RZ-100-wt4-E-flipbook-240702 - Flipbook - Page 59
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64
Trias
Cucumber
19
65
Subito
Spinach
smaller in number and, due to their specialised
To create a round seed, seed companies
skills, they require much less advice. For this
start ‘pelleting’ the seeds. This means that pills
reason, the sales force needs to be adjusted in the
are created from the seed, the same type of pills
early 1970s. But Rijk Zwaan’s sales reps continue to
as in the pharmaceutical industry. Rijk Zwaan is
visit the growers and give them advice. This means
also keeping an eye of this development, and
that they can still indirectly influence the demand
managing director Herman Beeftink takes the
of the plant breeders for specific varieties. After all,
initiative in 1968 to develop his own ‘pill’ together
the market gardeners will always be the foundation
with German company Saat und Ernte Technik.
on which Rijk Zwaan has built his business.
These so-called ‘pillettes’ should ensure that
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66
Biesto
Tomato
Rijk Zwaan maintains its top spot in this market
segment. But manufacturing pills is a very
19
66
Start of exports
to Belgium and
Scandinavia.
different activity to breeding plants.
After their introduction in 1970, everything seems
to be going well. Turnover is rising, but it is soon
discovered that the pillettes, whose casing melts
away after seeding, are not working properly. Sales
reps working at Rijk Zwaan recollect: ‘They looked
Seal logo, more
great, nice packaging, but they didn’t germinate.’
stylised, 1970.
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67
Start of exports
to France and
the UK.
Moreover, a competitor has a better solution, in
which the casing splits rather than melts.
After this unsuccessful adventure with Saat und
Promotion for the new seed shape ‘pilettes’
Ernte Technik, Rijk Zwaan decides in 1972 to out-
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68
Start of pilette
development.
source pelleting to Royal Sluis, the developer of the
Another very important factor that helped the
‘split pill’. The new partnership is very successful,
company to succeed is the aforementioned
with Rijk Zwaan reconnecting to that market
emergence of the ‘pill’. Due to sharply rising labour
segment very quickly. Pelleting and other seed
costs in the early 1960s, growers start looking
treatments have led to a relationship with Incotec
for more efficient cultivation methods. So the
(still ongoing), then a subsidiary of Royal Sluis and
emergence of plant breeders as important players
today a leading seed technology company.
Special packaging was
created for the pilettes.
is also a result of the search for efficiency. It is
precisely those plant breeders that are switching
to the use of sowing machines that automatically
1964-1965
sow seeds into press-pots. One key requirement
here is that the seed must be round in order to
pass through the machine properly.
1960-1980 | Time for expansion
57
Turnover
FTE
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