Grower's son Chris Endhoven always wanted to have his own nursery. He is still a grower in heart and soul, and supplies flowering seasonal plants of top quality. He has been able to realize his dream on a plot of land close to the auction in Westland. What makes his green heart beat faster? Wholesaler Javado went to visit the family company Endhoven Flowering Plants, where Chris immediately starts talking.
"Welcome to our company. Our main cultivations are Cyclamen, Aster, poinsettia, Campanula en Osteospermum. We mainly grow in 10.5 cm pots."
I already knew when I was 12: I want to be a grower on my own plant nursery. My father was a grower, and I was growing bedding plants at the time. After the horticulture education, I have been grower at another company for a while, but when I was 22, I had a rental garden where I started to grow bedding plants. Three years later, I was able to buy a 1 hectare nursery. To realize my real dream, I went looking for a piece of land to build on.
What was your dream?
I want to work in a small, nice team in a healthy company with a good turnover. I wanted to achieve this by building a modern nursery for seasonal products. We have been able to buy a piece of land on an ideal location, where we have built our house and our great nursery. Because the logistics in the greenhouses has been automated, we can grow and supply relatively much plants with few people.
What is appealing to you about being a grower?
I supply flowering plants which make people happy and am an entrepreneur at the same time. I continually make choices which determine my own success. Take, for example, the choice of the assortments poinsettias. I do not only want to grow standard colors, but want to offer a larger assorment to my customers, including special colors. Some new varieties are being picked up well, and sometimes demand lapses after a while. I analyse the figures, make an estimate for the future, and determine what my assortment for next year will be.
Because I grow flowering seasonal products and still want to supply year round, I have more than 10 different seasonal growths which follow each other and partially overlap. The company is always moving. This takes a lot of effort and experience. Together with my team, we make sure everything grows and flowers optimally in our greenhouses.
Does you work keep you up at night sometimes?
Luckily, I am not bothered by sleepless nights anymore. But I can brood sometimes. For example, when I have a large order coming up and it is unsure whether the plants are not yet ready or have already gone too far. I am glad I am living right next to the nursery. I can always check how things are going.
Why would a garden center choose for your products?
We always use the best varieties and the highest quality. We do not save on costs if it affects the quality of our final product. We test a lot of new varieties and add the best to our assortment. You can order everything on variety. We see that customers who start with mix trays, learn which varieties fit them best, and from then order per variety, grow in turnover.
What kind of customer is Javado for you?
When I had just established my company, Jaap van Dool (founder Javado: JAap VAn DOol) already visited us. I think it is great to see that Javado has grown into one of my biggest customers.
How do you see the future?
I can see the popularity of flowering seasonal products increasing. Some varieties fall out of grace, other varieties increase in demand. That is the great thing of our company: with our experience and modern greenhouse, we are flexible. We can scale up varieties, scale down, or even switch to other seasonal products. We are always testing and analysing the market. That is my real passion: always improving, always moving.
Source: Javado