Lavendel Plus has focused on the sale of large potted lavender plants since 2000 at a large 30-hectare nursery near Breda. The plants primarily go to the Netherlands and Belgium, but also England, France, Germany, and Scandinavia. We meet Jeroen Zoon, commercial manager at Lavendel Plus since 2021.
Jeroen joined the company with no experience in cultivation and plants. "I saw an exciting opportunity at Lavendel Plus to work with an honest product that is making the world greener and making people happy.'' This also meant the introduction to Floriday. We asked Jeroen about his experiences with Floriday, how Lavendel Plus prepares for the season, and how they respond to developments around cultivation.
Qualitative cultivation
Jeroen: "20 years ago, we started out with 1,000 plants a year, which has now grown to 800,000 lavender plants a year. We grow differently from 90% of the market; we work with a cutting from the open ground instead of seedlings or cuttings in the greenhouse. This results in stronger and more prolific roots and hardy lavender plants that are resistant to disease and more resilient when being transported."
We also regularly test with new assortments. We are now growing a smaller lot of peat-free for the third year in a row. Peat mining has a negative impact on the environment. In addition, several countries (including England) are trying to reduce its use or even make peat-free cultivation mandatory. It is useful to be able to indicate through Floriday to a lot that it is a peat-free lot. Buyers can then purchase from us based on these criteria. The future will reveal whether there is more demand for this and whether we will expand this type of cultivation."
Contracts and offers in Floriday
Lavendel Plus uses Floriday, linked to Florisoft. "We explore the platform before each season so that we take advantage of the latest updates and become more familiar with it. One way we do this is through a CheckUp. We are increasingly asking our customers to use Floriday for ordering, and this season, we will also find out how it works with the countdown of stock."
''At the start of a season, we add new varieties to our assortment in order to complete the catalogue in Floriday. After this, we see which customers want to place orders and contact them to agree on contracts. Additionally, we use the updated network function to see if there are customers we don't yet supply and send them a connection request. We also send offers to our top 10 customers. This is almost always successful."
For more information:
Floriday
www.Floriday.io