumer. Great ambitions.

There’s just one ‘but’: the hard facts do not live up to all these plans and ambitions. The transition to the new Novi therefore, still requires some tinkering.

57 Van der Knaap Groep

Category supplies Total turnover € 49,500,000 Employees total 478 Employees NL 110 International branches 7 www.vanderknaap.eu

Van der Knaap Group = growth. The group scored many points with its excellent 2016 growth figures. Appreciation from outsiders is increasing: the peergroup is very positive about Van der Knaap Group. Another hallmark is the growth in coconut and peat cultivation, which is sold to customers worldwide in various shapes and varieties. Combining things is what makes this group special, whereby the two extremities of the chain are closely scrutinised: availability of coconut and peat on the one hand, market opportunities and consumer demands on the other.

At the coconut locations and peat concessions, good progress has been made and they are ready for the future. On the sales side, the ‘de Kas’ innovation centre plays an important role. Successful tests have been conducted in the area of organic production of fruiting vegetable crops.

It’s great that Van der Knaap Group delivers the new product together with a patented bioreactor, fertilisers, and technical growing advice.

A lot is expected from this innovation internationally. This continuous stream of new products for the professional horticulture and retail sectors has resulted in an average turnover growth of nearly 15% over the past two years. With this sort of growth, the group has obviously outgrown the Netherlands.

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TOP 100

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 33

54 Aartsenfruit

56 Sion

Category youngplants Total turnover € 29,000,000 * Employees total 60 Employees NL 60 www.sion.eu

For Sion, one issue was central in 2016: plug trays. Contrary to what we wrote rather prematurely last year, the transition to that growing method initially resulted in substantial losses. Therefore, Sion considers it very important that customers start embracing this growing method as it is the next step in the professionalisation of cultivation. Sion has paid its dues and it seems it’s back on track. The locations are full, production is going well, and expectations are high. Sion’s assortment is subdivided into three categories: Fancy, Specially and Luxury. Growers specialise in the various categories and find themselves supported through targeted promotion at DIY centres and supermarkets, highquality supermarkets, garden centres, and florists. In order to optimise earnings, exclusiveness and proprietary strains are prioritised.

This explains the substantial increase in the share of mother breeding plants and the fact that a new breeder was hired. Also, Sion has become a member of Breeding Accel with the purpose of developing new breeding techniques in collaboration with other companies. As far as internationalisation is concerned: Sion is still working hard on the ‘forecast growth’ we reported last year. It is costing a lot of time and energy, but things are moving now. For 2017, the usual results are expected.

55 WBE GROUP

Category trade Total turnover € 219,242,000 Employees total 298 Employees NL 298 www.wbe.nl

Their slogan, ‘Green is our foundation’, makes the WBE lorries stand out. The company itself however is somewhat inconspicuous, and the peergroup reviews agree. WBE Group isn’t seen as innovative or sustainable. The group supplies decorative greens and many of its customers seem to be fused together with them. That is a robust basis.

What else do you want? Well, if the supplier of these green products itself isn’t considered to be green, we are talking about a missed opportunity, aren’t we? In this analysis, the question remains, of course: what is important for the future? Is it just about making money or also about tapping into the themes of the future and investing in them?

This company recently celebrated its 40th anniversary and is still a mainstay in the sector. However, over the next 10 years, the sector will undergo more changes than in the past 40 years. For the time being, it looks like the shareholders are mainly interested in the money, which is a respectable point of view. Although this is a respectable point of view, we also judge WBE in terms of leadership and innovation. And in terms of those criteria, the group is not excelling.

Category trade Total turnover € 175,483,000 Employees total 132 Employees NL 107 International branches 2 www.aartsenfruit.com

Last year we saw Aartsenfruit enter our list for the first time, which greatly pleased us both. Aartsenfruit belongs in the list of top Dutch horticultural enterprises, each of which excels in its own way.

At Aartsenfruit, as the name suggests, everything revolves around fruit and vegetables. The story began in the Netherlands almost 110 years ago, but under the leadership of the fourth generation, the business has now spread all over the world. In the home markets of the Benelux and South-East Asia, wholesalers, specialty shops and everything in between are supplied directly by partners, hence the motto ‘Non-Stop Fresh’. This makes Aartsenfruit the market leader in the Benelux in all segments except retail. In Asia business is even more booming.

From Hong Kong, customers in 15 neighbouring countries are served, and growth is explosive. The proactive customer approach is fruitful quite a fitting description! With this dynamism, there is really only one concern, which is how to find people who can keep pace. Another past concern, that the business was too dependent on a few individuals, had already been addressed with the expansion of the management team. There are no money worries, either. Everything is peachy at Aartsenfruit.

53 HillFresh Holding

Category trade Total turnover € 179,661,000 Employees total 171 Employees NL 86 International branches 7 www.hillfresh.eu

HillFresh Holding should have been ranked much higher in the eyes of the peergroup. The company looks attractive and lively. The vegetables, fruit and exotic species are being sourced from all corners of the earth and sold very tastefully, both literally and figuratively. Much emphasis is put on product experience. HillFresh Holding is good at thinking up new concepts and is always looking for new niches. There is a but, however. Showing full commitment doesn’t mean the market will jump at just anything. There are other players that work just as passionately.

So there comes a time that the vigorous growth from the recent past slows down a bit. This has woken up HillFresh Holding. The ambition to open up branches in several European countries has been scaled down and where necessary, things have been reorganised. This partly clean slate allows for some leeway to get moving again and pursue new avenues. The company is now especially looking to be successful in tropical fruit and citrus, and HillFresh Holding is investing in the longterm sourcing of its own product. It looks like the growing pains have been overcome and that HillFresh Holding is ready to move forward.

34 |

52 Jiffy Group

Category supplies Total turnover € 75,630,000 Employees total 190 Employees NL 116 www.jiffygroup.com

The Jiffy Group is nicely on course. Several years ago the business anticipated scaling up and further growth, and we then witnessed expansions in the Netherlands, Estonia, Sri Lanka and Canada. Jiffy is a comprehensive supplier of innovative products including substrates and plant plugs. The business is currently occupied with the execution of the three-year plan for 2016-2018, and that is going very well.

As many as seven of the eight product lines show the desired growth.

This is down to the way in which the Jiffy Group manages to respond to market demands with new products. We previously wrote about its strong position in the propagation market, and promising steps are now also being made in the large market for orchids. In order to realise more of such successes, the emphasis is now placed increasingly on concept development. Under the leadership of the new retail innovation manager, the Jiffy Group wants to utilise perceived opportunities in this area. This should lead to more innovations such as the Jiffypot R2 (Retail Ready). There is also a new sales manager, who will focus on the emerging markets of India, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Furthermore, the Jiffy Group is involved in biomass projects as part of realising a circular economy. Things are heading in the right direction.

51 Van VLIET Flower Group

Category trade Total turnover € 97,374,000 Turnover H100-Q € 93,500,000 Employees total 650 Employees NL 255 International branches 27 www.jvanvliet.com

Cut flowers, cut foliage, plants and accessories: Van Vliet Flower Group buys them worldwide and sells them worldwide, according to the guiding principle that the road between production and purchase must be as short as possible. ‘Keep it simple,’ is the group’s motto and new technology helps it do just that. Login and sales data provides a wealth of information on the behaviour of the buyers. In order to support them when buying, Van Vliet Flower Group increasingly uses push messages, Facebook and WhatsApp. On the sourcing side, the foreign producers put their supply in the webshop, and that’s what gets things going. This way, the company is capable of delivering more often, fresher, quicker, and cheaper. In addition to the increasing online performance, the group has more than 20 cash-and-carry’s in Europe and the United States. Although Van Vliet is suffering somewhat from the upcoming Brexit, growth in central and southern Europe, among others, is making up for this. The overall picture is that of a solid trade company that never stops looking for opportunities, both geographically and operationally. Financially strong but rather inconspicuous to the peergroup. Here too, the new model has caused a small change in ranking.

50 Metazet/FormFlex

Category technique Total turnover € 44,466,000 Turnover H100-Q € 40,050,000 Employees total 159 Employees NL 64 International branches 12 www.metazet.com

Metazet/FormFlex owes its high ranking in the Hillenraad100 primarily to its robust financial position and strong growth. This global market leader in pipe rail systems works for almost all major turnkey suppliers and heating contractors in the modern greenhouse horticulture industry. It is a market operator that is difficult to ignore. A strong point of the business is its down-to-earth and pragmatic market approach. High-tech is not always the best answer, as ultimately the important aspects are user convenience and independence for growers.

That explains the strong presence in emerging markets such as China.

Metazet/FormFlex cleverly manages to operate on two different levels. On the one hand the business examines what customers need.

At the same time it initiates new developments, particularly in the field of e-mobility solutions. We previously wrote about the innovative Futagrow cultivation system that evolved in this way and is now being widely adopted by a consortium of businesses. Another strong point of the business is its firm pricing policy. It is not the cheapest market player, but it often offers more in the way of advice, a proactive approach and optimum solutions. Many customers who try their luck elsewhere eventually return to Metazet/FormFlex, which contributes to the good results.

49 BVB Substrates

Category supplies Total turnover € 113,218,000 Turnover H100-Q € 67,400,000 Employees total 216 Employees NL 190 International branches 5 www.bvb-substrates.nl

This market leader in the field of substrates for horticulture, soft fruit and tree nurseries has never been the most enthusiastic communicator. Business is fine so why bother with what the world around you thinks? However, this attitude has a negative impact on the ranking as the peergroup does not have a clear image of BVB Substrates. On the other hand, they are doing excellently in terms of key financial figures and growth, and those are probably the most important indicators as far as BVB Substrates is concerned.

The quietness and relative peace with which BVB Substrates operates is characteristic for their line of business. In their own words: ‘Innovations and developments are not exactly happening at great pace in this segment.’ The 2016 news on this company is about automation, simplifying the processes, and providing clients access to BVB Substrates’ systems. BVB Substrates offers its clients the opportunity to calculate the carbon footprint of substrates for fruit cultivation, tree nurseries, and urban and public greenery, which is a sympathetic gesture. The calculation includes 30 environmental impact factors.

In addition, we see nice developments in the landscaping and soft fruit segments. BVB Substrates is simply doing well, and quietly so.

48 Certhon

Category technique Total turnover € 71,885,000 Employees total 113 Employees NL 110 International branches 3 www.certhon.com

The legal merger that Wilk van der Sande and Bosch Inveka concluded in December 2016 feels like being first engaged and then married.

Ever since 2011, the duo cohabited under the Certhon group name.

The legal merger name is Certhon Build. The company is doing well.

In their own words: ‘There are entirely new revenue models to be found when combining plants and technology.’ Thanks to Certhon’s innovations, growers can do increasingly more with technology, such as growing without daylight, and remote growing, whereby cultivation is controlled remotely. Certhon has already shown how to do this for cucumbers. The technology is now adapted for use with tomatoes, herbs, paprikas and flowers. Together with partners such as the Staay Food Group, they are working on large-scale vertical farming and a multilayer growing system for lettuce. Another ‘growth market’ is that for growth cells, and of course, Certhon is one of the front runners there. Data plays an increasingly important role: controlling using light, water, energy and pesticides. It’s what every modern grower or breeder wants, and Certhon is making it possible. From this perspective, Certhon has built the most modern greenhouse in the world - according to themselves - for Le Jardin de Rabelais in France. Certhon truly is the epitome of modern horticulture.

TOP 100

47 Royal Hilverda Group

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 35

Category youngplants Total turnover € 31,000,000 * Employees total 141 Employees NL 141 www.royalhilverdagroup.com

In the perception of the outside world, things are extremely quiet around the Royal Hilverda Group. Nothing more can be found on the Internet than the centenary celebrations of 2009, and the business’s own website is still all about them. It seems as if time is standing still.

The group is quietly occupied with business as usual, and seems to be oblivious to all the discussions about innovation, renewal and forward pressure. However, it still brings new varieties onto the market every year. The key financial figures look good, and the train is moving steadily forward on the same track. We are keenly awaiting the great step forward in a world in which several floriculture players are acquiring market domination with a strong buy & build strategy. That is one area in which we should be seeing some activity at one time or another.

On the other hand, there is the issue of access to state-of-the-art genetics technology. For a business such as this, that forms the basis of the process and it may well become the most important success factor in the coming years. We are interested to see whether (and how) Royal Hilverda Group will respond to this in the coming period.

46 Porta Nova

Category production Total turnover € 21,710,000 Employees total 121 Employees NL 36 www.portanova.nl

Rose specialists Porta Nova supply only one variety, the Red Naomi, but in no fewer than 25 different qualities. By now, their acreage has grown to over 10 hectares. Also, in 2016, an adjacent 20 hectare plot was acquired from the Sjaloom pot plant nursery. This acreage will not be filled at once, but the first construction plans are there.

Porta Nova firmly believes in the power of one large, specialised rose nursery at one location. The company prefers to be located in the Netherlands and sizeable investments are made in technology, staff and organisation here. Already, Porta Nova has greenhouses that are fitted with a sustainable climate system, which is unique for the rose growing branch. The greenhouses still to be built will even be all-electric: the zenith of sustainability. On the production side, things are going extremely well, and for the sales of top products, a data analysis specialist was hired. Porta Nova wants to become an even stronger brand by using quantified analysis, chain monitoring and improved marketing. An account manager was taken on board to maintain relationships with the foreign wholesalers. We see a company that has the power and ambition to go a long way in extreme quality and innovation.

45 SO natural

Category production Total turnover € 47,044,000 Employees total 245 Employees NL 60 www.sonatural.nl

SO natural experienced a dip in sales in 2016 due to circumstances.

However, this has been fixed. Despite the unforeseen setback, SO natural is still the largest producer of phalaenopsis worldwide. Apart from this particular event, SO natural has made a considerable change to its market approach strategy. In the past, it focused on volume and aimed to grow in that respect. Now, the company targets returns, to be achieved in closer cooperation with the right partners. Together with big names such as IKEA, Royal Lemkes, Albert Heijn (supermarket), Lidl and Flower Direct, SO natural makes sure that the right product is delivered to the right location. The times of quick wins based on sheer scale seem to have gone. The company now focuses on long-term relationships with retailers, exporters and logistics service providers. Retailers for example are wooed with fixed quality all year round, often in large volumes. This calls for innovative ways of growing and transparent communication with the buyers, resulting in an excellent way to jointly serve the consumer well. As much as SO natural cherishes its relationship with the retailers, the company is also eyeing opportunities for independent online sales. Now that the standard phalaenopsis has become a commodity, SO natural is ready for a new phase.

44 Harvest House International

Category sales cooperative Total turnover € 703,000,000 Turnover H100-Q € 375,000,000* Employees total 139 Employees NL 136 www.harvesthouse.nl

It remains tricky to separate the entrepreneurship of this growers association specialised in fruiting vegetables from the entrepreneurship of the individual growers for which they work. Together, these growers own 850 hectares of greenhouses, and they have established Harvest House International to serve the market on their behalf. In 2016, a lot of time and energy was spent on improving the supply chain. The various ICT systems of growers, packing stations, clients and hauliers were linked together, and traceability was improved. The merger of financial departments allowed Harvest House International to function as one large back office. On the market side, the lines to retailers are now open wide to identify and analyse trends. Data allows the company to realise smarter shelf arrangements, and improved promotion and concepts.

