After a two-year merger with Rose Connect, part of the Dutch Flower Group, Rosalink has been operating independently for almost one year now. Looking back on this year, for this importer with over 20 years of experience in the import of African roses, it was a challenging but successful year with good prospects for 2021. "Due to the scarcity and good demand in recent months, orders from retail suppliers are coming in earlier than usual," says owner Erik Bruine de Bruin. However, he is not getting too excited yet. "Customers may be looking for more certainty, but in some European countries, the situation is still far from certain. Due to the current lockdown in France, for example, we are already being faced with cancellations".
Erik Bruine de Bruin
Independent after a two-year merger
Since 1999 Rosalink has been importing roses from Africa, mainly from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia and after a merger of 2 years, Rosalink regained its independence in 2020 after both parties had agreed to continue independently. "We learned a lot from the DFG period and we took this experience with us to the new Rosalink. With a network of more than 50 farms, Rosalink is currently one of the largest suppliers of African roses.
Challenges
The year started as planned, but when the corona crisis began, the situation became, as for many in the industry, challenging. "When the merger ended, we again were a sort of start-up company and after two good months, January and February that went according to plan, we had a dip in March due to the restrictive corona measures. Fortunately, the dip did not took that long - for about 2 to 3 weeks, we had a sharp drop in turnover and results - partly because we mainly supply retail suppliers. At the beginning of the crisis, the supermarkets distribution centers (DC's) were mainly busy supplying the supermarkets with the 'basic necessities' and did not have the capacity and time for flowers".
Fortunately, the situation normalized quite quickly and the demand for flowers picked up again, after which the next challenge occurred; expensive air freight. "As a result of the air freight problem, the capacity became significantly lower, causing air freight rates to skyrocket. In May, for example, when demand for flowers was high, we were sometimes dealing with double rates in order to supply our customers".
On top of that, bad weather in Africa resulted in a considerably lower production than in other years. "Normally we import around 1 million stems a day, but now this was plus or minus 20 percent lower."
Better year
For an importer like Rosalink who works with a 'high volume, low margin' principle, a small disruption such as higher transport costs has major consequences. "The scarcity in production and relatively high demand, probably due to the corona crisis - people at home potentially buy more flowers than people on vacation - resulted in higher prices per stem which in turn compensated a bit for the extra freight costs. And looking at the past few years, 2020 is already one of the better years for Rosalink. "2018 and 2019 were challenging years for the rose sector, characterized by overproduction resulting in low prices on the market. Fortunately this year, despite the scarcity, we have been able to fully meet our orders and prices were much higher than normal. All in all, we were able to benefit from market development this year. "
Early orders - avoiding uncertainty
Prospects for next year are also positive. Orders for year-round delivery that normally come in during November and December already came in August and September, says Bruine de Bruin. But what is the reason for this? "This is all about avoiding uncertainty, our customers want certainty for a reasonable price. Because of the extreme prices that we have seen this year, the retail suppliers want fixed prices and quantities for next year. For us and our growers, this is positive."
Lockdown France
Despite the good year so far, Bruine de Bruin isn't getting too excited yet. "Unfortunately, the flower industry is now again facing market uncertainty due to restrictive measures in several European countries. At the moment, it is clear that flower sales in France are suffering from the new lockdown and we are already facing cancellations. Developments in other countries are also still uncertain. This problem is expected to continue for some time to come, but also this is uncertain."
24/7 operational
Rosalink is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Every day, 15 people work hard to sort and process the flowers that are being sent directly to Rosalink from different parts of Africa, from a total of more than 50 growers, as quickly as possible. "After all, we work with a fresh product where shelf life is of great importance. Speed is therefore essential."
Online bouquet sales booming
Bruine de Bruin not only owns Rosalink, but also Jopex, a bouquet production/flower processing company. Jopex is also located at Rosalink's premisses in Aalsmeer and is partly fed by the work of Rosalink and partly for third customers. Nice to mention is that this company has had a good year so far, and this is mainly due to the boost in online sales. "Because the online bouquet sales have gained momentum this also resulted in extra orders for Jopex."
For more information:
Rosalink
Erik Bruine de Bruin
M: +31 6 - 51 56 32 09
E: info@rosalink.nl
www.rosalink.nl