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What we want to achieve

Working together on the marketplace of the future

Growers have been joining forces for more than 100 years to get the best possible market price for their flowers and plants. This forms the foundation of the international cooperative Royal FloraHolland: an association of growers operating its own business.The purpose of the cooperative remains the same, but our way of working is changing and we are continuously developing. We can only respond to challenges and opportunities in co-creation with each other. By anticipating now and in the future, we continue to innovate. We want to maintain and build on our strong position.

International floriculture marketplace

We work with growers and buyers to create a future-proof international floriculture marketplace with a single digital platform and physical hubs, a marketplace where supply and demand come together digitally and physically, and where flowers and plants are bought and sold through (digital) auction clock, auction clock pre-sales, Direct Bidding in Floriday or direct trade among others. We aim to get the best market price at the lowest possible cost, offering services closely aligned to our growers’ and buyers’ changing needs and processes. Services that simplify dealmaking, customised logistics and services that help entrepreneurs do smart business.

Responding to trends

Today’s market is more unpredictable than ever. Inflation has risen internationally due to increased energy and commodity prices, society is demanding that more be done in terms of sustainability, and we also face shortages in labour supply and transport facilities. Digitalisation has also significantly changed how the sector does business in recent years. That presents opportunities in terms of scale, efficiency and growth, which in turn leads to new ways of working, collaborating, buying and selling, and communicating between growers and buyers.

When it comes to sustainability, we see that consumers have a greater need for transparency about the origin of their flowers and plants and the process in the supply chain. Working with our members and sector to make it more sustainable will prepare us for the future, to ensure that we can succeed together in the long term too. Of course, many floriculture businesses have already made great strides in making their organisations and business processes more sustainable. Royal FloraHolland offers additional support in this area when it is needed. We are committed to achieving structural savings in our own energy costs. For the sector, we focus on aspects such as making packaging and transport increasingly sustainable.

Changing together, step by step

Only by working together can we get further, keep tabs on the various interests and achieve more valuable results for all. We realise the need to change our organisation to maximise our contribution towards building a future-proof cooperative. We are investing in strengthening our effectiveness, expanding our digital platform (Floriday), making changes to the physical hubs, and building an organisational culture that will enable us to change at an appropriate pace.

Our managers help our people develop, directly and through our Royal FloraHolland Academy, external workshops and courses, and various talent and culture programmes. Our core values keep our people connected throughout the changes, showing them the way and giving them a strong footing based on how we see ourselves, as collaborative, result-oriented, innovative and reliable.

Ongoing focus on costs

Royal FloraHolland aims to get the best possible market price at the lowest possible cost. That is a fundamental aspect of our cooperative but also presents a mounting challenge in difficult market conditions. We are committed to making permanent reductions to our own cost base and to offering cost-covering services. We are therefore make choices about how to organise and work within our cooperative, both for Royal FloraHolland and for our growers and buyers.

To reduce our own cost base, we are making efforts to reduce our reliance on outside staff, lower our marketing and advisory costs, cut energy consumption, phase out outdated IT systems and temporarily freeze the recruitment of non-logistics staff. To provide cost-covering services, we will continue to invest in our strategy and gradually move away from technology and services that are inadequate for the future developments we need in digital business and thus represent an unnecessary expense.