THE START OF IT ALL

My father used to be a florist. When he went to buy flowers at the auction he often brought me along. From when I was very young, I found flowers very interesting. That is why I started growing flowers on my father’s land when I was 17, this initially started as a hobby. When I was 20 years old, I started working at a company that dried flowers and started planting some flowers for them. Unfortunately that company ceased to exist after a while. But I already had a few of acres of flowers planted for them, that were now useless. I didn’t want them to go to waste, so we took them to the auction and found out it was much more profitable in comparison to the dried flowers. From that moment on, my interest in the flower business was piqued.
 

OFF TO ECUADOR 

I didn’t see a lot of future in the Netherlands when it came to growing flowers, most important reason was the small scale of the nurseries. I decided to keep looking for a country where I could grow flowers year round. I got in touch with a Dutchman who organised flower shows in Ecuador. When he organised his first show over there, I tagged along. This is where I got in contact with the world of flowers in Ecuador, and I was sold! I came back to the Netherlands to finish my studies at the University of Wageningen. I gathered my things and emigrated to Ecuador. This was about 22 years ago.
 

LATITUDE0 AT THE BASE

For about 1,5 years I worked at different companies in Ecuador to learn more about the business. After that I started my own nursery, with my business partner Freddy Neumann. We called it 'Latitude0'. Everything what came next, emerged from this nursery. Throughout the years we managed to expand quite a lot.

In 2002 we started breeding new species under the name ‘Global Plants’. We focused on one product, the goal was to be the best and breed the very best product. The hypericum caught our eye, this resulted in the Hypericum Romance series. Our hypericum had a bigger berry in comparison to the ones the competition was breeding, and was resistant against rust. We noticed we created a nice grip on the market with our hypericum variety. We were eager for more success! To keep growing, we founded Floral Chain Group. I found people who were willing to invest in me, with these people we started new nurseries. At the moment we have 7 nurseries in Ecuador and Ethiopia, Floral Chain Group is the supplyer of these nurseries.


 

TEAM EFFORT

Every day is different. Generally speaking, I divide my work in weeks where I work on one thing at the time: one week I manage the administration, the next week is all about production or a week that is focused on commerce. In between I visit the nurseries. These visit are usually all about the technical side of breeding and the production of the flowers, this is what I love to do. I enjoy walking through the fields and see the plants grow and I like seeing the team at the nursery, watching them improve each time I visit. Personally I don’t find it very interesting to sit in a chair and stare at a screen for hours on end. When it comes to that, I’m a real breeder by heart. But I can’t only do that: there is a huge number of people, divided throughout 10 companies within the group, that are counting on me. So I have to keep up with the administration and the commercial aspect of our business. Thankfully I have my business partner, Freddy Neumann, who helps me out a lot. He is my right hand at the office, and he collects all administrative and financial data. For the commerce I work with my director of commerce, Pablo.
 

SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE

I’m very proud of the company we build and the team we have, this is both very much a team effort. I’m also very proud at the product-oriented Floral Chain concept: that starts at breeding and developing new varieties, to the point of selling the product and some branding on the side. To continue to grow we keep looking for breeders that grow their products with that same mindset. That concept works and I’m very proud of that. It is our strength to keep delivering year round. This makes us in a reliable supplier. Our goal is to create a bigger market share with our hypericum. In order to do this, we want to breed the same selection of colours we currently only grow in Ecuador, in Ethiopia as well. In Ecuador we work on more diversification and we would like to put more products in the market. We wish to grow each year, that potential is still there thankfully!