Full focus on the strength and future of day trade

With the Auction, Auction Presales and Floriday Daytrade, day trade is and will remain one of the cornerstones of our 2030 strategy. It’s crucial for healthy price formation and a fantastic tool for balancing fluctuations in supply and demand. That is precisely why we at Royal FloraHolland continue to invest in and improve this area, and why we sometimes deliberately take a step back. Because progress requires not only speed, but above all fair and astute decisions.

Recently, we have been working intensively on innovation in the day trade. Through pilots, experiments and new propositions, we are responding to the changing needs of our growers and buyers. And quite honestly, not every idea makes it to the finish line. And that’s exactly as it should be. In this column, I’ll take you through the key developments, the lessons we’ve learnt and the course we’ll continue to follow in 2026.

The clock never stands still

The interaction between clock sales and direct trade is a given. The clock remains the benchmark for the current market value of flowers in particular. So for me, one thing is certain: the clock is very much alive. With the successful launch of the Floriday Daytrade proposition, we are giving growers more control over their sales strategy and increasing their flexibility within the clock channel. From registering the lot, to the ability to adjust the lot allocation per channel and the final supply to (one of) the hubs. The expansion of the Auction Presales percentages is also being put to good use and contributes to a more dynamic day-trading process.

We are also focusing strongly on auctions through our IT development capacity. At the heart of this is the development of the new digital clock; we are moving towards Auctioning via Floriday. The RFH Pre-Auction and RFH Auction apps together form the future web-based successors to the Remote Buying systems, which are technically nearing the end of their life cycle. This is a huge and complex project with implications for all buyers. That is why we have been using our hub in Eelde for over a year now to test the new clock in practice as much as possible. Our guidance and support teams will assist buyers with the transition this year. It is a necessary step to keep the clock future-proof and prepare it for further development.

Central auctioning: learning by doing

Another important initiative in recent years was central auctioning. Its aim was clear: a single central pricing point and location-independent auctions. In practice, however, we have learnt that a good idea on paper does not always have the same effect in the reality of our dynamic floriculture sector.

Although the current form of central auctioning had little effect on price formation, we did see clear side effects that we do not consider desirable. This partly led to a further shift in supply towards Aalsmeer, reducing the overview available to smaller buyers.

Moreover, in practice we continued to work with three price points, even though our aim was to move towards a single one. That made it clear this was not the solution we had envisaged.

Examining potential solutions and making choices

Because the central auctioning did not deliver what we had envisaged, we deliberately paused the scheme last year. Not as a step backwards, but as a moment of reflection. That pause gave us the space to reassess the situation before us. To look at the potential solutions on the table and whether they truly contribute to the goals we wish to achieve. After all, the ambition was a single pricing moment and, ideally, location-independent auctions. As recently communicated, we are taking a step back here. A radical but conscious and very well-considered decision by our executive board and management team. The same applies to the management team’s decision regarding From Farm auctions and Today for Tomorrow After careful analysis, we have concluded that From Farm auctions are not a suitable or viable option. You can read more about the reasons behind this in the news article on our website.

Moving forward with focus

However difficult the choices may sometimes be, they do provide clarity and focus. This year, we are therefore fully committed to achieving three concrete goals that will help us move towards the future:

1. Implementation of the new digital clock: Auctions via Floriday, to ensure continuity and as a prerequisite for future innovations.
2. Harmonisation of logistics processes, with the implementation of 100% order picking in Aalsmeer as a key step.
3. Full further development and scaling up of Floriday Daytrade, based on a solid logistics foundation thanks to 100% order picking.

With 100% order picking for all products, we have a uniform process across all hubs and thus a solid foundation. This is particularly important for further building on the already proven success of Floriday Daytrade. And we are pressing ahead with the development of Auctioning via Floriday. This is truly more than just the replacement of existing systems; it’s a modern, reliable and flexible infrastructure. As such, it also forms the key to continuing to build new forms of deal-making for clock-related day trade in the future. So we are not only building functionalities and systems, but above all trust, predictability and future-proofing. Because the clock is ticking and must keep ticking. That is clear to me. I look forward to continuing to build a strong, modern and agile day trading model. Together, we are moving forward at full speed.

Thomas Bugel

Chief Grower Value Management