''We tripled the business in a few years''

Maarten Bloemen's company has expanded so much in a few years that it would be better to speak of a metamorphosis. The producer of a wide assortment of young plants, most of which are patented varieties, tripled in surface area, built new business premises and, with the formal arrival of son Merijn as a co-founder, has, as the finishing touch, recently put a new name on the facade: Bloemen Young Plants.

Since 1987 Maarten and his wife Jacqueline have run a plant nursery in Venhorst. Traditionally, a package of acid-loving shrubs is grown and the company has been a fixture in the market for years.

However, there was no question of large-scale expansion for a long time, but in the early '10s it began to itch. Those itches turned out to be short-lived, because if there were any plans, they were immediately shelved due to the economic crisis and disappointing sales. A couple of years later, in '14-'15, they were picked up again, but then the province and municipality interfered. The zoning of the piece of land they had bought from their neighbor had to be changed from "agriculture" to "horticulture" and, although initial commitments were quickly made, the matter was then dragged out for years. "In retrospect, we were lucky with that commitment, because that was the decisive argument of the Supreme Court in 2019 to finally vindicate us after all."

It then again had to take some time until actual construction could begin. In '21 and '22 they went from 1.5 ha to 5 ha of production. Of this, 2 ha is glass (of which 1 ha is new construction) and 2.5 ha is lava field, the other half hectare provides space for a new storage and processing area, loading docks and a basin in which no less than 1 million liters of water can be stored. Production has grown from 900,000 to over 2 million plants and the assortment has also expanded considerably (with all possible shrubs and even, for a major customer, several varieties of soft fruit).

For the time ahead, the focus is on consolidation. After all the excitement of expansion, which on the whole has cost some money and has not become cheaper thanks to all the delays (read: prices of raw materials were much cheaper a few years earlier), it can be said that things are looking up. "We have had one season now and it has gone well. It's all right, we got rid of two rental locations which has been very beneficial for logistics and also in terms of production, processing and marketing it ran like a well-oiled machine."

For the time being, they are making do with the same staff as before, i.e. Maarten and Jacqueline and twelve employees. And of course son Merijn (29), who has been with the company for more than a decade and has recently become co-owner. Indeed, the actual entrepreneurship now lies with him, Maarten mainly takes care of the cultivation and mother is of the administration and personnel matters.

"We are almost 60, still too early to stop but at a good age to gradually leave it to the new generation. We have now established a beautiful, future-proof business and also have about 40 years of experience in the backpack to continue building in the coming years. We still have 2 hectares of land lying fallow, which we certainly intend to develop in the coming years. We are only halfway to our potential in that respect, because all the facilities are already set up for full production."

Click here for the original article (in dutch).