Now that this has all been realised in the Netherlands, the first steps towards internationalisation can be made. China, the US and a number of European countries are increasingly being explored with the aim of putting local products in local markets, operating their own branches.

This is in line with a strategy that mainly focuses on sales and market connection, and less on direct returns for the organisation. As a result, Harvest House International is lagging behind its direct competitors in terms of performance key figures.

TOP 100

43 Dool Industries

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 37

Category technique Total turnover € 86,000,000 Turnover H100-Q € 67,080,000 Employees total 155 Employees NL 134 International branches 1 www.doolindustries.com

Dool Industries sells neither lamps nor light, but growth. And the various companies under this umbrella are doing well judging by turnover, which has grown considerably over the last few years.

Hortilux is especially doing good business in the Russian greenhouse horticulture sector. P.L. Light Systems’ large commercial projects in the US are doing equally well. The company’s third pillar in the horticulture industry, AP Nederland, is performing well, producing incandescent light systems for the sister companies. The growth in lighting solutions means increased demand for the components and systems they consist of. Back to what Dool Industries is actually delivering: growth and return. This is especially evident in the HORTISENSE breakthrough innovation. This is where the Internet of Things meets business intelligence, which allows growers and breeders to make the coveted jump to smart farming. Another innovation originating from this way of thinking is the HORTILED product line, which allows growth light to become control light. These solutions are propelling Dool Industries onto new terrain as they move from being suppliers of only products to total suppliers. Positive also is the development of Continuous Improvement, whereby the employees have an active role in the development of ideas and products. This makes the company attractive for young talent who want to boost their careers.

42 Floral Trade Group

Category trade Total turnover € 196,515,000 Employees total 599 Employees NL 519 International branches 9 www.floraltradegroup.com

The Floral Trade Group is a company that is well on its way to becoming a powerhouse. For instance, they gobbled up Breedijk in early 2017, although this line rider’s label will remain available for the German market. The course that was set earlier, whereby the separate companies operate under the joint Floral Trade Group umbrella, will be continued. Each company within the group has its own core business: flowers, plants, hardware, concepts. Where possible, synergies are identified within the supply chain, especially in logistics and IT. The overall aim is to make clients more successful, from wholesalers to florists, florist chains and retailers. This plug-and-play approach enables the group to upscale easily. Another consolidation round in the world of existing exporting trade companies is expected. After that, the group wishes to remain the leading party. Better to eat than to be eaten. The company is very active in the digital domain as well.

E-commerce has been getting increasingly more body and functionality since the launch of Plant World. This platform provides florists and traders access to 1,200 growers in seven countries. The growers decide when their products are ready to be put in the digital shop window.

All in all, this club wants to hold a firm position both towards growers and buyers.

41 Van Gelder groente &

Category trade Total turnover € 63,880,000 Employees total 300 Employees NL 148 fruit www.vangeldernederland.nl

‘People simply want to know where their food is coming from.’ This is not Eosta talking but Van Gelder groente & fruit (vegetables & fruit).

Also, we are hearing an echo from another party on this list: ‘We want eating vegetables to be directly associated with health.’ It could be Koppert Cress speaking. However, depicting this beautiful company as a copycat would be unfair. It is too original for that and too successful as

well, because turnover is going through the roof. Part of the company’s success lies in the way in which all customers are cherished, from tiny to huge. The other part lies in the direct lines between growers in Thailand, Colombia, South Africa, and Costa Rica, among others, and the buyers. The road between production and consumption must be as short as possible. An important element in this company’s story is its focus on ecology. The way in which the new construction in the NieuwReijerwaard agroversfood (fresh agro food) cluster is handled is totally in line with that, even complying with the strict BREAAM Outstanding standard. Another spearhead is high-quality enjoyment, for which it’s looking to collaborate with top chefs. This is an authentic enterprise that does what others do, but better.

40 Eosta

Category trade Total turnover € 96,400,000 Turnover H100-Q € 88,400,000 Employees total 98 Employees NL 91 www.eosta.com

A major Dutch daily described Eosta as a ‘bunch of activists’, but the company is more than that, of course. Eosta is a company that shows that sustainability, scale and commercial thinking go hand-in-hand excellently. ‘Ecology and economy go together quite well,’ according to Eosta. That message has clearly arrived, and now, many companies are telling more or less the same story, if only out of well-understood self-interest. This puts pressure on margins, while volumes are growing.

In other words, niche is becoming mainstream, which is why branding is a major focus. It even designs campaigns featuring celebrities, such as Julia Roberts and the Dalai Lama. And the Natural Branding technique ensures that it can brand its products itself. This has drawn worldwide attention because it entails less (plastic) packaging for natural products.

In terms of communication, Eosta marches together with its strategically most important customers. The consumers in Europe, the US and the Far East are tempted with an even wider assortment and more attractive shelves. Things are going well for Eosta. However, it will be looking suspiciously at all these new competitors from its future new premises near Waddinxveen (built according to the principles of the circular economy).

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TOP 100

39 Dalsem Groep

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 39

Category technique Total turnover € 88,244,000 Employees total 102 Employees NL 99 www.dalsem.com

Dalsem Group is deploying a unique vision and approach in the greenhouse market. They do not do smaller projects any more, since they only distract attention from the big clients, who need it all. The big clients are located in Russia and the ‘stan states’, but also in the US. The group’s motive is rather grand, namely to make metropoles self-sufficient using comprehensive high-tech horticulture projects at strategic locations. How to achieve that objective differs enormously per country. In Russia, it requires intense cooperation with banks and other stakeholders to close the deal. And as Kazakhstan is rather different from California, Dalsem Group uses the location, not the product, as the starting point. In order to improve performance on these different playing fields, the sales department has been streamlined even further. The sales teams are increasingly supported by native speakers; a smart move. Local connections with the real decisionmakers have always been the company’s strength. From a technical product perspective, progress has been made as well. Consider its investment in a 3D pipe welder, which resulted in even more precision and speed. Turnover improved a great deal in 2016, and Dalsem Group is moving at top speed.

38 4Evergreen

Category production Total turnover € 35,200,000 Employees total 274 Employees NL 56 www.4evergreen.nl

‘We are growing along quietly,’ says 4Evergreen itself. And it’s true, there’s not an awful lot of news to be reported about this paprika powerhouse. As in the past, the focus will remain on cultivating many varieties of paprika, both regular and organic, on 81 hectares across seven locations. But the hassle about what is organic continues as the EU and North America define the concept differently. In terms of organic production methods, 4Evergreen sticks to cultivation on coconut.

You would think that is a natural material but Brussels has a different opinion on that. Although 4Evergreen itself states that innovation has always been the company’s strength, we didn’t see many novelties in 2016. The year’s most important news was the opening of the new production location in Terneuzen. The company owes its excellent position in the ranking to its good all-round scores and its significance for Dutch (greenhouse) horticulture. 4Evergreen is a shining example for every (paprika) grower in the sector.

37 Greenco

Category production Total turnover € 41,993,000 Employees total 137 Employees NL 126 www.greenco.nl

The wounds that Greenco suffered in the difficult year 2016 appear, by and large, to have healed. Ultimately, the affected greenhouses in Someren were completely demolished and new ones built. Production only restarted there this summer. Nevertheless, the company was already able to report in October 2016 that production had reached previous levels thanks to the support from fellow growers, among others. A truly impressive achievement. The drastic events made a deep impression on everyone involved and, understandably, supplying information for this Hillenraad100 didn’t have priority. Its most eyecatching news of course was winning the Tomato Inspiration Award 2017 in Berlin. Considering the international competition, one could call this the World Championships. Greenco won gold for the way in which it has given the tomato, traditionally a generic product, exceptional value. The snack tomatoes and associated marketing have been copied many times over by now. Other remarkable news was that

Greenco will terminate the collaboration with DOOR at the end of this year. This shows clearly that that Greenco will continue to innovate at full speed using its own resources. The challenge will be to fend off lookalikes.

36 Hoogendoorn Groep

Category technique Total turnover € 146,300,000 Employees total 143 Employees NL 123 International branches 2 www.hoogendoorn.nl

The Hoogendoorn Group calls itself ‘worldwide innovator in horticulture automation’, and not a word of that is incorrect. Hoogendoorn operates internationally in collaboration with consortiums such as HortiTechIndia. The Committee of Experts highly appreciates the many connections with buyers and other companies that this technical supplier has. An excellent example of a nodal firm. As a result of this joint approach, the group is market leader in countries such as Mexico, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Typical for this company is its local approach: the product is adapted to what is desirable and feasible locally. This strategy has produced growth for the sixth year running now. A so-called service profit chain was established to optimally service the international customers, allowing local staff the freedom to anticipate local demand. In the technical realm, there are nice novelties to be reported, such as Horti Cloud Solutions, of which the LetsGrow.com platform is part. This is also the umbrella solution for developments such as drones and robotisation. At the end of 2016, that knowledge was further enriched when Bellt Consultancy was taken over by the Batenburg mother company and through the strategic partnership with Nitea IT Solutions. The Hoogendoorn Group is doing fine.

35 Harting Zijtwende Group

Category trade Total turnover € 45,249,000 Employees total 383 Employees NL 10 International branches 2 www.hartingholland.nl

Harting Zijtwende could be considered as belonging to the base stock of the Hillenraad100. It is precisely this type of business that increasingly provokes discussion. Some say that this list should concentrate far more on the newcomers, the challengers and the innovators. We are certainly not deaf to this view. However, it is also important to make a profit, and the businesses in the Harting Zijtwende Group are very good at that. This producer of diverse tomato varieties achieves a high rating in the financial performance category but this is offset by a mediocre score in the qualitative assessment. This probably does not bother the people at De Lier at all. Business is booming, so who cares?

The business formula of this solid enterprise is very finely tuned and optimised, and this operational excellence is producing fine results.

Even so, with such businesses the question is whether the formula is future-proof. According to the peergroup, they could be more innovative and cutting-edge. On the other hand, innovation is not a goal in itself.

For the time being, parties like this form the foundations of the sector.

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TOP 100

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 41

32 Best Fresh Group

34 Vreugdenhil Klugt Combination

Category youngplants Total turnover € 57,000,000 Employees total 275 Employees NL 105 www.plkwvreugdenhil.nl and www.klugt-delier.nl

Things are turbulent at Vreugdenhil Klugt Combination. The business is playing it close to its chest for now where specific future plans are concerned. Originally, the combination rests on four pillars: vegetable plants, young ornamental plants, specialities and contracted flowering end products. This portfolio is undergoing thorough examination and assessment, but quietly. The changes to the personnel organisation are more public. For instance, the most important staff are being given more opportunity to think and work innovatively. To properly guide this transition, a professional was hired. Another change we’ve been seeing frequently is also taking place at Vreugdenhil Klugt Combination: new positions are being introduced within marketing and communication.

The production side is also undergoing optimisation. New greenhouses were brought into use on Noord-Lierweg and in Naaldwijk. Also, less profitable products were discontinued in favour of ‘blockbusters’. A few great new clients and retail orders have calmed things and provided the means to further develop and grow. The system developed to give clients constant insight into production via online data is smart.

The initial results are positive. It’s been a great year.

33 Koninklijke Vezet

Category processing Total turnover € 290,588,000 Employees total 666 Employees NL 666 www.vezet.nl

The entrepreneurship and focus of Koninklijke Vezet caused considerable discussion within the Committee of Experts.

How enterprising are you if you operate largely under the wings of supermarket Albert Heijn? After all, you already have a regular customer for your products. However, nobody is indispensable, and this specialist in freshly chopped vegetables has to keep pace with its demanding customer. It is managing fine. Vezet is matching one of the leading Dutch retailers step for step. We have not had direct input from Vezet but we know that turnover is growing strongly. This is only possible by keeping up with the whirlwind of new convenience products and new concepts, and by investing in quality and high care hygiene. On the one hand the symbiosis with the retailer is satisfactory and this is a fine example of chain integration. On the other hand flexibility is restricted.

In view of the food market dynamics and the emergence of new parties and channels, Koninklijke Vezet needs to be critical of its own tenability.

It has to be wary of a Black Swan.

Category trade Total turnover € 271,523,000 Employees total 561 Employees NL 310 International branches 3 www.bestfreshgroup.com

The Best Fresh Group is a group of businesses that supplies fresh fruit and vegetables, from cultivation to marketing and distribution.

In 2014 and 2015, we saw a large step forward here. Now, the group is treading water. In its own words, the Best Fresh Group is transitioning from a traditional trading company to a sustainable trade partner. Part of this process is that, more than previously, the various businesses approach the market together. The process also includes a reinforced management team with a Purchasing Director and an ICT Director. Today, market information and competition analyses are essential, and more and more, this group wants to be driven by data.

Also, some time ago the group decided to transition from a brands-percompany to a brands-per-sector model. This is more logical towards consumers; it makes it possible for other products to capitalise on the brand value under the same label. 2016 was primarily a year of consolidation. Now, the growth in organic products, and the import and export of exotic fruit and vegetables, are being prioritised. Will the group floor it next year?

31 INCOTEC Group

Category supplies Total turnover € 69,607,000 Turnover H100-Q € 41,760,000 Employees total 439 Employees NL 200 International branches 11 www.incotec.com

For years, Incotec Group was the rising star of our list. Now, those times are behind us. During the turbulent growth of the past 10 years, its products and activities perhaps became too diverse. Also, the competition has recently increased significantly. So, 2016 was a year of restructuring, integration and serious choices for Incotec. This reversal was managed by a pair of new executives, both of whom lack green fingers, which speaks volumes of the new horticulture industry.

One of the changes involves a more intense relationship between R&D and Sales & Marketing. The R&D department has become more compact and is now more directed by market demands. Here’s another significant change: Incotec Group examines profitability and future perspectives more critically according to country and market. As a result, it’s focused on large-scale markets such as North America, China and Europe. Worldwide, Incotec has four R&D centres, all of which follow the principle of ‘global participation, local deliverance’.

Global crop teams of account managers, R&D specialists and product and marketing managers walk the fields to serve clients optimally.

To peddle the Incotec technology even more intensely, a system of franchise licensing is now in place. All in all, we clearly see a new direction.

Taste more than 60 years of expertise, knowledge and innovation.

As a specialist in the production of tomatoes, RedStar has a clear focus: taste. Using only the very best varieties, we are continually striving to produce only the finest of tomatoes. At each growing location we use the most innovative methods to create the optimum conditions for our fruit to flourish, meaning we are able to grow tomatoes for 12 months of the year. And thanks to our automatic tracking system, we are able to trace every tomato from harvest to customer, allowing us to stay at the forefront of food safety, sustainability and efficiency.

