FloraHolland will continue to use the auction clock, but the clock will become entirely virtual, national clocks will be introduced, and FloraHolland will bid farewell to the auction rooms. This was announced by CEO Mr Lucas Vos at the general meeting on Thursday 2 June 2016.
‘The auction clock will not cease to exist, but will become virtual. It will be the auction rooms that will disappear. When the clocks go virtual, we might as well go national, and then we need fewer clocks than the current 36,’ explained Mr Vos. He talked about the evolution of the clock rather than its revolution. It is not certain yet whether the clock’s evolution will apply to all three of FloraHolland’s export locations in the Netherlands; Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, and Rijnsburg.
Lucas Vos pointed out there is already a lot of virtual auctioning; 70% of the clock sales are realised through the remote-buying service.
FloraHolland’s director had anticipated, when he was looking for a new style of auctioning, that selling off-nursery would be a final choice, but this has not happened. Products will not only be delivered to the auction after they have been sold, and the option to move the whole auction process to the afternoon do not take place either. The virtual auction will mean a separation of the commercial transactions and the logistical side of the trade.
Besides the national auction clocks, Auction Presales 2.0 will be introduced, along with a 24/7 transaction platform which has to provide a day-trading, a midlong-term trade and a long-term trade. The auction also wants to offer a place for trade with added value. The growers should be in control of the pricing on the platform. Lucas Vos: ‘We now have FloraMondo, but I am not sure whether it will prove itself in the future.’
Mr Vos indicated that FloraHolland would like to play an active role in the process of teaming up the logistic partners who deliver to the auction and distribute to the customers. The increasing intricacy of the trade will be a challenge; orders are getting smaller. The auction would like to automate the logistical process at the auction which will have consequences for employment at the auction, but will also offer the opportunity to do a 100% quality control, Lucas Vos concluded.
