Dutch floral specialists Bloemenveiling FloraHolland sold more than €4 billion (£3.6bn) worth of flowers, and house and garden plants in 2008, only a 0.25 per cent rise on 2007.

Management chairman Timo Huges, said: “Even though 2008 was not a great year, we can still conclude that up till now the economic crisis has only had a limited effect on turnover development at the auction. This is positive and instils us with confidence.”

FloraHolland has six locations (the flower auctions at Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, Rijnsburg, Venlo, Bleiswijk and Eelde) and an intermediary organisation (FloraHolland Connect). The number of flowers and plants traded through FloraHolland increased in 2008 by 1.3 per cent to 12.4 billion.

Through the cooperative’s market places, flower growers from the Netherlands and other production countries generated sales of €2.4 billion (£2.1bn) which represents a three per cent decrease in 2008.

During the past year, plants were responsible for turnover totalling €1.6 billion (£1.4bn), a five per cent rise. The company is expecting a small increase in turnover (approximately one per cent) in the coming year.

FloraHolland’s commercial manager, Arnold Hordijk, said: “Even though total auction turnover remained virtually the same, there were large differences in the results of our growers. For a number of our purchasing exporters, 2008 was also a difficult year. The fall in exports to the UK was the main reason for this.”

FloraHolland's three export locations (Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk and Rijnsburg) work in close consultation to secure benefits for the floriculture chain (and especially for growers and customers) by improving efficiency.

In order to make the move from supply-driven to demand-driven logistics, FloraHolland is conducting a series of pilot projects with robots and mechanisation.

In response to the conservative turnover forecasts for 2009, FloraHolland has decided to slow down the speed of its investments and adjusted its investment budget accordingly; there are plans to invest €100 million (£90m) in 2009.

Future expansion will be secured by purchasing land and by further developing Trade Parc Westland Mars (Naaldwijk) and the new East business park (Aalsmeer). There will be substantial investment to improve logistics by developing a standardised auction trolley. They also hope a single, uniform stacking cart will help reduce costs across the supply chain.

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