Meanwhile, RedStar continues to explore new uses for our tasty tomatoes, whilst keeping abreast of changes in customer perceptions and tastes. So youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be hearing a Poortcamp 10, 2678 PT De Lier T +31 174 531000 F +31 174 531010 E info@redstar.nl I www.redstar.nl

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Royal Brinkman | â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s-Gravenzande | The Netherlands

TOP 100

30 Van der Windt Group

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 43

Category supplies Total turnover € 128,433,000 Turnover H100-Q € 64,200,000 Employees total 226 Employees NL 187 International branches 3 www.vanderwindt.com

In the horticulture sector, Van der Windt Verpakking (packaging) is a powerhouse with its own individual specialism. Together with former sister company Wentus Kunststoff GmbH, Van der Windt is the global market leader in conical sleeves for flowers, plants and fresh herbs. Van der Gugten Verpakkingen was also purchased in 2016 and placed under PACOMBI HORTI. From the Rijnsburg location, Olsthoorn Verpakkingen is a proactive response to the foreseen growth in ground transport and air transport packaging. Intensive changes are being made, not just physically but also in the digital world. We are seeing new websites and rejuvenated webshops, as the drive towards optimum e-commerce is in full swing. This market approach is being intensively supported with inspirational blogs and a strong social media presence. The sector has seen innovative packaging for Bloomon, aimed at keeping products fresh for longer during transportation, and the Biodore packaging series based on natural materials. This series has now also been introduced abroad. There is also the Bright concept, which has been developed in conjunction with the Netherlands Nature and Environment Foundation. Sustainability is key at Van der Windt. These are promising activities, but in the new model the PACOMBI HORTI combination will have to be satisfied with a slightly different classification.

29 RedStar

Category production Total turnover € 93,089,000 Employees total 554 Employees NL 104 International branches 4 www.redstar.nl

The RedStar Group may be specialised in tasty tomatoes that weigh less than 30 g, but the company itself is a heavyweight. It serves a substantial part of the chain itself, from growing and packaging to sales and customer advice. The customers themselves are sizeable too, as the RedStar Group does business directly with 10 large retailers in Europe and Japan. Specialist retail and trade teams have been formed to realise the required client management. We’ve seen great developments on various continents. In Sweden, a good position has been created with retailer ICA Sweden, where the Romantica is sold under a private label. In the United Kingdom, RedStar Group is not affected by Brexit as it boasts local production and sales facilities.

In Asia, it’s doing good business selling snack tomatoes. In the Netherlands, it has entered into a partnership with Picnic, an online newcomer. This is important because as a large player you’ll want a front row seat once the market starts shifting. In order to keep up with all this ambition, the acreage in Dinteloord has again been expanded.

That the RedStar Group doesn’t occupy a higher ranking is indicative of how fierce competition is. Other companies are moving just that little bit faster.

28 Heemskerk fresh & easy

Category processing Total turnover € 120,300,000 Employees total 370 Employees NL 370 www.wheemskerk.nl

Growth at W. Heemskerk seems to have no limits, which again proves that the convenience market still offers plenty of opportunities.

The consumer’s desire for quick, easy, and healthy solutions seems insatiable. W. Heemskerk is only too eager to accept that challenge.

In 2016, it started selling freshly cut fruit. This year, W. Heemskerk will introduce meal packages: fresh products including recipes. The company is tapping into the demand for less wastage and the desire to cook at

home without the hassle. These contemporary concepts, which the company seems to be producing continuously, were developed on the basis of thorough data analysis and consumer research. In order to keep up with these developments, investments in technology (i.e. robotisation) are required. All in all, no less than 100 mostly technical projects were completed in 2016, requiring investment of tens of millions of euros. This necessitated a review of many processes as well as the organisational structure. Responsibilities have been shifted downward in the organisation, and the targets are now clear to everyone thanks to the new Training & Instruction Department.

The giant leap forward has been made, and the Committee of Experts highly appreciates W. Heemskerk’s entrepreneurship.

27 Emsflower

Category production Total turnover € 32,058,000 Employees total 383 Employees NL 207 International branches 1 www.emsflower.nl

As in 2015, Emsflower aimed at consolidation and reinforcement in 2016, not growth or extension. That costs points in the ranking since other companies are moving ahead quickly. Emsflower needs a little time to get everything into perspective again. It is planning to sell the Dutch branches and the Fretzdorf branch in Germany. Everything is targeted at Emsbüren where it has space for 13 hectares of extra greenhouses. This move towards consolidation and growth makes it easier to innovate and automate. Following from this, we are seeing work processes being streamlined and lead times reduced. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? One of those gains is that the company has become more appealing to new staff. We wrote about this last year as well. Work has become more challenging and more contemporary as a result of machines taking over routine manual jobs. Another step forward is the ordering system, which connects the clients’ stores directly to the systems at Emsflower. This results in quicker delivery, more sales and a more streamlined production. It’s the way in which Emsflower aims to increasingly improve relations with its customers.

Emsflower is getting ready for the future.

26 Van den Berg RoseS

Category production Total turnover € 39,553,000 Employees total 1,945 Employees NL 31 International branches 3 www.bergroses.nl

This global player in roses is increasingly moving towards brands and market segments. See the introduction of their Jewel top brand for niche products, among other things. The increasing focus on distinguishing and exclusive products has contributed considerably to the robust turnover growth in 2016. And judging by the news that it is entering the Kenyan Rose market under the name of Pride of Africa, the company is hungry for more. All this is the result of a choice that was made in 2012, entailing that Van den Berg RoseS would focus heavily on direct sales at the expense of clock sales. The majority of its sales, and all of its Kenyan rose sales, is now direct. Also, there is increasing focus on year-round supply and fixed retail prices. To keep up with the growing demand for quality products, Van den Berg RoseS is expanding its acreage with 5 hectares of greenhouses in Delfgauw.

As for its Chinese adventure: it is a 10 year plan, since setting up local management costs time. Once the internal market for flowers in China really opens up, Van den Berg RoseS will be ready for it.

We are Harvest House,

one of the largest growersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; associations in the Netherlands specialising in fruit

vegetables. Without exception, our growers are the leaders in their field. They are innovative, use highly sustainable growing methods and demonstrate professionalism, both within and outside Dutch borders. Through cultivation projects abroad, we not only ensure year-round availability of the best products, but also contribute to the development of the local population. Individually we are strong, together we are stronger. Our growers are bold and keen to test and market new varieties and concepts. This specific product and market knowledge combined with our innovative capacity makes us the strong, collaborative partner we want to be. This ultimately results in reaping the best returns, not only for us and our growers, but for everyone.

WHERE BUSINESS GROWS

www.harvesthouseinternational.nl

TOP 100

25 Monsanto Vegetable Seeds (EMEA)

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 45

Category youngplants Total turnover € 333,300,000 Employees total 1,403 Employees NL 617 International branches 18 www.monsanto.com

The name Monsanto is as synonymous as ever with turbulence and protracted authorisation procedures. At the end of August, just before the editorial deadline for this Hillenraad100, the news emerged that the European Union still has a major problem with the Bayer takeover.

The concern is that this will severely disrupt the market for seeds and pesticides. Reactions from outside Europe to the proposed marriage of these giants have not been very enthusiastic either. In a world where image and (online) communication are so important, this is a real disadvantage. As long as no signatures have been placed, potential suitor Bayer is still a rival. This creates an awkward situation for the operational divisions. For the time being the R&D and commercial activities have to be continued autonomously at full strength, as the competition is not going to wait until things have been settled. At the same time the proposed integration and efficiency drive have to be considered. In the midst of this turbulence, De Ruiter Seeds is still standing firm with a huge market share in greenhouse horticulture but is certainly not prepared to be pushed around. To be continued.

24 Bunnik Plants

Category production Total turnover € 77,500,000 Employees total 311 Employees NL 196 International branches 1 www.bunnikplants.nl

Having a scholar at the head of a horticultural production company should be a recipe for disaster and new director Thomas Bunnik has an amusing tale about placing a machine in a completely unsuitable position in the greenhouse during his early days. The former Harvardeducated strategy consultant with a McKinsey background proved to be a fast learner. It made him realise that top-down working is not always the best way. Responsibility and entrepreneurial thinking are now delegated down to the lowest possible organisational level.

This is smart, as it means the organisation is not dependent on a few key figures. People from completely different sectors have also been brought in: a former Fokker coach as an improvement officer and a former technician from NS (Dutch Railways) as a culture coach. It was necessary to break the deadlock of recent years. New energy now seems to flow through Bunnik Plants, and we are again witnessing interesting new concepts such as the smart seal for plant pots.

This prevents waste and prolongs shelf life by reducing dehydration and therefore losses. The strength of Bunnik Plants lies in the provision of promotional customisation for customers. This is not an easy market, but this reinvigorated company looks forward to the challenge. The first step will be the opening of the new Green Event Centre.

23 Hordijk Groep

Category technique Total turnover € 89,622,000 Turnover H100-Q € 46,673,357 Employees total 407 Employees NL 264 International branches 1 www.hordijk.nl

Hordijk’s business is thriving, and focussed on sustainability and recycling. President Trump may have pulled the American plug on the Paris Climate Agreement, but companies like this are demonstrating that the market is further than many politicians and governments are. Hordijk recognises that the demand for greater sustainability will increase rather than decrease. Of course, this trend also applies to the packaging of green and natural products, the market in which part of the Hordijk Groep operates. Unceasing efforts are being made to enable the reuse of PET packaging without compromising food safety.

Hordijk wants to go further than other businesses in this segment.

The route that began with the cradle-to-cradle processing of PET bottles is being extended and intensified. These innovations appeal to critical consumers. All this fits in with the ‘design for recycling’ concept, whereby professional clients are supported in their search for sustainable packaging. This is catching on. For example, Hordijk is pleased to see that the demand for bio-based materials is finally growing. Things are moving faster in other areas, too. The group is investing heavily in robotics, IT and production planning at all Hordijk businesses. In the meantime the greenhouse materials factory is running at full speed. This group is a shining example for the technological suppliers in this list.

22 Royal Pride Group

Category production Total turnover € 37,848,000 Employees total 388 Employees NL 68 International branches 2 www.royalpride.nl

This market leader in the cultivation and sale of cherry tomatoes has been active in the sector for over 50 years and is still going strong.

The Royal Pride Group repeatedly manages to come up with fitting answers to today’s questions. For instance, sustainability is currently a hot topic, and here the Royal Pride Group wants to do more than the bare minimum, as indicated by its involvement in the Tomato Innovation Centre. The aim is to achieve a climate-neutral horticulture industry by 2040. For many years, the Royal Pride Group has been certified in accordance with Dutch ecolabel ‘Milieukeur’, now renamed PlanetProof. This is a strong retail proposition, as consumers are becoming increasingly environmentally aware. If we look at the important issues in 2016, we see that the main focus that year was placed on the search for suitable price levels and the guarantee of year-round deliveries. Now that this has been properly arranged and ample funds are available, they can speed things up in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as in the United States through participation in the American MightlyVine Tomatoes. The course lies towards the west, as the group has discontinued its Chinese adventure and has decided not to juggle too many balls at once. This is a strong business that makes firm choices.

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Grodan is the only stone wool growing media awarded an EU Ecolabel

TOP 100

21 Royal Lemkes Group

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 47

Category trade Total turnover € 249,443,000 Employees total 318 Employees NL 198 www.royallemkes.nl

Royal Lemkes remained European market leader in the delivery of plants to retailers in 2016. It was described as ‘a good year’. Royal Lemkes continues to focus its efforts on the core propositions of ‘plant expertise’ and a ‘highly efficient and qualitative supply chain’. Customer intimacy meets operational excellence, in other words. One example of the former is the introduction of supply chain finance. This gives customers far more freedom of movement regarding payment methods. Another notable aspect is the formation of customer teams, with the combination of the elements Account, Product and Process. The focus on operational excellence is demonstrated partly by the improved supply logistics, which incidentally also enable reduced CO2 emissions. This fits in perfectly with the ambition to provide good stewardship. Everyone is working hard on the next step, because here, too, the classic exporting wholesaler model is under pressure. The key growth figures are also perceived to be lagging.

Royal Lemkes foresees disruption in relation to digitisation and wants to be one step ahead. The new people who have been appointed for this need to act quickly, as more are moving in the same direction.

20 KUBO Greenhouse Projects

Category technique Total turnover € 93,000,000 Employees total 130 Employees NL 104 International branches 3 www.kubo.nl

This year’s model is completely different, so it’s not fair to compare Kubo Tuinbouwprojecten’s (Greenhouse Projects) current ranking to last year’s, but it’s tempting. Last year, it entered the ranking in the bottom half and now it is already at number 20. Of course, its 2016 performance was impressive. Both the peergroup and the Committee of Experts were very positive, earning it a high position. The results are excellent, turnover is going through the roof. This is an enterprise that has been doggedly constructing a concrete reputation and a unique product proposition. By now, no less than 350 hectares of UltraClima greenhouses have been built in 16 countries all over the world.

And Kubo Tuinbouwprojecten has not taken its foot off the accelerator.

In order to be able to maintain growth, it underwent reconstruction in 2016. A middle management layer was added to liaison between policy-making and operations. Also, Kubo invested heavily in talent development, which turned out to be money well spent. Investments in developments such as Lean Six Sigma are now beginning to pay off and the lights are green for further growth. The quality of the processes has improved, the lead times of projects have been shortened, and efficiency has improved. Logical; everything needs to be in top shape to maintain this tempo.

19 Looye Kwekers

Category production Total turnover € 53,554,000 Employees total 561 Employees NL 49 International branches 1 www.looye.com

Looye Kwekers seems to be entering a new phase of life. We are familiar with the success story of its honey tomatoes and the way in which it conquered an enviable position in the market. It champions direct lines with points of sale and no fussing about price. Increasingly, the story of Looye Kwekers revolves around notions such as authenticity and uniqueness. This story has become more prominent now that the company has hired a Marketing & Communications manager who has made a name for himself in confectioneries and beer, while the new Senior Brand Manager is a seasoned campaigner in the perfume industry. Clearly, knowledge and experience from non-green sectors are acquired. Looye Kwekers is aware that you can’t keep milking the same success story. Therefore, it launched the Avalantino variety under the name of JOYN. Furthermore, the company is conducting a dedicated and structured search for new winners.

To safeguard sizeable growth, it is working hard at professionalising the employees. Also, it is collaborating with renowned partners on an innovative cultivation system. We wouldn’t be surprised if Looye Kwekers outgrows the Netherlands sometime soon.

18 Waterdrinker

Category trade Total turnover € 206,808,000 Employees total 382 Employees NL 301 www.waterdrinker.nl

Waterdrinker is very engaged in transitioning from export company with cash-and-carry and (web) shop to marketplace and activation platform where diverse parties meet: Waterdrinker customers (including retailers), breeders, growers, producers, designers, stylists, science and education. Increasingly, its core business consists of bringing together parties to shorten the products’ time to market. We recognise this as the hallmark of a nodal firm. The company is constructing a physical and online marketplace with the largest stock of flowers and plants in Europe. Waterdrinker aims to offer retailers special plants with which they can distinguish themselves in the market. Surprisingly, this brings retailers such as department store Bijenkorf and Sissy-Boy into the picture. Waterdrinker wants to be a frontrunner in the field of consumer-oriented activities and inspiration. The fact that for the first time in its history supermarket Albert Heijn has dedicated an insert in its Allerhande Magazine to plants, shows that the buyers are buying their approach. Mid 2017, the company started constructing the Green Trade Center, which revolves around the new strategy and vision. It is great to see how the company wants to reinvent itself, so to speak.

Growth rate and profits have declined slightly during this transitional phase, but Waterdrinker isn’t worried. You have to spend money to make money.

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TOP 100

17 Ter Laak Orchids

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 49

Category production Total turnover € 30,644,000 Employees total 173 Employees NL 60 International branches 1 www.orchidee.nl

Looking back on 2016 and the total picture concerning Ter Laak Orchids, we notice a big difference between the two elements determining their ranking. On the one hand, the peergroup’s assessment is very positive.

