Cooperation and independence: The keys to success at J&P ten Have

Peter ten Have is proud of his family business J&P ten Have, a company with a rich history dating back to 1955. Together with Gerard van Deventer and his son Alex ten Have, Peter now forms the management. The nursery has two locations where they grow Begonia, Gloxinia, green plants in larger pot sizes and poinsettias in particular. They do this together with their 38 employees. In addition, the company does its own breeding and propagation. J&P ten Have sells most of its products directly (about 80%), while a smaller part goes through the clock (20%).

Certain of payment with payment guarantee
‘For me, the payment guarantee remains one of the strongest and most distinctive points of Royal FloraHolland. I can do business with a wide variety of customers and can always be sure that I will get my money. Should a customer run into payment problems, I basically ‘don't suffer’. That provides a bit of peace of mind. In my opinion, it is one of the pillars of Royal FloraHolland's right to exist. I can tell you they look at it with envy abroad. As members of the cooperative, we should be quite proud of it.’

Royal FloraHolland supports growers in achieving their commercial goals and offers them financial and personal advisory services to do so, among other things. Peter welcomes courses and information evenings, for example on developments in the retail world. ‘How does that landscape work, what do you have to do as a grower to be successful? You learn a lot from that.’ Yet Peter also points out the delicate balance between support and independence. ‘I appreciate that Royal FloraHolland wants to add value for its members in various ways. Still, it remains up to the entrepreneur himself to decide whether to supply to a big retailer, whether to become too dependent on it and how risky that is.’

Critical cooperative man

Peter states that he is regularly critical, yet remains a true cooperative man. ‘I sometimes worry because I see that sentiment is changing, becoming a bit more selfish. On average, young entrepreneurs are a bit more focused on the interest of their own business than on the interest of the cooperative. But we need that cooperative for our sales and will have to keep it strong together.’

Member packages serving members

The introduction of member packages is a good step for the cooperative, he believes. ‘These strengthen our position and marketplace. Royal FloraHolland must be of service to the members and the fact that the member packages are now being introduced is a good example of that. A large part of the members had been asking for it for some time. Royal FloraHolland can also steer in a much more targeted way to the different needs of the members this way.’

Read more personal stories?

Only together with members, growers, buyers and employees can Royal FloraHolland fulfil its ambition to be the international floriculture platform of the future. With the ‘Together with you’ campaign,, we show through personal stories how we are on our way to that.