Last Members' Council meeting of 2022 full of decisions

34 national and international Members' Council members were present at the meeting. Royal FloraHolland management was represented by both CEO Steven van Schilfgaarde and CFO David van Mechelen. Steven gave an overview of the main issues currently going on within the company and the market. The expected peak Q2 2023 is an important topic that also came up in the Member Sessions.

At the moment, the company has not made any final decisions but possible options to avoid logistical problems are:
1) Coarser auctioning at those products where the effect on pricing is not so great.
2) Adjusting the distribution sequence by starting processing 1 to 1.5 hours later for plants, for example. The auction time then remains the same. This way, flowers go through the process faster, and an advantage is that more hours can be offered to employees and optimisation of space usage. Decision-making will follow in late Q1, early Q2.

David van Mechelen explained the intensive process, which has been carried out together with the Finance Committee and the Council of Members over the past months, to arrive at an appropriate new tariff proposal.

The floriculture sector is facing exceptional market conditions. The difficult economic conditions combined with the energy crisis are having a major impact on everyone in the floriculture industry and also on Royal FloraHolland. The financial results of many growers are under enormous pressure and numerous growers are forced to draw on their reserves. Due to sharply increased costs of energy, among other things, and less income due to lower supply volumes, Royal FloraHolland will also suffer losses in 2022, and certainly also in 2023. This is despite substantial cost savings this year and in recent years. Royal FloraHolland continues to invest wholeheartedly in Floriday, new logistics and nationwide auctioning, among other things.

Against this background, a proposal for tariffs for 2023 was drawn up by the management board and approved by the Members' Council. This incorporated input and feedback from discussions with the Council of Members and the Finance Committee of the Council of Members. Responses from sessions with members were also taken into account. The management sought a balance between the effect of increasing rates on the business operations of growers and limiting Royal FloraHolland's losses. A difficult puzzle, in which various alternatives for this rate adjustment were considered and discussed, all with pros and cons, with differences between members and non-members. As a result, Royal FloraHolland's rates for growers and also buyers will unfortunately rise more in 2023 than in previous years. Something that is unavoidable.

Jack Goossens, chairman of the SB, looks back on last year. A year with a lot of uncertainty in the sector. There are concerns about the continuity of our members' own businesses and uncertainty about the direction the sector and the market are taking. Jack stresses the importance of looking further ahead. Also for Royal FloraHolland. On three points, partly based on feedback from the member sessions, decision-making is needed in the short term:
1. concrete interpretation and decision-making around the 'together in the cooperative' project
2. peak spring 2023
3. formulating a basis for prospects of a healthy earnings model for Royal FloraHolland.
In the coming year, steps will have to be taken and decisions made. Postponing decisions is not an option.
Finally, Jack draws attention to an important issue; social safety. Within the company, but also within the Council of Members, this will be a topic on the 2023 agenda.

Chairman of the Members' Council Peter Smak gives an update on the 'Together in our Cooperative' project that the Strategy Committee has been intensively working on over the past year: the work plan for the development of concrete proposals and cooperation with the company is presented. A poll allowed member council members to indicate whether or not they liked the process. Poll result: 92% are positive. It is agreed to implement the proposal.

A vote was also taken on the composition of the SB. Two supervisory directors are up for re-election (Linda Hovius and Kees Pingen) and there is one new candidate. All approved appointments will take effect from 1 January 2023. Approval is sought from the Council of Members for the appointment of Frank Ammerlaan as a member of the SB for a period of four years. Following a positive vote, he was appointed as a member of the SB. Gerben Ravensbergen leaves the SB. In recognition of his commitment and contribution, he receives a Royal FloraHolland pin.

After an informal and convivial lunch, we continued with the annual Members' Meeting. With a good turnout of over a hundred guests, we said goodbye to Member Council members. We also announced the results of the Member Council election for which everyone was able to cast their votes. There were four new candidate members: Albert Kiep, Chris Kulei, Kitty de Jong and Simon Schouten. All four were officially appointed as Members' Council members this afternoon.

Thomas Bugel, Location Manager Royal FloraHolland Eelde, gave an interactive presentation on the development of the new logistics process at location Eelde. Afterwards, there was time to raise a glass and network with colleagues.