The company is therefore seen as innovative, professional and run with a strong vision. On the other hand, growth seems to be tailing off.

This could have to do with the investment in Guatemala. Or is it just good entrepreneurship to take a breather in view of the investment in the new 5 hectare daylight greenhouse that is under construction?

Next year’s key figures will provide the answer. Regardless, business is good, which is also shown by the fact that management has been reinforced with new functions here as well. The new Operations Manager will streamline processes even further, aided by the continuous feedback that is solicited from clients. The aim is to arrive at a point that was defined so eloquently by Johan Cruijff: ‘Before I make a mistake, I make sure not to make the mistake.’ It’s up to the brand-new R&D manager to develop exclusive varieties. There will always be demand for new winners such as the Authentic Orchids, orchids with a certain imperfection that makes them attractive. Athletes also lean backwards slightly before leaping forward.

16 Koppert Cress

Category production Total turnover € 30,338,000 Employees total 212 Employees NL 198 International branches 2 www.koppertcress.com

Koppert Cress scored highly with the peergroup, which doesn’t surprise us. There are few companies in this listing that manage to convey their message with as much flair and power. Koppert Cress is associated with terms such as innovative, professional, growth potential, eye for sustainability, and strong performance. Its ambition is direct: Koppert Cress wants to make the Netherlands the healthiest country in the world. Preferably, the company wants to conquer the world with its ambition. This ‘Metropolitan Farmer’ wants to put delicious cresses and other specialties on consumers’ plates all year round. From the ‘fresh and healthy’ perspective, new markets are targeted, such as hospitals and caterers. In order to realise the ambitions and safeguard stability during its sizeable growth, management was also reinforced.

The aim is to further improve the workflows by increasing management and automation. It’s something that all top companies do: they have the means to quickly take the necessary steps forward. Its coffers are well filled thanks to the large growth in turnover. The growth in countries such as Australia, America, Japan and Turkey has whetted the company’s appetite for more. Koppert Cress aims to be active in all major urban areas of the world. Rob Baan is making hay on a global scale.

15 CombiVliet

Category production Total turnover € 67,699,000 Employees total 695 Employees NL 79 www.combivliet.nl

CombiVliet is second to only one even bigger tomato powerhouse in this listing, which means that the company is leaving hundreds of others behind. It will be difficult for them to overtake CombiVliet, as it is moving rapidly. In order to keep the organisation lean and organised, the company is constantly improving on the quality of its people and optimising its processes. The products it produces all year round are sold through Harvest House. This generates a sizeable cash flow, which is invested for a large part in growing innovations and new product locations. After all, CombiVliet always has new plans. The 80 hectares

of tomatoes in Westland, Middenmeer and Rilland are not enough to satisfy the company’s ambitions. In a tightly organised process, 12 hectares will be added this year. In addition, CombiVliet sees great opportunities abroad, in locales as yet unnamed. In order to make this possible, new talent is needed of course. New talent, which is attracted by the increasingly more interesting content of the various functions as a result of the automation of everything ‘dull and dirty’. This is a precondition to grow even further.

14 Opti-flor

Category production Total turnover € 30,000,000 * Employees total 257 Employees NL 207 www.optiflor.nl

The Committee of Experts praised Opti-flor as ‘the product innovator for Phalaenopsis’. The company has been building a strong market position in this segment using crystal clear vision and focus, and it is paying off.

The 2016-2020 strategic plan hasn’t been completed yet but things are progressing nicely. One of the pillars of Opti-flor’s vision is to think in terms of proprietary product lines and concepts. This results in a recognisable position in the market and substantially improved returns.

This course will be continued with the introduction of the ‘Bloem Bloem’ consumer brand. It’s not just top arrangers and consumers that are as enthusiastic about Opti-flor’s unique Phalaenopsis varieties, professionals are raving as well. This summer, it resulted in Opti-flor being awarded the Klaas Schoone Memorial Award. We admire the way Opti-flor has a perfect sense of (latent) consumer needs. The product developers are quick to anticipate demand, but are also capable of stimulating demand by creative R&D. Follow and lead, earn and invest: Opti-flor knows exactly how to play this game. These successes make it possible to further professionalise, and to create new roles such as that of Operational Manager and Marketing & Communication Manager.

It’s the hallmark of a modern top company.

13 Priva

Category technique Total turnover € 74,810,000 Turnover H100-Q € 38,179,167 Employees total 458 Employees NL 332 International branches 14 www.privagroup.com

‘Our growth curve is accelerating,’ is Priva’s comment on its state of affairs. And yes, turnover in 2016 was substantially higher than in 2015, thanks to the contribution in the horticulture segment. This progress can be explained by the acceleration of product development. To enable this, the organisation was adapted where necessary. High and midlevel staff were given a wake-up call or made redundant. The company is now working with so-called ‘tribes’ and ‘squads’, partly self-managing teams that spot and grab opportunities. As a result, R&D is managed in quite a different way, and with plenty of success. No less than 9 new products were launched in the horticulture segment in 2017. Examples include the development of TopCrop adaptive crop control, the Priva Soft Fruit Computer and various new cloud solutions. Sizeable progress has been made in markets new to Priva, such as vertical farming and soft fruit. The developments in vertical farming are in line with the objective to remain front-runner in projects involving sustainable urban deltas. In its existing markets, Priva is doing brisk business in North America and Mexico, where growth is due to the increasing demand for advanced technology. Priva is betting on several horses and so far, they are all running fast.

Partners with Nature Koppert Biological Systems contributes to better health of people and the planet. In partnership with nature, we make agriculture healthier, safer and more productive. We provide an integrated system of specialist knowledge and natural, safe solutions that improves crop health, resilience and production.

Tel. +31 (0)10 514 04 44 info@koppert.com

www.koppert.com

TOP 100

12 Royal Brinkman

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 51

Category supplies Total turnover € 154,808,000 Employees total 344 Employees NL 232 International branches 12 www.brinkman.nl

Royal Brinkman sees the term of its 2014-2017 Strategy coming to an end. The strategy plan is all about digitisation, e-commerce, accelerated growth abroad and attention to crop protection and disinfection. We can safely say that these objectives have been more than met. The jump to e-commerce was very successful. What we see now is an almost reborn total supplier to the greenhouse horticulture sector, offering thousands of articles in its webshop. It is tempting to compare the company with the likes of bol.com, especially now that other online suppliers can use the platform as well. In Germany, this approach earned it the TASPO Award 2016 for best green sector website. But the world keeps turning and therefore, Royal Brinkman is fearlessly putting its money on its 2018-2020 Strategy plan, in which its online market approach plays a key role, of course. Already 30% of turnover in the Netherlands is achieved from e-commerce and it is very likely to increase. Therefore, the company is keeping a close eye on new technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.

The picture is clear: Royal Brinkman has created an entirely new position for itself in global horticulture.

10 Florensis

‘Each disadvantage has its advantage’, said the well-known Dutch ‘philosopher’ Johan Cruijff. For Florensis, it was the disruption of production that the company suffered in 2016. It turned out to be a wake-up call for this producer of floriculture propagation material.

Processes were economised and internal trainings were established.

The result: the delivery reliability rose to 98.7% again and the employees are more involved than ever in what they do and why they do it.

2016 saw record turnovers. These earnings were the result of the large, partly promotion-like volumes with which Florensis services the retail sector. Revenue from royalties is a serious cash cow as well, generating sizeable budgets for the required investments. For instance, they took 18 months to perfect the Florensis Online Order Tool. Last year, we also wrote about this ordering system, which provides buyers as well as the Florensis sales organisation with real-time insight into stock levels.

Considering the eagerness with which clients have started using this tool there was obviously a need for it. With its position in the BALDUR-Garten online platform, a serious e-commerce move was made as well. Florensis considers this to be the ideal springboard to develop chain direction for concepts and products towards the consumer. A true top 10 player and a powerhouse in young plants.

9 Ridder-HortiMaX

11 FleuraMetz

Category trade Total turnover € 309,151,000 Employees total 1,231 Employees NL 490 International branches 16 www.fleurametz.com

FleuraMetz is the full service provider in the florists segment in Europe, North America and Australia. Its strength is that the customer itself is at the wheel and determines how it wishes to buy flowers and plants: Cash & Carry, Tour or Direct. Furthermore, in the Westland, the ordering deadline is being shifted more and more in favour of the customer, as it recognises the zeitgeist: ‘I want it all, I want it now.’ This approach places high demands on the employees. It appears to be working, considering the strong turnover growth achieved in recent years using the same number of employees. Talking of growth: FleuraMetz has already opened 10 locations in the United States and in 2017, we think that the company will cross into Canada as well. In addition, FleuraMetz has gained a foothold in Brisbane, Australia. Things are cooking on all fronts and it’s not FleuraMetz’ fault that it’s not ranked any higher.

We have said it before: many enterprises at the top of the list are moving fast and differences are small. However, FleuraMetz plays a leading role in its own sector, using a unique approach illustrated by the recent step to set up their own platform together with the Dutch Flower Group.

Category youngplants Total turnover € 94,350,000 Employees total 1,436 Employees NL 183 International branches 11 www.florensis.com

Category technique Total turnover € 62,430,000 Turnover H100-Q € 42,432,000 Employees total 311 Employees NL 256 International branches 6 www.ridder.com and www.hortimax.com

The technical suppliers to the horticulture industry suffered the most from the recession following 2009. But things can change, as it is exactly these companies that are now seeing explosive growth.

Whoever succeeds in reaching a broad client base with technology has the world at its feet. This is exactly what Ridder-HortiMaX is doing.

Its market penetration is this extensive because it decided years ago to focus on best fit growing technology. Each local market has its own specific level of technical knowledge and Ridder-HortiMaX tailors its products to them seamlessly. This approach is successful across the globe and as a result we are seeing strong growth in highly diverse markets: the Netherlands, Belgium, Mexico, North America, Canada and China. Where possible, Ridder-HortiMaX supports and inspires its buyers from seven global support centres, while keeping its product development sustainable. This combination of state-ofthe-art technology and an ecological approach acts as a magnet to young talent. A good example of this open window to the world is the company’s involvement in supplying food in refugee camps. They have built greenhouses in Jordan and Lebanon for Syrian refugees to grow their own food. Elsewhere, in India, Ridder-HortiMaX is involved in a Center of Excellence to support the improvement of food production.

This company is truly in touch with the zeitgeist.

PRIDE

IS IN OUR NATURE Enjoy the flavours of our products

Want to know more about us & our exotic fruits and vegetables? Visit

WWW.NATURESPRIDE.EU

Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pride - Maasdijk, Holland T: 0031 174 525 900 - E: info@naturespride.nl

TOP 100

8 Dümmen Orange

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 53

Category youngplants Total turnover € 189,082,000 Employees total 6,810 Employees NL 300 International branches 15 www.dummenorange.com

Dümmen Orange is a textbook modern horticultural business. Here is a company that is driven by private equity and absorbs one small ‘fish’ after the other. Their most recent acquisitions were Wander Tuinier, producers of succulents, and Hobaho, specialists in flower bulbs.

‘We keep filling in the blank spots in our portfolio,’ says CEO Biense Visser. The objective is clear: Dümmen Orange wants to become the world’s most complete breeder and is accessing ever more playing fields in order to achieve that. Its power lies in its ownership of the genetics, its state-of-the-art breeding processes and its many partnerships.

In the race to the future, the participation in Genetwister Technologies of course was essential, as it safeguards the required acceleration in breeding. As the bar is continuously raised, more and more academics are acquired, which is the hallmark of a globally active enterprise.

Here also, we are witnessing organisational interventions–so-called integrated product teams, in the case of Dümmen Orange. Teams are created around crops in order to combine in-depth product knowledge with economies of scale. Entrepreneurship in teams is seen as the key to local success. However, there is homework to be done. The challenge for this business is to develop its management just as quickly as its portfolio.

7 Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds

Category youngplants Total turnover € 231,300,000 Turnover H100-Q € 191,500,000 Employees total 2,077 Employees NL 619 International branches 46 www.nunhems.com

The fact that Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds is not ranked higher in the top 10 shows how tough competition is at the top. After all, you have to be seriously good to overtake this company. Its operating result is growing quickly and staff have increased by about 10% in 2016.

All in all, we are witnessing strong growth as a result of an offensive company strategy, while the human factor is not being overlooked in this powerplay. For instance, a tomato grower in South America was bailed out and even the cultivation of an entire region was propped up. In Ethiopia, the company is involved in ‘Bridging The Seed Gap’, a project that was launched by Fair Planet. It enables small-scale growers access to seeds that were not within their reach before. At the product level, we saw great new innovations in lettuce breeding in 2016 (whereby colour increasingly determines consumer preferences), as well as melons with a ‘ripeness indicator’. These novelties are the result of employees thinking and acting like entrepreneurs in all layers of the enterprise. As such, the Vegetable Seeds business unit has grown faster than the market. However, other businesses are moving even faster.

6 Beekenkamp Groep

Category youngplants Total turnover € 134,218,000 Employees total 2,818 Employees NL 418 International branches 5 www.beekenkamp.nl

The Beekenkamp Group maintains its top 10 listing, but not without a fight. This young plants, chrysanthemums and packaging giant certainly belongs here, although the higher-ranked companies score better in terms of vision, growth potential and performance. The group is also judged to be one of the unmistakably fixed assets of the Dutch (glass) horticulture industry. However, the other frontrunners are showing much better key financial figures and growth. To be fair, it is difficult to become better, bigger and faster every year. After all, 2 billion young

plants leave the Beekenkamp Group greenhouses each year. To entice consumers, there is increased focus on promotionally supporting the chain partners and providing end consumers with crop information.

In this respect, the group is working hard to remain a frontrunner in all areas. This is evidenced by the collaboration with the WUR in the area of breeding marker technology, by the determination to remain a frontrunner in the ongoing consolidation trend between growers and suppliers of propagation material for pot plants and bedding plants, and also by the innovations in the sizeable growth market for soft-fruit packaging. Other players within their segment are moving even faster, but on their own playing field the Beekenkamp Group remains the world champion.

5 Anthura

Category youngplants Total turnover € 98,582,000 Employees total 752 Employees NL 161 International branches 3 www.anthura.nl

This expert in breeding and producing orchids and anthuriums has become a global market leader in the space of 80 years. In order to maintain this very strong position and continue its worldwide growth, Anthura, at the advice of Hillenraad Partners, emphatically refocused on being a much more internationally-oriented organisation in 2016.

In Anthura’s own striking words: ‘Over the years, the organisation grew organically and autodidactically with the business. There comes a time that things have to be done more professionally, at a higher level and more internationally.’ So ambitions are high, for instance in China. There, they are working on their own production of young plants in modern greenhouses, close to the market. A laboratory has been built as well. These efforts have been successful. Now that the roles for the future are clear again, the effectiveness and flexibility of the organisation have increased. Also, there is now room to develop innovations such as 3D print technology-produced plugs, designed for the phalaenopsis production. Both the peergroup and the Committee of Experts recognise the strength of this enterprise.

Anthura is highly rated in terms of strategic power, professionalism and potential. Jumping no fewer than three places in the top 10 is quite a performance, and a well-deserved one at that.

