Breeder Evanthia: "Connecting growers and exporters is our starting point"

As a breeder and specialist in seeds and young plants, Evanthia is a well-known player in floriculture. Commercial director Louis Kester talks about the aspiration and ambition to grow together and how they are using Floriday to achieve this. 

In 2013, Evanthia started out as a company. She brought experience and some of the products with her from the business Combinations. This formed the basis for the breeding of cut flowers, pot and bedding plants, as well as seed optimisation and the propagation of tropical plants such as, for example, the coffee plant, monsteras and strelitzias. 

From local business to Europe

On an annual basis, Evanthia produces some 35 million plants on a cultivation area of 6 hectares. With 80% of their offering coming from seeds and 20% from tissue culture, they supply young plants to major growers such as Bunnik and Van Geest Potplanten. Louis: "We once started locally and have gradually expanded into Belgium, Germany, Denmark and southern Europe. We are now the largest supplier of young plants in Europe."

"We offer the remaining young plants as stock. Previously that was only done through excel lists by email, however for several years now we have also offered this stock through Floriday. With that, a whole new customer base of exporters in particular has emerged."

More efficiency, less risk

"A major advantage of Floriday and our connections there with exporters is that our stock trays will go alongside pre-established distribution lines in Europe. Parties like Javadoplant or Hamiplant have an extensive distribution/sales line to large parts of Europe," explains Louis.
"Now we are managing this sale through Floriday, not only do we run less risk of having too much surplus, we also save time in terms of additional arrangements. The same applies to the exporter. It no longer has to retype anything."

Moving with the distribution flow

Evanthia's foreign customers include many garden centres with production greenhouses. Because of their large and diverse product range, they require finely tuned distribution. "Big exporters like Javado, for example, can supply those. Our young plants also fit extremely well in these distribution flows. On the one hand, they are interesting for foreign garden centres because they can let them mature in their production greenhouses and at the same time, for some customers, they are a nice finished product," explains Louis.

From push to pull

"We used to adopt a push strategy, but have slowly shifted to a pull strategy: we work in a more demand-driven way. When our offer is in Floriday, we keep an eye on which exporter visits us and what activity takes place. We then contact both the exporter and the customer to understand what they are looking for and what exactly they are interested in. Of course, we then always refer them to the exporter for the actual order. During that exchange, we also try to generate interest in other products in our range."

Network and online visibility

"Since working with Floriday, the number of connections we have is expanding rapidly. Our network is very important. We are actively trying to increase our online profile and catch the eye of buyers, through social media and advertising. We are getting noticed more easily. This is especially true for our finished products, with which we support our growers such as Bunnik and Van Geest Potplanten. Connecting existing parties such as growers and exporters in the chain is our starting point. And when a garden centre, as an end customer, also requires young plants for its own production and/or shelves/sale, we can supply this."

Floriday in the future

Evanthia makes extensive use of offers. "Since a Floriday expert has provided further explanation on this, it really is much easier. Our exporters, meanwhile, are also keen to order on a forward basis. This can also be done in Floriday, which is something we would also like to work with. We are now setting that up with a number of products," Louis says. Currently, Evanthia works through Floriday screens, in time they wish to link their own software package, PAT ERP Software, to the Floriday API link. Louis: "This will further ease the financial handling alongside commercial sales."