NL: Half a century of flower auction with Hans van Zanten

Hans van Zanten has been involved with the auction since 1971. That’s 46 years. "My brother-in-law was a florist, and when I, as a 16-year-old boy, came to work for him, I already did the purchasing for him. And on my 18th, when he went on vacation, I took care of the business."

Times have changed and in the almost half a century that Hans has been in the flower trade he has seen the whole process evolve - from flowers on tables, pushing of carts and buying in half cents, to the (almost) fully automated and digitized company that it is now. Since 1982 Van Zanten runs an export company at the auction in the Westland area. Sales are mainly focused on France, and in addition, J. Van Zanten Export makes bouquets as a secondary activity. Both of the activities have a background.

"Before I did my national service I worked in a garage and part-time with flowers" says Hans. "After completing my duty, I went fulltime into flowers. With flowers on the arm I peddled along the house doors. That was in Vlaardingen, I walked about 20 to 25 kilometer per day, from ten o'clock in the morning to 6 o'clock in the evening. Heavy work, but I could make a good living from it. And you also did not have to get up very early, because at 7 o'clock In the morning you do not have to knock on doors with flowers. "

I did that for six years, but yes, you cannot do that until you’re 65. Together with a partner, a Frenchman who incidentally spoke excellent Dutch, we came up with the idea of driving flowers to France. "Look what flowers cost in Paris and elsewhere in the country, very expensive!", was the thought. Then we bought a truck and drove to Paris and even further south to sell those flowers. But it was not profitable, that soon became clear. We just broke even. We continued for two years, then we stopped."

And so in 1983 Hans opened his own export company at the auction. At first alone, later together with his wife, he started to make bouquets. An activity and a trade that turned out to be much more lucrative than driving up and down between the Netherlands and France. "Just imagine, we made about 1000 bouquets a day and could make 40 or 50 cents on every bunch. Of course there were also days in between where we made less, but 500 was not uncommon. It meant hard work, but look, 500, that’s good money."

Remarkably, not many people started a similar activity. Why? Hans does not know either, but that I had a talent for it, is obvious. "I still make them, with the difference that I do not do it physically myself. I have five or six Polish employees and they make 5,000 or 6,000 pieces daily. Afterwards we put almost all of these in front of the clock."

With so many years of experience in the flower and plant trade, and with a view to digitization, you would soon expect a remark like 'it used to be better'. But that is, as is almost always the case, more subtle. "In the past it was fun, definitely. Nowadays, atmosphere is lacking. Not a good one or a bad one, but none. And you do not see the trade either. That's a pity. On the other hand, I would not want to go back. Now I have the whole of Europe at my fingertips. If in the past, a buyer was absent for a while, you had to run to the other hall to get some roses or something else. That is no longer necessary. Many things have just gotten better. And that I do not see the trade and the growers from behind the screen, oh well, I've been around for a while and most of them I know quite well by now."