4 Agro Care

Category production Total turnover € 103,685,000 Employees total 1,420 Employees NL 100 International branches 2 www.agrocare.nl

Within the top of the Hillenraad100, Agro Care is the undisputed tomato powerhouse. Since the merger with Kesgro was concluded in 2016, we have witnessed this giant of a production company churn out various sorts of (vine) tomatoes. In the Netherlands and North Africa, 153 hectares were in year-round cultivation for retailers in Northwestern Europe in 2016. And the company still has plenty of growth potential because their strength has only increased as a result of the merger. This has enabled the new construction of another 18 hectares in Middenmeer. Therefore, we are talking about a giant, and as we all know, giants play with giants. Within their field of expertise, Agro Care’s strategic participations contain only big names: Harvest House, TNI, Greenpack, NL Jobs, Axia, Nitea IT Solutions, KAS Energy, CombiCoop and ECW. The tomato superpower is aware that a vehicle of this type is the fastest mover. Of course everything must be repositioned correctly after the merger but in doing so, the motto remains unchanged: ‘no limits, no nonsense’. The merger has made the assortment even wider and ambitions go even further. In fact, there are plans to enter the soup and sauce market. Developments are already ongoing in the snack tomato segment. So, who is the next one to be devoured?

Around the world in 80 years

And what a journey!

In three generations Enza Zaden has evolved from a seed shop called Enkhuizer Zaadwinkel into the global market leader in vegetable breeding that it is today. Worldwide we have 45 branches.

More than 1,800 employees of 40 nationalities. We develop more than 30 international and local crops. And we introduce over 100 new vegetable varieties to the global market each year.

For 80 years independent family company

work closely together in international teams so they can respond quickly and flexibly to market developments. Good coordination between Enza Zaden and our chain partners is essential for successfully marketing a new vegetable variety or concept.

We still are an independent family company. Jaap Mazereeuw, Enza Zaden’s Managing Director and the third generation in command, explains: “Being and remaining independent enables us to follow our own course and make our own choices.

And continue to invest in innovation, people and sustainability.”

Towards a healthy future

Cooperation is key

“Together we are building on a healthy future all over the world,” concludes Jaap Mazereeuw.

Cooperation is of key importance to Enza Zaden, both within our company and regarding our relations outside the company. Our employees

enzazaden.com

TOP 100

Nature’s Pride

Category trade Total turnover € 362,953,000 Employees total 493 Employees NL 368 www.naturespride.eu

Nature’s Pride almost took the gold in this Hillenraad100. In our new model, this fiercely growing enterprise scored extremely well in terms of qualitative assessment, an important aspect of the ranking. In addition, Nature’s Pride is seen as an iconic factor in the horticulture industry. All of it is the legacy of Shawn Harris, who is retiring to the back benches. Fred van Heyningen, former banker and former member of our Committee of Experts, is the new general manager. He leads the MT together with Adriëlle Dankier. Shawn Harris watches from a distance. The tide is on the side of the new management–growth in Scandinavia, Germany and Poland is considerable. It seems that the consumer has an almost insatiable appetite for ready-toeat products such as avocados, mangos, etc.

In this market segment, Nature’s Pride is a true powerhouse especially now that Nature’s Berries has been merged into Nature’s Pride.

There are plenty of plans for more growth through an even wider assortment, online activities and retail support by means of category management. That sort of growth inevitably involves growing pains, resulting in new dynamics with, among other things, more efficiency and stronger (middle) management.

Will the new helmsmen manage to maintain this progress and win gold next year?

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 55

Enza Zaden

Category youngplants Total turnover € 264,440,000 Employees total 1,923 Employees NL 642 International branches 38 www.enzazaden.nl

Enza Zaden will have to contend with the number 2 spot after years of being number 1.

After all the new factors had been weighed, this family business came 2nd to the new number 1 in terms of EBITDA growth pace, among other things. Which is quite something, because Enza Zaden is showing strong profit and turnover growth. Enza Zaden grew in size as well, increasing their staff by about 10%.

This vegetable seed powerhouse is moving fast. Its pace is the result of the multi-local approach. By now, Enza Zaden can boast 24 R&D centres across the world. Their focus on seed R&D is unrelenting as new facilities are built in Europe, Asia and America. This is all taking place within the framework of the ‘Vision 2020’ plan, in which sizeable growth is expected in Asia especially. In order to make the most of its global opportunities, breeding, marketing and sales are marching side-byside. A new element in this vision is a shift to more successful market introductions instead of just more of them. Improved market intelligence is deployed to increase the likelihood of hitting the target. That focus has produced the Tribelli Mini, among other things, a pointed mini-paprika that taps into then ‘food in the box’ trend. Enza Zaden knows how to operate on a large scale and with versatility.

Koppert Biological Systems Category supplies Total turnover € 182,675,000 Turnover H100-Q € 155,295,000 Employees total 1,301 Employees NL 367 International branches 32 www.koppert.com

The battle for the top 3 spots has never been closer. Koppert Biological Systems wins gold, partly thanks to the high qualitative assessment. The entire Committee of Experts judged the company as excellent and leading in its vision, strategy, growth potential, innovative power, sustainability, etc.

The latter is not surprising considering the core business, organic crop protection. In the five key values, nature is stated as its most important partner. The company even speaks of a ‘holistic, organic approach to horticulture’.

Koppert Biological Systems knows best how to combine large-scale, commercial and organic.

This approach has been paying off for years– annual growth has consistently exceeded 10%.

This year, this company celebrates its 50th anniversary. However, it is still as vital as ever and a driver of innovation. We are witnessing an acceleration in existing markets, and there is an eagerness and hunger to realise even more (organic) growth in the soft fruit and agriculture markets. To be as successful in new markets as in the old, Koppert Biological Systems is looking to connect with startups. After all, that is where ‘new thinking’ can be found, according to them. The focus on innovation and R&D is immense judging by the flood of new technologies, such as Bee Vision. The setup of a new Agronomic Development department, which has to successfully introduce all these new developments to the market, reveals a lot.

The new number 1–and rightly so!

56 |

The Top 20...

...according to the 2016 Hillenraad100 companies

...according to the peergroup

After 15 years of analysing top businesses in the sector, the Hillenraad editors thought it would be interesting to ask last year’s Top 100 to draw up their own list of top five businesses. They were not restricted to the businesses in Hillenraad’s list; they could name any business, in the Netherlands or abroad. In this list no distinction is made according to size or segment. The ranking is based on how many times a businesses is named as favourite. Notably, one foreign business was named as favourite several times, although unfortunately for Le Jardin de Rabelais from France, this was insufficient for a place in the list.

What would the top of the Hillenraad100 look like had we left the decision entirely up to the peergroup? This interesting question has produced an interesting list, with 40 peers selecting their personal top 12 from a list of 120 candidates.

Choosing a select and diverse peergroup from the different branches (see the infographic on page 7) has given us an impression of how the top businesses are viewed within the sector. The peergroup members were nominated by the Top 100 businesses of 2016 and the Committee of Experts, supplemented by the editors where necessary to obtain a balanced group. The 40 anonymous peers assessed each business according to six aspects, and provided a motivation and explanation. Their opinions influenced the Hillenraad100 model this year and to do justice to their opinions, the Top 20 according to this peergroup is listed below.

Businesses only appear in the list if they were rated by at least seven peers. The winner was named and rated by 20 of the 40 peers.

1

Koppert Cress

2

Rijk Zwaan

3

Beekenkamp

4

Koppert Biological Systems

5

Nature’s pride

6

Ter Laak Orchids

7

Greenco

8

Agro Care

9

Enza Zaden

10 Anthura 11 Dümmen Orange 12 Waterdrinker 13 Royal Brinkman 14 Looye Kwekers 15 Opti-flor 16 Porta Nova 17 Priva 18 Van den Berg RoseS 19 Eosta 20 Kubo Greenhouse Projects

1

Koppert Biological Systems

2

Nature’s Pride

3

Koppert Cress

4

Ter Laak Orchids

5

Anthura

6

Opti-flor

7

KUBO Greenhouse Projects

8

Priva

9

Enza Zaden

10 Beekenkamp Groep 11 Porta Nova 12 Agro Care 13 Looye Kwekers 14 Dümmen Orange 15 Van den Berg RoseS 16 CombiVliet 17 Harvest House International 18 Greenco 19 Gipmans Planten 20 4Evergreen

JUBILEE SPECIAL

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 57

...based on key business figures

...based on EBITDA growth

One of the four pillars of the Hillenraad100 model is the quantitative assessment. For this component we looked at several key figures, such as turnover growth, result developments and solvency. Using this data we calculated various features in relation to aspects such as workforce size. We also looked at the turnover share of innovative products, internationalisation and exports. The trend in the indicative figures forms the basis for this sub-ranking. The top 20 businesses with the strongest development in key business figures are listed below.

Considering the current situation, EBITDA development is an increasingly important factor, which is why this is now included as a separate pillar in the model. This figure (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation) reflects the gross profits of the business activities before the deduction of investment costs, capital costs and tax costs. It gives an idea of the extent to which the business activities add economic value. EBITDA growth over a period of several years is therefore a better gauge of competitive strength than turnover or profit. For the Hillenraad100 model, we use a normalised EBITDA over a period of three years. However, we deviated from this in some cases due to exceptional oneoff circumstances. The Top 20 businesses on the basis of EBITDA growth over the recent period (CAGR) are listed below. These top businesses all had an EBITDA growth of above 30%.

1

Agro Care

2

Dalsem Groep

3

Enza Zaden

4

Ridder-HortiMaX

5

Koppert Cress

6

AAB

1

Stolze

7

Arcadia

2

Metazet FormFlex

8

Van der Ende Groep

3

Dool Industries

9

Koppert Biological Systems

4

Van der Ende Groep

10 Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pride

5

Artemis Nurseries

11 CombiVliet

6

Ridder-HortiMaX

12 KUBO Greenhouse Projects

7

Van der Knaap Groep

13 Van Gelder groente & fruit

8

Bunnik Plants

14 Proeftuin Zwaagdijk

9

AAB

15 Fachjan Project Plants

10 Onings Holland

16 Anthura

11 Proeftuin Zwaagdijk

17 Opti-flor

12 Best Fresh Group

18 Hordijk Groep

13 Berg Hortimotive

19 Bunnik Plants

14 Agro Care

20 Dool Industries

15 Royal van Zanten 16 Delphy 17 Floral Trade Group 18 Royal Hilverda Group 19 Van den Berg RoseS 20 Van Dijck Groenteproducties

58 |

Top 100 of all times The fifteenth anniversary is a great moment to review what has changed in the past fifteen years in the composition of the Hillenraad100. This concisely reflects the sectorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dynamics.

Which companies are the stable ones? Who are the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rising starsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;? Which companies have disappeared from the top 100 through mergers or takeovers? The fifteen-year time span shows a number of interesting movements in a sector that is experiencing rapid professionalisation.

Number of years on the list

The list alongside is an overview of the number of years that the companies in the top 100 of all time have been on the list. 75 companies have been listed for ten years or longer and 20 companies have only been listed for one year. number of years

number of companies

15

35

14

9

13

8

12

2

11

8

10

13

9

11

8

10

7

5

6

9

5

14

4

13

3

24

2

23

1

20

Which companies are the most stable in the top 100 of all time? These are the companies that have been listed for at least 10 years, which fully justifies an acknowledgement as a leading player. Based on the listings of these companies over the past years, we have calculated their variance by determining their standard deviation. This value is a measure of their deviation from the average. A lower value indicates a low variance, showing who the stable players are.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Dutch Flower Group

number of years

stdev

15

0.98

Royal FloraHolland

13

1.21

Waterdrinker

15

2.58

Total Produce

15

2.75

The Greenery

14

4.05

Anthura

15

4.13

Delphy

10

4.13

Royal Lemkes Group

15

4.30

FleuraMetz

15

4.49

Priva

15

4.57

Mutations

Top 10 net increase in ranking

The top 10 net increase in ranking features ten companies that have made the largest net rise from their first listing to their most recent.

Which companies from the top 100 of all time have made the largest step from their first listing to now? The largest increase in ranking was achieved by Agro Care, with 96 points difference between its first and last ranking. However, no company in the list has experienced uninterrupted years of increase.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Top 10 stable players

Agro Care

96

Koppert Cress

83

Florensis

80

KUBO Tuinbouwprojecten

75

Opti-flor

71

Ridder-HortiMaX

71

CombiVliet

70

Royal Pride Group

70

Ter Laak Orchids

69

Looye Kwekers

68

In the past fifteen years, the Hillenraad top 100 has seen many changes, stemming, in part, from mergers, takeovers and relaunches.

Major players of the past have partially or entirely disappeared into new combinations with their own listing or became part of a larger enterprise. The following is a list of 42 companies that have had their own listing on the Hillenraad 100 in the past but have now disappeared through mergers, takeovers, bankruptcy or relaunches. The division over the categories is shown below. overname

19

fusie

6

failliet

9

ontmanteld

2

doorstart

3

bedrijfsbeeindiging

1

kwalificeert niet meer

2 42

JUBILEE SPECIAL

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 59

The best 100 of the past fifteen years In total, 204 companies have been included in the list at one time or another.

Based on listings from recent years, we have compiled a ‘top 100 of all time’.

