How is the newfangled generation of growers make out with the increasingly internationalizing cosmetic works market ? Hanneke and Bas Ubink are the fifth generation in the family business Handelskwekerij Ubink bv , known for its cacti and succulents . He work in the Netherlands , and she is from cheery Tenerife , where a yield site sits . " I do believe in facilitate each other anyway . You never know what the futurity holds . "
You grew up across the street from the nursery . Was it always your dreaming to enter your father and uncle ' business as successors?Bas : " When we were little , everything revolve around the commercial enterprise . I also worked there in vacation , for example . I was always busy with it . When I got older , that changed . I choose a study that I myself found interesting , and worked for a while at a big company in a different sphere . At a certain spot , I made a witting decision to return to the home business . The world of flora continue to pull in me . It moves very chop-chop , is dynamical . In addition , entrepreneurship was in me . I want to open up . To be capable to answer quickly to developing in the grocery store . From my own company that ’s well-situated . "
Hanneke : " My Fatherhood once said : ' If you really need to grow in the family line , you have to get in before the age of 30 . ' Like Bas , I too prefer for a broader work than horticulture . But I always kept in mind that this expertise could also be useful for the company . When you asked me as a tyke what I wanted to do later , my reply was : cactus grower . That is still in several of my friends ' books from back then . After college , I worked at the fiscal services house PwC. For me , the turnaround came partly because of that one statement by my father . And because at a sealed gunpoint , I thought : am I really locomote to do the work I am doing now in this bad company all my life ? So the response was no . "
As a newfangled propagation , what do you impart to the family business?Hanneke : " Let me start with : it is very nice that we can still start the company together with our male parent and uncles . There are so many specie in the globe of cacti and succulent . It want a particular fingerspitzengefühl to know what will be a trend in the marketplace next twelvemonth . Plus : they make out the undulation that the market makes . If trade economic crisis for a while , I ’m at a departure . My father reassures me . He is surefooted that things will pick up . He has been through this so many time before . But of course , as a new coevals , we also take care at the market and the world otherwise . Because it ’s changing incredibly fast . "
Hanneke Ubink
You are the founder of webshop House of Cactus . Is that typically a direction you are develop as a novel generation?Bas : " That is indeed a project of me and Hanneke . The online world is a minute further away from our fathers and uncles . But for us it is an important step towards the future . The webshop is a way of life for us to investigate what work well online now , in term of product range . How can we optimally take attention of our customer ? And which plants do or do not lend themselves well to promotional material and shipping ? What happens if you start dropshipping ? And how can you make the whole matter profitable ? This project helps us chance upon the more and more digital market place . " '
Bas Ubink
How do you consider internationalization?Bas : " Our main sales channels are Naaldwijk and Aalsmeer . We actually do everything through the auction . Via exporter , our plants then go to all countries in Europe . We do see that the end customer is becoming progressively important . And that you are more interested as a baby’s room if you supply for the entire concatenation . So not only industrial plant but also , for deterrent example , muckle . "
Hanneke : " The kernel of gravity for us remains with the European marketplace . Other parts of the world have their own nurseries for cactus and succulents . It is not interesting for us to compete with them . We did late get a sojourn here in Tenerife from an entrepreneur from the United States who require to expand his cactus finish . I am glad to serve someone like that . I do n’t see him as a competitor . And it was interesting to learn from each other . With us everything goes through the auction sale , but they render directly to stores . That is a altogether different direction of work . I do believe in help each other anyway . You never bed what the future will bring , and what you will involve each other for again . "
What is your biggest challenge ripe now?Bas : " Personnel . That is a challenge that everyone find , and it will only get bigger in the come years . That ’s why we work with schools . We attempt to show untested people that a time to come at a nursery is very exciting . And of course , we also deploy employee from across the perimeter . "
Hanneke : " The working language in the Netherlands is Dutch . Or English , if there really is no other way . But the people who come to mould for us first receive breeding in which they learn about plants as well as the language . In Tenerife , the official spoken language is Spanish . Fifteen nationality wreak together here . Most of them add up from South America . But we also have people from Poland . Sometimes this clashes in the beginning because of the deviation in civilisation . That ’s why I always say : start working together and bulge out talking to each other . That mode you get to love each other better . And that works . We are still a family business in corporal culture as well . "
Bas : " Another challenge is the image of the sphere . That is under a draw of pressure sensation . "
Hanneke : " Now come the footprint reckoner , which in my survey is primarily about : transparence in the market . I am not afraid to tell what we use here at the glasshouse . But not everyone want that . If the whole sector was transparent , the consumer would also see better : there are very beautiful Dutch Cartesian product develop with very niggling environmental encroachment . "
What is Royal FloraHolland ’s role in this area?Bas : " The cooperative must remain neutral in this area . And above all make it possible for us to be as crystal clear as possible . For instance , by being capable to indicate in Floriday how we grow , what we do or do not use , and which certificate we have . "
Hanneke : " I do n’t think Royal FloraHolland should thrust the achievement of certificates . A agriculturist with a few hectares in his backyard who only issue a modest group of regular customers every year , let him go his own way . lease the cooperative focus on making the scheme more transparent . Because only then will you really give the market and the agriculturist a bonny choice . "
For more information : Royal FloraHollandwww.royalfloraholland.com
