Final draft of FloraHolland 2020 strategy agreed

During FloraHolland's General Members' Meeting of 11 December in Naaldwijk, General Manager Lucas Vos presented the final draft of the FloraHolland 2020 strategy. The members further approved a number of proposals, including the proposed contribution, commission and levies for 2015. Two members of the Supervisory Board were reelected and one member retired.

Lucas Vos and Rens Buchwaldt hand over the new strategy to the oldest and the youngest member present at the General Members Meeting of FloraHolland

Clear course with two key ambitions

With its finalized strategy, FloraHolland now has laid down a clear course forward. The strategy describes what role the cooperative is to play to help the floriculture industry blossom. "Two ambitions are key," said Lucas Vos. ''The first one is: 'Better margins for our members and their customers,' which takes us back to our core business, the original objective of our cooperative. We are an open marketplace where suppliers of ornamental plants or flowers and their customers can meet and do business efficiently and effectively." The second ambition relates to the consumer: more consumers spending more on flowers & plants. "By building up information about consumers, we can offer our members and their customers a better understanding of the market and of consumer behavior. With that information, they can meet the consumers' needs and increase their margins in a healthy way." You can read more about the FloraHolland 2020 strategy in the brochure

2015 Annual Plan and Budget

Financial director Rens Buchwaldt commented on the annual plan and the 2015 budget. Next year, FloraHolland expects to be able to realize healthy business operations. The budget anticipates a general increase in turnover of 1.5%. Clock sales are expected to fall, while direct sales will continue to rise. Income will remain virtually stable. Costs will fall by approx. €8 million due to lower personnel costs resulting from Kompas, from moving with the reduced work volume and from lower interest and depreciations. However, the net result is budgeted at nil. This is mainly due to the fact that an amount of €18 million has been set aside for the implementation of the new FloraHolland 2020 strategy. In the first quarter of 2015 we will start with the following elements:

LEAN/Six Sigma
Consumer
Development of standards
World Flower Exchange (online marketplace)
The new auction

Contribution, commission and levies

The members approved an increase in the fixed and variable contributions. The increase was necessary in order to help cover the operational loss that was charged to FloraHolland's equity in 2013. The meeting also approved the proposal to raise the auction trolley and lot levies by approximately 1%. The lot levy will remain unchanged and the trolley levy will go up. Commissions will remain unchanged in 2015. Finally, the GMM approved selling the auction building in Bleiswijk.

Retirement and reappointments SB

The GMM reappointed supervisory directors Cees van Rijn and Joris Elstgeest. We said farewell to one of the supervisory directors: Franswillem Briët was on the Supervisory Board for 8 years. He joined during a hectic period, just after the plans for the merger between VBA and FloraHolland had been announced. From the offset, his extensive knowledge and experience in the international business community was called upon with regard to such processes. As of 1 January 2008, Franswillem was a member of the Supervisory Board, which he chaired from 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2013. As a token of appreciation of his efforts, commitment and service, Franswillem received the FloraHolland Diamond from Bernard Oosterom, chairman of the Supervisor Board, who ceremoniously pinned the decoration on him. A successor will be nominated at the GMM of 4 June 2015.

Source: www.floraholland.com