This contains 35 companies that have been on the list for fifteen years and as such are a stable factor. The final ranking of the top 100 of all time was achieved by evaluating the listings of the past fifteen years. For this evaluation a recent listing weighs more than a listing from years ago.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50

A B Dutch Flower Group

15

1

Rijk Zwaan

15

1

Total Produce (Haluco)

15

1

Greenyard (Univeg / Bocchi)

15

3

FleuraMetz (Fleura Aalsmeer/Metz)

15

5

Enza Zaden

15

1

Royal Lemkes Group

15

4

Waterdrinker

15

7

Anthura

15

5

Beekenkamp Groep

15

4

Dümmen Orange (DNA Green Group / Agribio Goup / Fides)

15

5

The Greenery (Coforta)

14

2

Priva

15 10

Koppert Biological Systems

15

1

Royal FloraHolland

13

1

Monsanto Vegetable Seeds (De Ruiter Seeds)

15 15

Bunnik Plants

15

Best Fresh Group

15 19

Royal Hilverda Group

15 15

Syngenta Seeds

15 12

Royal Brinkman

15 12

RedStar

15 11

Eosta

13 20

Florensis

15

BVB Substrates

15 25

Emsflower

14 18

Hordijk Groep

15 21

Zijtwende International/Harting-Vollebregt

14 21

8

9

Jiffy Group (Jiffy/Tref)

15 24

INCOTEC Group

10

Van VLIET Flower Group

14 30

Horticoop (Maasmond)

15 18

Royal van Zanten

15 14

Agro Care

15

CombiVliet

14 15

Dalsem Groep

15 30

4

4

Koppert Cress

13 16

ZON

14 19

Heemskerk fresh & easy (W. Heemskerk)

14 28

Certhon (Wilk van der Sande / Bosch Inveka)

13 34

Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds (Nunhems Zaden)

7

Floricultura

15 41

6

Van der Windt Group (Van der Windt Verpakking)

9

Prominent

13 25

20

Artemis (Van den Bos Flowerbulbs)

15 41

Nature's Pride

5

Opti-flor

10 14

2

Vreugdenhil Klugt Combinatie (Plantenkwekerij Vreugdenhil)

11 29

Rockwool GRODAN

15 44

Van den Berg RoseS

9

24

A B

Legenda Number of years on the list Highest ranking ever

51 Looye Kwekers (Looije Tomaten) 52 Ridder-HortiMaX 53 Ter Laak Orchids 54 Hoogendoorn Groep 55 Sion 56 Vroegop-Windig 57 SO natural 58 Koninklijke Vezet 59 Dool Industries (Hortiliux-Schréder) 60 Wayland Plants (Wayland Groep) 61 Noviflora 62 Greenco 63 Gipmans Planten 64 AAB (Agro AdviesBuro) 65 Metazet Formflex (Metazet Zwethove) 66 Lans 67 Heemskerk Flowers + 68 Olympic Food Group 69 Royal Pride Group 70 Van der Knaap Groep 71 WBE (Westland Bloemen Export) 72 Lek/Habo Groep 73 4Evergreen 74 Porta Nova 75 Dekker Chrysanten 76 KUBO Greenhouse Projects 77 Delphy (DLV Plant) 78 Floral Trade Group (Van der Plas Groep) 79 Bom Group 80 Afriflora 81 HillFresh Holding 82 Nieuwkoop Group 83 Harvest House International 84 Adomex 85 Van Gelder groente & fruit 86 Decorum (Decorum Company) 87 KP Holland 88 Starre Group 89 Combilo 90 Staay Food Group 91 Viscon Group (Visser Group) 92 Van Nature 93 Huisman Group 94 Van Dillewijn Group (Zwapak) 95 Anco pure Vanda 96 CODEMA Systems Group 97 Bosman Van Zaal (Van Zaal) 98 Delft Research Group (Groen Agro Control) 99 Grow Group 100 Schoneveld Breeding

A B 7

17

6

9

6

12

15 36 13 37 10 37 8

22

8

30

13 43 14 35 10 38 9

36

15 57 15 50 15 50 11 25 11 43 9

45

8

22

14 57 9

35

11 28 13 38 5

31

10 32 8

20

10 60 5

42

11 45 4

26

5

49

9

46

3

31

12 67 4

41

9

38

8

28

9

63

6

32

4

55

11 73 5

24

7

49

10 71 5

56

8

55

12 64 10 64 7

74

6

71

60 |

The new boys’ network is coming Online platforms are changing whole industries, such as the worlds of taxis, hotels, music, films, books, clothing: online consumer spending is growing unrelentingly at the expense of traditional markets. Bloomon has enthusiastically jumped on that bandwagon. What’s in store for them and the floriculture industry?

Front-end developer, social media manager, lead CRM improvements, e-mail marketer: these aren’t positions you’d expect at a floriculture enterprise. Traditional players’ websites are usually about pot sizes, varieties, or the position in the chain. Slightly different packaging for more or less the same product is often called a concept in this segment. And now, there is a party with a totally different approach, one where data nerds and calm coders work side-byside with fashion designers. We are talking about bloomon, the online service for stylish bouquets that betray the hand of the bouquet designer. The different terms and positions say it all - this is a player playing a completely different ballgame. Bloomon is a young enterprise owned by three young men: Patrick Hurenkamp, Koen Thijssen and Bart Troost. True millennials, raised using the Internet. However, Patrick Hurenkamp also grew up amidst old-fashioned horticultural entrepreneurs. ‘My in-laws are in the orchids and curcuma business,’ he says. ‘They are from the Westland, so I know that world rather well.’ At family and friends’ birthdays, he heard about the challenges, and the distance from the consumer.

‘We still give everyone the experience of a oneon-one relationship.’

Flowers are a fashion commodity

To their surprise, Patrick and co noticed that the retail world had also hardly changed in recent decades and players such as Picnic had given it a wake-up call. ‘We want to wake up the flower industry, shake it up,’ says the bloomon trio. And things are progressing nicely. Recently, investors put up another injection of millions. And sourcing is very solid.

The millionth bouquet was delivered not too long ago. Bloomon is active in five countries and is well on its way to becoming a real brand. What the consumer wants is the core of what bloomon does. Where the existing industry mainly thinks from A to B and then to C, these newcomers start at C and work their way back to A.

Patrick Hurenkamp: ‘As with other digital platforms, that’s all it is, essentially. We target consumers in their late 20s and older, who are sensitive to fashion, styling, interior, and nice and unique creations. For that reason, we work with designers, men and women, some of whom have worked in the fashion world and have an international background. They used to work for brands such as Scotch & Soda.

They are trend-sensitive people from Berlin, for instance, or Canada. In addition, we have technical specialists and analysts who build, manage and expand the digital platform. In the back office, we have the purchasers, who are in constant dialogue with the over 400 growers that supply our products.’

‘One of the key factors for bloomon is the continuous ‘loop’ that exists between the consumer and their appreciation, and the management of the growers. We see what is, and what isn’t, successful. We keep an eye on fashion trends. This unbroken circle allows us to arrange with the growers what we need at any time of day. They supply a product, which we know or think will be liked by all those consumers that wish to be surprised with yet another special bouquet every two weeks.

We not only give the customers the feeling that they are important, they actually really play a role in the actions we take. Their voice is important. This is exactly what players such as Airbnb and Uber do. We always want to know what the customer is experiencing. Although we have delivered more than 1 million bouquets by now, we still give everyone the experience of a one-on-one relationship.

being underway for a long time and therefore having a short vase life. We have shown them that things can be done differently.’

Classic enjoyment

Bloomon’s approach could be experienced as a threat by florists. However, the opposite seems to be true. ‘Interestingly enough,’ says Patrick Hurenkamp, ‘florists often tell us that their clients specifically ask for a bloomon bouquet. So, their market is growing because of us.’ This means that they always get a special creation, something you can’t get anywhere else. There’s also always a card attached to our bouquets with information about the flowers. The deliverers that take care of the last mile are frequently instructed on how to deal with the bouquets and what keep in mind. This resembles the way florists worked in the 1960s. They personally surprised their customers with their knowledge. What I think is also special is that we are witnessing a revival of the flower arranging course. Imagine, young people, following a flower arranging course! They get inspired, and want to make something unique and authentic. I think it is fantastic that we have touched the right chord with the younger target group.’ And so, this is the way the new boys’ network succeeds in combining a seemingly old-fashioned service with new technology to open up a new market.

Is this the platform that will control the floriculture industry in the foreseeable future?

Fast and dense

Bloomon has been active since 2014 and has built an extremely dense network of growers and deliverers in a relatively short time, both at the front and at the back.

One of bloomon’s hallmarks is its continuously changing range. Patrick Hurenkamp: ‘We work with seasonal products, and therefore, they are different every time. Our reference was those bouquets that you see at petrol stations, but then the opposite: that is not how we want to do it. And of course, there is the extremely short time between cutting and the vase. Our planning is extremely tight, as I said before. The flowers are centrally collected from the various growing locations, tied into bouquets, and shipped the same day.

That way, they have a substantially longer vase life, which is especially popular with our German consumers. They were used to flowers

CHALLENGING CONCEPTS

INTERVIEW

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 61

Patrick Hurenkamp, founder bloomon ‘Where the existing industry mainly thinks from A to B and then to C, these newcomers start at C and work their way back to A.’

62 |

The Hillenraad500+

Scaling-up and internationalisation in the horticulture industry are fast-paced, which is why in 2013, we began collecting large-scale, international companies in a separate list: the Hillenraad500+. The 500+ category features a selection of companies that can hold their own on the global playing field of major international horticulture businesses. These companies are active in vegetables, fruit or ornamental plants/flowers.

An extraordinary category

The 500+ category not only does the largest leading businesses justice, it does the same for the businesses in the Top 100. After all, every company wants a level playing field. In this category, we focus on businesses whose Dutch entity/entities report turnover in excess of 500 million euros. Research has shown that this limit is a good measure for differentiating between the type, structure and management of companies. Companies of this size are organised, structured and financed entirely differently and have a broad international market approach. As such, they deserve their own category.

Turnover or employees

Research into management and organisation has shown that, in addition to turnover, the labour force is also a distinguishing factor.

Effectory, the market leader in employee research, sets the limit at 1000 employees.

We are happy to adopt their thinking. In 2015, we added a new criteria to the 500+ and promoted to the list businesses with more than 1,000 employees on the payroll in the Netherlands.

Broader view – the international horticulture cluster counts

Our emphasis is on businesses in the knowledge and capital-intensive greenhouse industry with a strong international perspective. In this edition of the 500+ list, we intentionally look beyond just (greenhouse) horticulture products and examine companies that are active in the global horticulture cluster, including breeding companies, propagation firms, global producers of fresh vegetables, fruit or ornamentals, and companies trading in or handling these products. This list concerns fresh greenhouse products carefully cultivated for the consumer and with a high product value so that they are traded per item, kilo or package.

Assessment

The businesses in the 500+ category are evaluated using the same criteria as those in the Top 100. We employ a multi-disciplinary business model, a schematic description of which can be found on page 7. The model is based on four pillars: a qualitative assessment (six factors), a quantitative assessment of key business figures, the average EBITDA growth (CAGR) and finally, the nature, size and position in the chain of the business (i.e. its industry footprint).

Committee of Experts

This same careful procedure is used to draw up the 500+ category. The point of departure for the assessment is the research by the editorial team of Hillenraad100 and the consultants of Hillenraad Partners. The results are then combined with an analysis and assessment from the Committee of Experts. It is an intensive process of balancing the scales.

The final listing is the combined result of facts, noteworthy information and the experts’ opinions. This makes the 500+ list vital and distinctive. In composing the list, we limited ourselves to the five leading businesses in this category.

World League

There is only a small gap between the Dutch 500+ list and international players of comparable size. In order to draw this comparison we have included an additional list of international 500+ companies that we have simply classified in terms of sales turnover.

This provides an indication of the global players which the Dutch companies measure up against in this international playing field. The criteria of 500 million euros or 1,000 employees may seem to be distant points on the horizon for many Dutch businesses. Nevertheless, within a few years, several Dutch players will enter this World League or be taken over by global players. ‘Eat or be eaten.’ We are very curious about which national entities will grow into global players. The Dutch horticulture industry is more and more up against the World League.

Legenda bij de top 500+

For the past five years, the Hillenraad500+ has given an idea of the five most prominent (inter) national businesses active on a large scale in the Netherlands. Companies in the 500+ category meet one of our two criteria: more than 500 million euros in sales, or more than 1,000 employees. Just one of these criteria is enough. The company profiles have been carefully compiled by our editorial team using a variety of sources. A short description of the company is accompanied by various figures on its size. In formulating its evaluations, the editorial team used information provided by the companies and gained from public sources, and took developments into account up to midAugust 2017.

Category

ategory within the C horticulture cluster Total turnover Total group turnover Turnover H100-Q Turnover r­ elevant to the Hillenraad100 classification Employees total Total number of employees worldwide Employees NL Employees on the payroll in the Netherlands International branches Number of branches outside the Netherlands Figures marked with * Estimates by Hillenraad100 due to lack of public sources

HILLENRAAD500+

1 Rijk Zwaan

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 63

Category youngplants Total turnover € 387,850,000 Employees total 2,645 Employees NL 1,105 International branches 31 www.rijkzwaan.nl

‘The number 1 will win the market,’ as Ben Tax, General Director of Rijk Zwaan, was quoted in the Dutch financial newspaper Financieele Dagblad in October 2016. And he described this year’s theme exactly.

As the world’s number 5 in the vegetable seeds market, Rijk Zwaan is facing giants such as the listed Bayer, which will become even more powerful after its expected merger with Monsanto. Our new number 1 is accepting this challenge with vigour and fervour, which is witnessed by the enormous investments it will be making in new construction for R&D and in new people. Rijk Zwaan’s investment, both domestic and abroad, will amount to no less than 250 million euros and the company is looking for 1,500 new staff members. The quest is for bigger, but also for quicker and more surprising, and so employees will

2 Dutch Flower Group

Category trade Total turnover € 1,386,138,000 Employees total 2,320 Employees NL 325 International branches 17 www.dfg.nl

The number 2 in this top category is and remains the undisputed number 1 in flowers and plants. No other Dutch group or enterprise in this category even comes close in terms of size, power and results.

Where other companies occupy a segment in the market, Dutch Flower Group uses its 30 companies to service the entire market. The nice thing about it is that it has managed to retain its human dimension.

The website doesn’t radiate ‘anonymous corporation’, but feels like the result of a group of people still enjoying their work. Needless to say, hard work is being performed. Dutch Flower Group leads the way in digitising the trade in flowers and plants. Together with FleuraMetz, the company

3 Greenyard

receive extra time and budget to come up with truly innovative ideas.

Rijk Zwaan aims for autonomous growth in order to maintain its unique culture. Both this urge to go forward and the ability to invest enormous sums have enabled developments such as New Trait Development and Next Generation Sequencing, designed to bring varieties to the market even quicker. Seeds has become high-tech, and therefore, Rijk Zwaan has been introducing all sorts of technologies, such as big data, robots, drones and the Internet of Things. Rijk Zwaan is by far the most innovative and powerful player in this Hillenraad500+ and the company is again rolling up its sleeves in order to measure up to the international competition.

is developing a new digital system to streamline the chain between its (current) preferred suppliers and its international growers. It is the provoking answer to Royal FloraHolland’s acquisition of FloraXchange.

Dutch Flower Group is one of the few companies with the vision and power to compete with big players like them. The vacancy for a new Chief Digital Officer shows where the company and the trade are going: evermore online and data driven. So no more interest in a traditional air freight carrier, but all the more focus on the traditional core business, albeit with digital strength. After all, the battle will be won on the monitors.

Category trade Total turnover € 4,249,200,000 Turnover H100-Q € 715,646,800 Employees total 9,713 Employees NL 713 International branches 35 www.greenyard.group

You never know what mergers, acquisitions or consolidations will amount to. Press releases are always positive but the proof of the pudding... And that of Greenyard tastes excellent. The consolidation of Univeg, Peltracom, Noliko and Pinguin is right on course. Hein Deprez’ ancient wish to be active in the fruit and veg chain ‘from land to hand’ has more than come true. Greenyard is sharing the tables of nearly all European retailers. The group delivers an enormous assortment of fruit and veg products, but also produces pineapples in Costa Rica, bananas and Suriname, and tomatoes in Sexbierum, in the Dutch province of Friesland. The latter is the result of the recent takeover of the largely organic greenhouse vegetable company Hartman by The Fruit Farm Group. This is the entity where Hein Deprez c.s. have housed

their growing activities: it’s all in the family. The move into greenhouse horticulture was a priority and parties such as The Fruit Farm Group/ Greenyard can make things happen instantly. There are plans to quickly upscale from 72 to 110 hectares. Greenyard is also eyeing other opportunities with gusto. They recognise that the market for readyto-eat exotic fruit is very lucrative, and they have plans to move into it.

Greenyard is extremely active on various playing fields, while its total programme shows a nice synergy. That must create an appetite for more.

Wij ambitie We delen shareRoys Tatiana’s om samen entrepreneurship succesvol te zijn and passion for vegetables

Tatiana Ovsyankina worked for a retail company in Russia for 15 years. It made her realise the big potential of the country’s fresh cut vegetable segment, and she decided to start her Roy Steegh is tomatenteler in Wellerlooi metmarket oog voorresearch details. Mede een belichtingsinstallatie own processing company.

