On March 19th 2018, the news reported that Nursery De Kabel and Schenkeveld Tomaten are merging per January 2019. Both companies make an important step towards scaling up, a development encouraged by growers association Prominent with their Prominent 2.0 program. Richard Hartensveld, tomato grower and, together with Joost Barendse, owner of De Kabel: "We did not want to wait for the moment at which taking action would be inevitable, but take action ourselves, to anticipate."
De Kabel was established in 2007 and is by now growing vine tomatoes on 18 ha, which makes De Kabel no small grower. However, the decision has been made to merge. With that merger the name De Kabel will disappear and be absorbed by the new merger company Schenkenveld. Richard: "De Kabel has been like a child to me the past ten years. Schenkeveld however has been in the running for eighty years, so the choice for the name is evident. In any case, to me the name is less important than the growth and development of our company. I can let the name go, also because no long family tradition is attached. I think that makes it easier.
Cooperation
Both merging partners have been cooperating for years, so the merger did not come out of nowhere. Richard: "It is mostly a matter of willing to work together. Cooperation is one of the core values we have agreed upon at De Kabel. Cooperation, not only with other parties, but also as colleagues."
Officially the merger will be effective as of January 2019, but also before that date the merger will be prepared. The three men, besides Joost Barendse and Richard Hartensveld there is also Richard Schenkeveld, will constitute the board of the new, larger company. Richard: "Time will tell how exactly. Joost will be focused on growing, Richard Schenkeveld on operational management, and I will focus on sales, marketing, managing bQurius and my management tasks for Prominent. Because of our previous cooperation there are little differences between the companies, and the process mainly focuses on fine tuning."
Hectares
Schenkeveld will be, after completion of the new construction project of Schenkeveld near Schiphol, almost 100 ha in size. Richard: "We are not concerning ourselves with size, but with quality. We are not counting hectares. It is true however that, being a larger party, we are a professional and future directed partner for clients, employees, and suppliers." Sales of the growers of Prominent is arranged through sales cooperation DOOR and that will not change after the merger.
Example
The question is whether other parties will follow the example of the merger. Richard: "Every entrepreneur must ask himself the question where he wants to be in 5 to 10 years time. What is the market going to do? And what role do you want to play as a company? It is important to think about these matters, instead of being surprised by changes and to be forced to make certain steps. In the end the steps you want to take are different for every company and person. It could be a merger, independent development, but joining Prominent could also be an option for your company."
In time Richard expects that ten more companies will have joined Prominent: "Together we can grow. It will be hard to be competitive if you are alone."
For more information:
Kwekerij De Kabel
015 380 17 75
info@kwekerijdekabel.nl
www.kwekerijdekabel.nl
Schenkeveld
015 251 2490
info@schenkeveld.co
www.schenkeveld.co