A WELL-KNOWN NAME IN RETAIL
Celieplant is a well-known name in the retail sector. Celieplant supplies many major European supermarket chains with large numbers of indoor and outdoor plants. The company is also gaining a foothold outside of Europe. Sam proudly explains: “We have a compact and strong team that is fully specialised in retail. Retailers know this, so they know where to find us. Because plants are taken directly from the supplier to the customer, they reach the shelves in perfect condition."
CELIEPLANT'S 28TH ANNIVERSARY
Celieplant has been building a profile for itself for many years. Twenty-eight years, to be precise. John Celie founded the company in 1994. Under his leadership, the company developed into the leading supplier of garden and houseplants that Celieplant is today. The broad assortment varies from large flowering houseplants to plants for outdoor use, and from mass products to plants that come complete with a pot, label and packaging.
PLANTS VS. FLOWERS
Sam has firm views on whether trading in plants is very different from trading in flowers: "Definitely!". He goes on to explain: "It has only been in recent years that flowers have increasingly been packaged at the source, whereas with plants we have been doing this for 25 years. From individual pallets to plants by the truckload – everything is loaded at the grower. As a result, our buyers are often on the road so that they can assess the quality of the plants at the growers before they are sent to the customer."
COLLABORATION WITH GROWERS
Celieplant collaborates with the most professional horticultural companies in the Netherlands: large growers, mainly. "Large growers are capable enough to meet our customers' high demand," Sam explains. Celieplant excels in Dutch products, such as orchids and bedding plants. Nevertheless, Sam stresses, we can deliver anything our customers desire. "Everything from pot size 6 to 40."
The company also regularly seeks out collaboration with growers, with a view to coming up with new trendy plant concepts. If this leads to a new plant concept, both the grower and Celieplant benefit. For retailers, it is useful to have an exclusive product on the shelf. At the same time, Celieplant can then continue to work even more closely with growers.
A BROAD OFFERING OF FLOWERS AND PLANTS
Sam's position has changed since the merger; he is now the Managing Director of Plants for One Flora Group. In addition to his work for Celieplant, he is exploring possibilities for different plant labels. Sam: "We want to start making the plant branch more mature, for Spira and Bloominess, among others."
On a more general level, Sam has noticed that the merger has led to cross-pollination. "As a group, we now have even more customers. Whereas before we only delivered flowers to certain customers, now we can offer them our plants as well. It also works the other way around: we have even more opportunities to supply flowers to customers who used to come to us for plants only."
Sam says there are plenty of plans for the future at Celieplant. "We already offer a complete range of flowers within the group; we want to achieve the same for plants. We are hoping to focus even more on wholesale and also to expand online. If we manage that, we have the complete package."