During her she dankzij soon came across the name en kan leader hij die maximaal in seeds. de handThey houden.

Royhelp is eenher moderne en vooruitofenergiezuinig Rijk Zwaan,teeltsysteem as the market in lettuce could by providing a strevende ondernemer, maar heeft er geen moeite mee zijn kennis te delen. Integendeel. Hij vindt het

wealth of information and a worldwide network of specialists. The collaboration developed

een verantwoordelijkheid van de sector om met zo min mogelijk energie een kwalitatief hoogwaardig

further and grew into a real win-win situation. Together they seize opportunities and work to

product te telen. Dat vraagt om eerlijkheid en openheid. Over kansen, maar ook over problemen.

improve quality and convenience in the vormt Russian vegetable category.

Met Rijk Zwaan, collega-telers en zijn afnemers hij een succesvolle keten. Samen werken zij aan een jaarrond uniform product, waarmee iedere schakel uit de keten een goed bedrijfsresultaat kan behalen.

It is Tatiana’s ambition to take Russia’s fresh cut segment to the next level. Rijk Zwaan

Roy heeft de ambitie om samen met anderen succesvol te zijn. Rijk Zwaan - wereldspeler in de

– a worldwide player in vegetable breeding – shares this ambition. We are working together

veredeling van groenten - deelt deze ambitie. Samen werken we aan een gezonde toekomst.

towards a healthy future. Learn more at rijkzwaan.com

Lees meer op rijkzwaan.nl.

HILLENRAAD500+

4 Total Produce

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 65

Category trade Total turnover € 3,762,000,000 Turnover H100-Q € 822,000,000 Employees total 5,053 Employees NL 522 International branches 31 www.totalproduce.com

Some of the Committee of Experts’ comments about Total Produce were not very positive, such as ‘not as innovative as could be expected of a top player’. Within the Hillenraad500+, hardly any company can match Total Produce in terms of size and the company comes 2nd in the Industry Footprint. According to the peergroup however, 4th place in the category of the strongest and largest is exactly right. In terms of innovation: we saw Harm-Peter Wijnstok coming aboard in the Netherlands as managing director of the Total Produce Haluco Holding.

5 The Greenery

His name is directly connected to Boni and therefore to Picnic, the online challenger in the retail market. Apparently, the company realises the need to get as close to new technologies as possible. As for this year’s theme, Total Produce clearly forms a target for big investors. However, the buyer must be willing to pay around 1 billion euros, as CEO Rory Byrne won’t settle for any less. This makes Total Produce a textbook case for the developments in the top of the horticulture industry. Global investors are already licking their lips.

Category sales cooperative Total turnover € 1,029,677,000 Employees total 1,894 Employees NL 1,113 International branches 7 www.thegreenery.com

The Greenery has the highest growth of the top 5 in terms of percentage, which is a sign that it is recovering after some seriously bad times. Some artificial measures will still remain necessary for a while however, such as the ‘sweetener’ that was recently handed to the members that remain on board. In the Netherlands, The Greenery still has a fruit and veg market share of no less than 20%. The organisation is reaping the benefits of a quickly growing market for soft fruit and we are seeing new customers in the hard fruit and organic products segments.

The Greenery is back on track. As a result of the reorganisation and

the recent decrease in the balance sheet total, there is room to think about a strategy for the coming years. This strategy is aimed at more collaboration with retailers. By offering smart logistics solutions (from fewer but brand-new DCs) and by improved supply chain management, The Greenery expressly wishes to cuddle up to these important chain partners. A smart move is the verseoogst.nl online platform, which The Greenery wants to use as a source of valuable consumer information towards retailers. While this organisation had to look inward for too long, there is now room to look ahead again.

For food. For flowers. For sure.

www.certhon.com

Unlimited in varieties Offering unlimited possibilities www.anthura.com

HILLENRAAD500+

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 67

500+ companies – the World League in vegetables, fruit and ornamental plant and flower products For the fifth year in a row, we have compiled a list of international businesses operating in the international horticulture and fresh produce sector. The companies in this ‘World League’ have a turnover of over 500 million euros. The list is based on this single criterion – no consideration was given, and therefore no value is attached to, the companies’ overall performance. The one with the highest sales figures is at the top of the list. We have set a strict limit of 500 million euros. The number of employees was also not taken into account.

The list includes companies that improve, cultivate, process or market fresh horticulture products. The distinction between horticulture and agriculture is based on whether the products are carefully cultivated for the consumer and with a high product value traded per item, kilo or package. Companies that produce or trade agricultural bulk products are not included. This World League is an indication of the playing field in which the Dutch 500+ businesses can prove their worth. The concentration of horticulturerelated companies in Europe is striking, which may result in a somewhat distorted view. It is simply easier to determine a company’s size in the English-speaking part of the world than in more closed economies.

Furthermore, the list is incomplete on the basis that we do not have reliable turnover figures for several companies. Finally, the list is also subject to global product prices and monetary exchange rates, which may result in a 500+ company not being included in the list due to purely currency fluctuations. We are open for further recommendations.

company name

country

product

turnover

1

Royal FloraHolland

Netherlands

floriculture

€ 4,602,000,000

2

Greenyard

Belgium

produce

€ 4,249,200,000

3

Dole

USA

produce

€ 4,118,000,000

4

Freshpoint- Sysco

USA

Produce,foodservice

€ 3,840,000,000

5

Total Produce

Ireland

produce

€ 3,762,000,000

6

Fresh Del Monte

USA

produce

€ 3,718,000,000

7

TaylorFarms

USA

produce,freshcut

€ 2,700,000,000 *

8

Chiquita / Sucocitrico Cutrale

Brazil

produce

€ 2,700,000,000

9

Driscoll's

USA

berries

€ 1,946,160,000 *

10

Landgard

Germany

vegetables & flowers

€ 1,924,000,000

11

Dutch Flower Group

Netherlands

floriculture

€ 1,386,138,000

12

Bayer Cropscience - Seeds

Germany

seeds

€ 1,356,000,000

13

Sumitomo (incl. Fyffes)

Ireland

fruit

€ 1,222,549,000

14

Zespri

New Zealand

fruits

€ 1,156,178,000

15

Syngenta Seeds

Switzerland

vegetables & lawn

€ 1,152,000,000

16

ITOCHU International Food

Japan

fresh food

€ 1,144,000,000 *

17

Agrial -Floréal / Priméale

France

vegetables

€ 1,104,000,000

18

The Greenery

Netherlands

produce

€ 1,029,677,000

19

Bonduelle Frais incl. Ready Pac

France /USA

freshcut

€ 1,000,000,000 *

20

Mastronardi Produce

Canada

vegetables

€ 1,000,000,000 *

21

AMC Group / Antonio Munoz

Spain

vegetables & flowers

€

946,850,000

22

Pomona TerreAzur

France

produce

€

862,000,000

23

GF Group

Italy

produce

€

850,000,000

24

OGL Food Trade

Germany

produce

€

848,414,000

25

APO Coperno

Italy

produce

€

785,000,000

26

Groupe Compagnie Fruitière

France

produce

€

730,000,000

27

Monsanto Vegetable Seeds

USA

breeding/vegetables

€

728,000,000

28

Harvest House

Netherlands

vegetables

€

703,000,000

29

Golden Wing Mau Group

China

produce

€

700,000,000 *

30

Vilmorin

France

vegetables & garden

€

689,000,000

31

Baywa Obst

Germany

fruits

€

659,000,000

32

Costa Group

Australia

produce

€

632,351,000

33

AZ Kempen

Germany

produce

€

627,287,000

34

Fresca

United Kingdom produce

€

609,000,000

35

Royal Co. Group / Kyoka

Japan

fresh food

€

606,700,000

36

Gemüsering Stuttgart

Germany

vegetables

€

600,000,000 *

37

Poupart/Berry world

United Kingdom produce

€

596,326,000

38

Anecoop

Spain

produce

€

577,187,000

39

Earthbound farms ( Danone)

USA

organic vegetables

€

566,100,000

40

G 's Marketinggroup

United Kingdom produce

€

546,214,000

41

Zeder / Capespan & Zaad

South Africa

produce

€

543,000,000

42

T&G Global

Australia

produce

€

528,677,000

43

Tanimura & Antle

USA

vegetables

€

521,000,000

44

Bama Gruppen

Norway

food & freshfood

€

500,000,000 *

68 |

Bizarro world; the consumer becomes producer Food safety. Complete certainty about crop output. Minimal distance between production and consumption. Little acreage, little use of water, no pesticides. Vitro Plus introduced a trailblazing solution for these challenges and issues. General manager John Bijl appears to clear all these hurdles in one go.

Many – potentially – trailblazing innovations in existing industries are from outsiders.

They are able to regard the business without prejudice. After all, they are not hindered by existing earning models or other restraining factors. John Bijl of Vitro Plus/ViVi is the exception. He has been active in the cultivation of plants in multi-layer systems for 30 years with his company Vitro Plus. ‘We started with the micro-propagation of plants and that’s what we’re still doing. Vitro Plus is the world market leader in the micro-propagation of ferns. It is a process we fully control. In BurghHaamstede in Zeeland, 25 million plants are grown annually in a conditioned environment.

This requires minimal labour and it has become a process industry with a guaranteed output. A detour somewhere along the road led to us becoming the Vitro Plus we are today. At some point, I started thinking that we could serve a totally different market than we were. What would happen if we enabled our end users to produce the end product themselves, without any intervention and using our lab material? That totally changed our business model. We basically eliminated a link from the chain. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, but we managed to do it and successfully so. Vitro Plus can now deliver directly to end users, which is currently done via 10 big global players.’

And now, the consumer

‘After we took that step, we continued experimenting. Could we do the same thing with lettuce seedlings? Or tomato plants?

What about cyclamen? What we now do for 10 professional buyers... could we not do the same for hundreds of thousands of consumers? With these questions in mind, we explored the various product groups. Several years later, the ViVi concept was born and I now present it at international trade fairs. J

‘The Googles of this world are anxiously looking.’’

John Bijl presented a plastic tray with a plug containing a seed. There is some water in the tray, containing a precise dose of required nutrients. Finally, the tray is packed in plastic and then placed under LED lighting. Within six weeks, the seed will grow into a great tasting head of green lettuce. ‘The packaging directs the growth,’ was how John Bijl explained his ‘greenhouse in a box’. ‘Anyone can produce heads of lettuce, provided they have the right cultivation set and LED lighting. During a consumer fair in Philadelphia, we noticed above-average interest in personal cultivation, which is what our product is all about.

There is plenty of food on the American east coast in summer. In winter, however, it has to come all the way from California.

Consumers regard these vegetables as lacking in freshness. They have been treated with pesticides, which consumers no longer want.

I spoke to about a thousand people who were eager to buy a set. There is also much interest in Japan, but then from a different background.

In the area of Fukushima, where people had to deal with the consequences of a nuclear disaster, they distrust outdoor growing.

If people could grow their own food indoors, it would be considered safe and healthy. This is the breakthrough I’m aiming for.’

In control

Giving consumers the opportunity to produce food themselves using a cultivation set and ready-made bags fully ties in with the challenges the world is facing, according to John Bijl. ‘We must produce more, with less water. With this system, a head of lettuce requires 0.5 L water. In traditional cultivation, it would need 30 to 40 L. This would, therefore, be an ideal solution in countries with very dry and hot climates. In addition, you could use solar panels to power the LED lighting.

Another reason would be that food safety is guaranteed, as you no longer need pesticides.

This approach also responds to urbanisation, where you would want a minimal flow of goods between producers and consumers.

The development of this concept was boosted by two other important developments: substantial improvements in LED lighting technology in the recent years on the one hand, and the increased linking of Internet technology to food provision on the other.

A good example of the latter is the advent of HelloFresh. The consumer wants to be in control and increasingly closer to the origin of their food. We are hitching a ride on that wave.’

To the market

It took many years before John Bijl had gathered all the puzzle pieces of the ViVi concept; the cultivation set and the lighting, the right seeds, the exact composition of the nutrients. Currently, there are two roads leading to the consumer market: the one is to invest heavily and set up grand and imposing market operations. The other, where some activity is already taking place, is to slowly prepare the market for the idea, and to then enter that market. ‘At the beginning of next year, I will be in Philadelphia again with a finished product. I am now taking the time to refine it based on the feedback from the initial users. In addition, I want to assess any resistance, or opportunities that we are currently overlooking. We are also strengthening our contacts in Japan. I am well aware that the Googles of this world are anxiously looking at what we are doing.

They are lying in wait. I have all the required patents to fend off any copycats, so that is covered. Ultimately, I would like to work towards a food production system that resembles what the producers of photocopiers do: supply the racks and lighting for next to nothing and base the earning model on the required bags-and-trays-with-seeds.’

John Bijl and his team are almost there.

Is the consumer soon to become a largescale producer?

CHALLENGING CONCEPTS

INTERVIEW

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 69

John Bijl, general manager Vitro Plus â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; What would happen if we enabled our end users to produce the end product themselves, without any intervention and using our lab material?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

We invented the buzziness

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HORTICULTURE IN OCEANIA

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 71

Top 10 players in Oceania Who are Oceania’s outstanding players? Zooming in on this part of the world, we are of course mainly talking about Australia and New Zealand. These are not (glass) horticulture super powers and although their scale of production is limited, there are a number of outstanding players that might tell us what the future has in store for international horticulture. This ranking is based on regional impact and includes companies that are active in the fruit and veg, and floriculture sectors.

1

This listed company with a market value of around 1.6 billion Australian dollars started out as a small fruit store in Geelong 120 years ago. Second to Zespri, the Costa Group is the largest Australian enterprise to produce, package and market fruit and veg. After a strategic reorientation, it focuses on berries, tomatoes, citrus fruit, mushrooms, bananas and avocados. Its stock market price recently went up sharply after an acquisition on the avocado market and very strong berries performances. A dynamic enterprise, which is looking for new market opportunities in China and even Morocco.

2

This company from New Zealand is also 120 years old. T&G Global’s roots are in fruit auctioning, but from this original line of business, it has developed into a listed trade company selling worldwide, with leading international partners such as Enza Zaden. The German BayWa controls a majority share in T&G Global, with the aim of getting greater access to the global fruit market. Their assortment includes important (growth) products such as berries, citrus fruit and grapes. It also includes tomatoes, although T&G’s strength in that segment is mainly domestic.

3

This company was founded by Tony Simonetta in 1978 and has developed - under the leadership of son Michael - into the largest Australian producer of a whole range of fruit and veg: from berries to figs, from cucumbers to artichokes, and from celeriac to tomatoes. As a result, Perfection Fresh is capable of filling a supermarket’s entire fruit and veg department on its own. As there is always something to wish for, the company regularly takes over small companies, such as tomato producer Moraitis, including its Kumato Tomatoes brand. Recent acquisitions were D’VineRipe Pty and the rights to a specific type of Israeli mango. Australia cannot avoid Perfection Fresh.

4

Flavorite is the name of the joint venture that was formed by the Millis and Nichol family-run businesses in 1994. In Australia, this enterprise fulfils a pioneering role in substrate growth, although its focus is now on cultivating tomatoes.

Flavorite has developed into the most important Australian enterprise for the cultivation and sale of cluster and cherry tomatoes. One of the company’s main assets is that a large portion of their production is sold under private label, although another part reaches the consumer ‘brandless’. In addition to tomatoes, Flavorite also produces aubergines, cucumbers and paprikas, making it one of the leading cultivation companies in Australia.

