RZ-100-wt4-E-flipbook-240702 - Flipbook - Page 58
Offices in De Lier
On 8 October 1970, the new complex is festively
In 1966, two years after buying the new business
inaugurated in the presence of 300 invited
location in De Lier, the Rijk Zwaan Board decides
guests. Founder Rijk Zwaan gets full credit for the
to look into how best to use that purchased plot
company’s progress since 1924. The new ware-
of land – for example, by locating its head office
house and office complex has a total floor area of
there. The pre-war buildings on Rotterdam’s
3,500 m2. It inspires IVT chairman, Mr A.D. v.d. Ploeg,
Zaagmolenkade is in dire need of replacement,
to say to the founder: ‘Rijk, you are especially rich
partly due to the rapidly growing number of
today.’ [‘Rijk’ means ‘rich’ in Dutch).
employees.
The ‘pill’ and hybridisation
The company in
The matter is dealt with very thoroughly. The
There are a number of new developments in the
Board appoints a bureau to conduct a functional
horticulture sector in the 1970s that have important
preliminary study into all the demands to be
implications for Rijk Zwaan. The emergence of
met by the new building. In December 1966, the
plant nurseries, as outlined above, which need
agency produces a thick report outlining all of
seeds that can be sown easily, means that ‘pelleting’
the company’s possible needs. Meanwhile,
(encasing seeds so that they can be machine sown)
Rijk Zwaan is buying adjoining plots of land to
took off in the late 1960s.
enable the intended extensions to be added.
The next, not unimportant, development for
With the research report tucked under his arm,
Rijk Zwaan is that he too recognises that
Rijk Zwaan visits the building contractor who is
his company will not be able to avoid using
given the job of building the new complex in
hybridisation for its breeding work. All of these
January 1968. In total, Rijk Zwaan is investing
events require adjustments to be made in the
1,7 million guilders in the new location.
company’s structure.
Bergschenhoek, 1969.
First, with regard to the rise of plant breeders.
Plant breeders are increasingly taking over the
cultivation of planting material from the market
gardeners. Market gardeners themselves soon
also see the benefits of this more far-reaching
specialisation. For Rijk Zwaan, it means shifting
a significant part of the company’s sales from
the market gardeners to the plant nurseries. The
greenhouse cultivation of lettuce in particular
– in which Rijk Zwaan has traditionally occupied
a strong position – is increasingly buying young
plants from professional plant breeders rather
than sowing its own. Because of their large
orders for seed, this up-and-coming group of
new businesses is able to negotiate discounts,
and this means that Rijk Zwaan is losing part of
its profit margin. Moreover, the sales method is
changing significantly as a result. In the 1960s,
Rijk Zwaan sold most of its seeds through sales
reps who regularly visited gardeners and gave
them cultivation advice – a sales method with
which founder Rijk Zwaan enjoyed great success
from the start. However, plant breeders are much
56
Rijk Zwaan | Moving forward together
