Aleia Roses wants to become leading Red Naomi producer

Aleia Roses only started a year ago, but clearly showed its ambition with a 14.3 hectare and $ 60 M investment in the North of Spain. The company aims to do things differently with regards to production, sales and marketing of Red Naomi!; Aleia Roses simply wants to become the leading producer of this variety in the world.

Why this project?
Mr. Will Zuiderwijk, sales director for the Netherlands, elaborated on the history, strategy and future plans of Aleia Roses during a new Jungle Talk, a live masterclass. Will explained the strategic decisions to set up this project with the help of the Marketing Mix or 4 P model. Location proved the most surprising choice of all perhaps. The nursery was not set up near to the main European market – auction systems (the Netherlands) or close to the equator, enabling cost price leadership. On the contrary. A profound market study showed that the perfect spot to set up the project would be somewhere near Soria, a region in the North of Spain. Before the arrival of Luis Corella and his team, no (high-tech) greenhouses were to be found in this part of Spain.

It soon appeared however, that connecting the dots, or in this case the 4 P’s, is rather complicated. Experienced employees are hard to find, especially on management level. In addition, technical support has to be organized in a different way when you are not surrounded by a thriving floricultural industry. The same can be said about all kinds of supply materials.

Sales and Marketing
Aleia is planning to market its Red Naomi! roses via three different brands. Right now, only the company’s brand ‘’Reia’’ is available in the market. It is expected that its premium brand, Aleia Maxima, will become available in 2018. Main focus is on exports by means of Aleia’s own sales office in the Netherlands, and by being a full member of Royal FloraHolland. However, Aleia also intends to increase sales in the local Spanish and Portuguese markets. At the same time, Aleia wants to develop direct sales channels and intends to minimalize its carbon footprint by optimizing its practices on a production level as well as in logistics. Trucks are less contaminating than planes from Africa, but one of the dots on the horizon is to work with electric trucks in the future.

Work for Aleia or doing a traineeship?
Aleia is now up and running. Nevertheless, many challenges are still to be met. Aleia is therefore looking for interested and enthusiastic students and young professionals to help them further develop the company’s business activities. No matter where you live or what you study, you can pitch your ideas to Aleia via a live pitch webinar on November 23. Would you like to join the Aleia team? For more information on Aleia and how to prepare your pitch, you can contact Ed Smit, via ideas@ideavelop.biz. Would you like to join this pitch webinar to see who gets selected? Click here and you can register free of charge.

Publication date: Tue 7 Nov 2017