5

‘We are reinventing horticulture,’ says Sundrop Farms and it means it. Sundrop Farms produces about 15% of the tomatoes on the Australian market, but it does so in a unique way. On the farms, solar energy is used to treat seawater for the cultivation of tomatoes. This happens in the arid climate of Western Australia. This future-oriented food production method has not remained unnoticed by the KKR investment company, which put 100 million Australian dollars into the company. A nice bonus of using seawater is that the farms require fewer pesticides. Meanwhile, Sundrop Farms has started using its revolutionary concept in Portugal and the US as well.

6

NZ Gourmet produces blueberries, strawberries, paprikas, cherries and chili peppers on six locations across New Zealand.

The acreage and production devoted to blueberries is substantial: 600 tons annually on 79 hectares in Hawkes Bay and another 59 hectares near Central Otago. Relatively recently, the company began producing cherries on the latter location as well, making NZ Gourmet the youngest large player in the sector. We are witnessing a Dutch touch here, as the company has been active as an exporter of ‘Dutch’ paprikas on the exclusive Japanese market since 1993. These paprikas are grown in modern Dutch Venlo greenhouses.

7

Private equity and developing the business towards ‘online’: these are the two developments that the Lynch Group is pursuing, developments that are increasingly the focus of Dutch enterprises as well. The Lynch Group is a trade company with production facilities in Australia and China. In 2015, the Next Capital investment company spotted this private, 100year old company. The fresh capital enabled the company to find different channels (read: online) in addition to its retail activities, and to expand into Kunming, China. The group already has developed substantial activities in the online sale of flowers, but according to the investors, there is still room to grow.

8

Grandiflora is the grand old dame of the Australian hortisector. The company has specialised in the breeding and yearround production of a wide assortment of roses since 1953. Throughout this period, they have remained leading in terms of assortment, technology and market approach. Today, the third generation is running the business, which is still in full swing. Grandiflora is continuously investing in state-of-the-art technology, giving consideration to its regional leading position. Grandiflora not only sells its own assortment regionally, it is also an agent for a sizeable number of large rose growers from other continents. A strong regional player doing fine in the premier league.

9

In terms of Dutch standards, NZ Hothouse’s acreage is modest: 20 hectares for the production of various sorts of tomatoes, cucumbers, paprikas and lettuce. Still, this size makes this company one of the largest greenhouse growers in the southern hemisphere. Production is spread over New Zealand, with locations in the Karaka and Bombay regions. The NZ Hothouse Group’s assortment contains a large number of branded products that are sold to export locations such as Japan, the United States, Canada, and many Pacific islands.

10

This paprika grower, the largest in New Zealand, has Dutch roots. In 1988, ACL from New Zealand and the Dutch Levarht established a joint venture with the aim of supplying paprikas to Japan throughout the year. This partnership enabled Levarht to supply Japanese customers during in winter in the northern hemisphere. Mind you, Southern Paprika Limited produces the capsicums, as they are called over there, all year round. Supported by Levarht’s market expertise, SPL experienced rapid growth. Today, the company also supplies buyers in Canada, Australia and the home market.

Greenhouse acreage is added regularly because the company still growing substantially.

Costa Group

T&G Global

Perfection Fresh

Flavorite

Sundrop Farms

NZ Gourmet

Lynch Group

Grandiflora

NZ Hothouse Group

Southern Paprika Limited

72 |

Andreas Hofland, general manager at HortiKey ‘IT and management information will help you steer towards a process industry.’

INTERVIEW

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 73

Green fingers become bits and bytes Every global, digital giant, every investor, looks forward with longing and anticipation to the moment when cultivators’ and growers’ crops can be managed and predicted. Thanks to the development of the Plantalyzer by HortiKey, that moment is almost here for vine tomatoes.

‘We’re really moving from supply driven to demand driven production.’

‘After presenting this “Tesla” in the greenhouse of the vine tomato producer to the public last year, we immediately had the leading global data and software giants on the line.’ These are the words of Andreas Hofland, General Manager at HortiKey. As is the case with PhenoKey, HortiKey is a spin-off of a group of companies. Today, HortiKey operates as a start-up within the Berg Hortimotive Group.

‘Newcomers are disrupting every sector,’ stated Andreas, as he explained why Berg Hortimotive set up this start-up separately from the parent company. ‘We see ourselves as a leader in corporate Netherlands, but others are chomping at the bit to take this role.

Therefore, Berg Hortimotive decided to focus more on new concepts and developments that had the potential to retain the leadership position. The necessary innovation comes about more quickly in an environment outside the regular business.’

Data on the rise

‘At HortiKey, we have observed that the horticulture industry’s need for data driven logistics solutions is rising strongly,’ Andreas Hofland continued. ‘Our approach is based on an all-encompassing ambition to organise the global system of food production in a different way. Achieving higher returns with less water, less waste and less acreage, with a more favourable ecological footprint. There are two opposing flows in the classic production and logistics cycle: production and money. This is a far from optimal interaction. Either too much or not enough is produced; there is no balance.

An undesirable situation for more reasons than one. Producers are either forced to get rid of excesses, dump them on the market, or buy extra. Investors want a constant output and want to know what their investment will generate. Thus you need data; information technology.’

‘The horticulture industry’s needs more and more data driven logistics solutions.’

Backward reasoning

‘At last year’s GreenTech, we presented the CHIMP concept: the Crop Health & Information Monitoring Platform,’ Andreas Hofland continued. ‘This platform should enable growers and cultivators to adjust their crops and intervene on the basis of as much information as possible. After extensive market research and discussions with technological entrepreneurs, we produced a number of business cases. According to the method of Hillenraad Partners Lean Start-up and reverse engineering, you must reflect on the market and sales. Then you can use that basic concept to determine which business case you want to develop first. This is how Plantalyzer was born. Plantalyzer as marketed today, focusses on the bottom two or three bunches of the tomato plants. The colour of the bunches is analysed and the fruits are counted. If you have this data for the entire greenhouse, you can predict exactly what the harvest will be in the coming two to three weeks. If it’s less than needed or predicted, timely adjustments can be made by increasing the number of degree hours. If it’s more than predicted, producers will have more time to deal with any excess production. The harvest prognosis’s margin of error will decrease substantially, making the prognosis more reliable. For large operations, this means a lot of money.’

From supply to demand

For Andreas Hofland, this innovation is an important step within the horticulture industry to move from product driven to demand driven. ‘IT and management information will help you steer towards a process industry.

The output will become more constant, as you can finely tune it based on data. This has a positive effect on pricing and it will also reduce waste. Another positive aspect is that investors want these types of securities in agricultural production. They’d like to see the green fingers of the grower or cultivator be taken over by software. If you view the classic (tomato) greenhouse as a system, the grower is currently still the connecting factor between all its components. No matter how advanced these systems are, the grower is still the key.

That human factor is what investors find most risky. The idea of a very advanced “Tesla” driving through the vine tomato greenhouse, autonomously collecting data 24/7, made them very enthusiastic. After all, certainty regarding output and certainty regarding the investment

‘Because that is where we are headed, unavoidably and irreversibly.’ is a popular topic for our discussion partners in e.g. Australia By using this technology we take an important step towards a higher turnover via ‘just in time’ production, giving the producer a finer feel for the market.’

To ones and zeros

This shift will also attract the digital international superpowers, stated Andreas Hofland. ‘Currently, most cultivation knowledge and experience is locked inside the heads of traditional cultivators and growers.

It is almost in the DNA of all those generations that have worked in this sector for decades.

So, to the great frustration of new digital enterprises, this knowledge has only been sparsely revealed. They can hardly wait for those green fingers to be converted into bits and bytes, zeros and ones. These new players have no affinity at all with plants, but they do love logarithms. The Plantalyzer; that they understand. We want to participate in that development. Because that is where we are headed, unavoidably and irreversibly.’

CHALLENGING CONCEPTS

74 |

Horticulture in perspective

TO

coun

(x 1 m

The Dutch horticulture industry is globally leading in its assortment, productivity, quality and food safety. However, we are a relatively small industry when compared to the top 10 horticultural countries worldwide. Despite our small scale, we can be justifiably proud of the crème de la crème of the Dutch horticulture industry. In this aerial view of the horticulture industry, we have provided an overview of the relative global position of the Dutch horticulture industry, together with the composition and characteristics of our ‘Premier League’: the Hillenraad100 - edition 2017, between brackets edition 2016 figures.

TOP 10 COMPANIES BY TURNOVER

COMPOSITION TOP 100 BY CATEGORY

from the Top 100 (x1 million €) 1

Staay Food Group

2

Harvest House International

3

Nature's Pride

4

Monsanto Vegetable Seeds

5

Hessing Supervers

6

FleuraMetz

7

Koninklijke Vezet

8

Syngenta Seeds

9

Best Fresh Group

10

Enza Zaden

3

402 (432) 375 (362) 363 (303) 333 (333) 314 (212) 309 (304) 290 (252) 289 (289) 271 (271) 264 (239)

•Production •Supplies 18 •Trade •Youngplants •Services •Processing •Sales organisation

5

(5)

2

(3)

27

100

1

27

(24)

Source: Hillenraad100 research

977 781 666 642 619 617 527 519 490 418

Hessing Supervers Syngenta Seeds

3

Koninklijke Vezet

4

Enza Zaden

5

Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds

6

Monsanto Vegetable Seeds

7

Floricultura

8

Floral Trade Group

9

FleuraMetz

10

Beekenkamp Groep

Source: Hillenraad100 research

COMPOSITION TOP 100

8

Aalsmeer region

8/8

West-Friesland

8/8

4 8

48 12 4

Braz

1,7

Toma

77

(695

22/--

(600) (600) (420) (399)

1

9,273

2

3

4

Rijnland

4/4 4

5

2,3

17/ 18/18

(617)

4/6

7

The

with

(9,059)

6

6,810

(5,326) Dümmen Orange

7

2,818 (2,599)

8

Afriflora

Beekenkamp Groep

1,923

(1,678) Enza Zaden (977) Hessing Supervers

6/Sy

1,531

Source:

(1,441) Royal van Zanten

Venlo region

4/5

Source: Hillenraad100 research

5

2,077

9

1,436

1,945

10

(1,159) Koppert Biological Systems

(2,122) Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds (1,649) Van den Berg RoseS

1/Ba

Biolo

1,618

Barendrecht region 5

4

2,6

TO

by number of employees worldwide from the Top100

(601)

5/5

Oostland

TOP 10 COMPANIES

(595)

Rest of Netherlands

48/45

Japa

Source:

(689)

7/5

Westland

3

4,4

(856)

South-west Netherlands

by region

12/14

(767)

U.S.A

6,2

TO

(19)

Source: Hillenraad100 research

TOP 10 COMPANIES BY NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

2

(26)

* refers to turnover in horticulture qualifying for Hillenraad100 rating

in The Netherlands on the payroll in The Netherlands from the Top100

Chin

(3)

(20)

18

1

Florensis

(1,391)

1,301

Source: Hillenraad100 research

9/D

TO

(in he

1 Agro

Source:

HORTICULTURE IN PERSPECTIVE

| Hillenraad100 | 2017 | 75

TOP 10 HORTICULTURAL

TOP 10 HORTICULTURAL COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE IN SALAD VEGETABLES (x 1 billion €)

countries worldwide in floriculture (x 1 milion €)

RY

27

1

China

6 Italy

2

U.S.A.

7 Colombia

3

Japan

8 Germany

4

The Netherlands

9 Canada

(26)

5

6,231 (5,070)

1,202 (1,224)

4,434 (4,434)

1,179 (1,043)

2,688 (2,512)

1,156 (1,143)

2,342 (2,310)

1,054 (869)

Brazil

10 France

1,770 (1,770)

968 (992)

Source: AIPH statistical yearbook 2016

mall e de la bal - edition

China

U.S.A.

Spain

(15.3)

(7.1*)

(2.6)

16.6 5.0 2.7

Turkey Japan

Mexico

The Netherlands

India

Brazil

Italy

(2.4)

(2.1)

(1.4)

(1.4)

(1.3)

(1.0)

2.3 2.3 (1.6)

2.0

1.4

1.4 1.2 1.0

Source: divers, edited by Hillenraad

TOP 10 HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS IN THE NETHERLANDS 1

7

(24)

ad100 research

2

3

Tomato

Phalaenopis

(695)

(498)

778

501

4

5

6

Capsicum

Chrysanthemun Rose

Tulip

(415)

(300)

(295)

442

307

284

282

(284)

7

8

9

Cucumber

Lilium

Gerbera

(245)

(159)

(138)

225

161

10

Strawberry

142

124 (120)

Source: year 2016, edited by Hillenraad

TOP 10 COMPANIES FROM THE TOP 100 with branches outside the Netherlands

17/16 18/18

15/17 14/13

46/46

(in hectares)

Source: CBS

38/38

22/-27/22

(1,678) n

TOP 10 HORTICULTURAL COUNCILS IN THE NETHERLANDS

Westland 2,385 (2,399) Lansingerland 763 (751) Horst aan Maas 280 (265) Peel en Maas 264 (222) Noordoostpolder 249 (171) Zuidplas 232 (229) Pijnacker-Nootdorp 231 (307) Zaltbommel 206 (220) Midden Delfland 187 (195) Hollands Kroon 181 (181)

COMPOSITION TOP 100

BY OWNERSHIP

32/38

28/18

Family business 80 (81) Stock listed company 9 (8) Management 4 (4) Cooperative 2 (3)

1/Bayer CropScience Vegetable Seeds 2/Enza Zaden 3/Koppert Biological Systems 4/FleuraMetz 5/Van VLIET Flower Group

(977) upervers

Investors 4 (3)

6/Syngenta Seeds 7/Monsanto Vegetable Seeds 8/Biobest

Foundation 1 (1)

9/Dümmen Orange 10/Priva Source: Hillenraad100 research

(1,441) Zanten

(1,391)

(1,159) ological Systems

ad100 research

Source: Hillenraad100 research

TOP 10 GREENHOUSE SURFACE IN THE NETHERLANDS OF THE TOP 100 COMPANIES (in hectare)

81

123 92 163 Agro Care

80 CombiVliet

Source: Hillenraad100 research

65 65

4Evergreen

53 58

RedStar

50 53

Royal Pride Holland

44 50

Gipmans Planten

44 38 46

40

Vreugdenhil Beekenkamp Klugt Combinatie Groep

35 38

Greenco

33 Florensis

15

years

One small seed with 150 yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience and technology makes the difference.

150 years of Syngenta Vegetable Seeds, 15 years of Hillenraad100. Happy anniversary!

Syngenta Seeds, P.O. Box 2, 1600 AA Enkhuizen, Netherlands.

Tel. +31 (0)228 366 411, www.syngenta.nl.

KP Holland develops and propagates new and distinctive varieties and produces flowering plants in the Kalanchoe ROSALINA™, Spathiphyllum CUPIDO™ en SIAM™ Curcuma product groups.

The unique combination of two disciplines gr - breeding and growing - in a single company is what makes KP Holland a special player in this market.

If you would like to benefit from our expertise and experience, please contact us. We will be pleased to show you new varieties that will give your collection a competitive advantage.

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