It’s time to make our annual plan for 2020. We’re going to invest heavily in fire protection next year. Our premises now add up to a total of 13 ha, and one of the things we are planning to do is installing fire sprinklers in all our buildings. A welcome and necessary investment. In the meantime, we have also finalised our strategic plan 2022. The executive board and management team will present this strategic plan to the members in the beginning of September.
The main focus will be on the further development and expansion of our digital platform. From a technical viewpoint, this is a complex job, because of the large number of different systems to be linked and the need for a stable construction of the technical infrastructure. But above all, it’s going to require a new way of doing business.
New concepts
Another challenge regards the introduction of some concepts that are completely new in Brazil. One of these is plants with air-purifying qualities. Lots of information has been gathered, materials have been developed, and this week, we’re getting the members involved. We’ll launch the concept through a small number of customers. By informing consumers of the air-purifying qualities of plants, we’re hoping to promote plant sales.
A second concept we’re working on is the concept of edible vegetable plants. Known in the Netherlands as ‘Pick and Joy’, for example. This concept of edible vegetable plants will be launched step by step. To make this possible, we even had to change the wording of our mission. It used to state that we traded in ornamental plants, which meant we had to print ‘not edible’ on all our packaging. This is no longer necessary. We are now trading all types of plants and flowers, including fruit-bearing ones.
Finally, there’s a concept that focuses on colour. The idea here is that products in trendy colours will entice consumers to buy more plants and flowers.
Bad press
The Limex washing machine is currently being installed in our new container warehouse. It will clean our containers more thoroughly, resulting in better product quality in the chain.
Brazil is a developing country with great potential. Since last year, it’s also a country that’s been sailing a more liberal course. Brazil has been getting a lot of bad press lately. Some of president Bolsonaro’s statements and policies have attracted this. The press seems very keen to paint a negative picture of him. They’re giving the impression that everything has turned bad.
However, some necessary reforms are taking place and Brazil’s economy is becoming more open. In my opinion, Brazil is gradually going in the right direction with regards to its economy. Improvements always happen more slowly than people want. But I still think we’ll also see some positive news reports about Brazil soon.
André van Kruijssen
Managing director Veiling Holambra
Here you can read the previous blog of André
