Management column: A sustainable and healthy future for Royal FloraHolland
April 8, 2025
As announced during the presentation of our annual figures, Royal FloraHolland is well on its way with its Strategy 2030. To achieve this, we must continue to deliver added value for our members, growers and buyers from our RFH platform, both now and in the future. This means that, in addition to further developing existing and new services and our platform, we must continue to operate efficiently. This means low costs for our customers for the services provided by our company, but also low chain costs thanks to RFH. After all, our right to exist is also based on a competitive cost base. Our plans require additional investments, particularly in our logistics platform, our hubs. We are currently discussing this with our members, the Members' Council and the Supervisory Board.
Let me start at the beginning: Strategy 2030. Building on our solid foundation (our people and organisation, our logistics and digital platform), we are working on four strategic priorities: growth in day trade, specific focus segments, strengthening the cooperative and strengthening our hubs. In order to achieve this and remain a future-proof RFH platform, an additional investment programme is needed, in addition to the existing investment plans.
Investments in logistics platform
This mainly concerns the logistics platform, our hubs. Specifically, it concerns our buildings, facilities, energy consumption and our sites. The infrastructure with which we fulfil a sector function in connecting growers and buyers at our hubs, but also the physical access to surrounding roads. We want and need to comply with legal requirements for safety and sustainability in line with EU targets. This involves both modernising our hubs and ensuring that our buildings are appropriately designed, sized and efficient. In the past, we grew organically, which sometimes led to inefficient building layouts.
In recent years, the focus has primarily been on keeping the cooperative affordable for our members, growers and buyers. This was also due to uncertain market conditions: Corona, followed by the energy crisis and then several years of high inflation. The investments we made were mainly focused on the digital platform.
We have worked hard to compile a comprehensive inventory of our assets, real estate, facilities and infrastructure. The status of necessary maintenance has been mapped out and prioritised. We have also investigated how we can use our real estate more intelligently, for example by bundling processes or moving the storage of transport packaging to external locations. This will create more space for rental or enable us to reduce the footprint of our buildings while maintaining adequate logistics processing capacity.
Tackling deferred maintenance now offers opportunities, including for smarter energy use
It has become clear that now is the time to strengthen our logistics hubs and infrastructure. We are facing deferred maintenance and need to invest heavily in this. This also offers opportunities to make the hubs more sustainable. Electrification is necessary to comply with legislation and emission reduction requirements. This can be achieved by expanding heat pumps, further rolling out LED lighting and increasing the already large number of solar panels on our roofs. But also by drawing up an integrated energy plan to use energy more intelligently. Wherever we invest, we do so in a smart and well-considered manner, with room for flexibility to respond to future developments. Sometimes this involves modifications to existing buildings in Naaldwijk and Rijnsburg, but also high-quality and sustainable new construction in Aalsmeer-Oost.
Investment plan
Let me start at the beginning: Strategy 2030. Building on our solid foundation (our people and organisation, our logistics and digital platform), we are working on four strategic priorities: growth in day trade, specific focus segments, strengthening the cooperative and strengthening our hubs. In order to achieve this and remain a future-proof RFH platform, an additional investment programme is needed, in addition to the existing investment plans.
Investments in logistics platform
This mainly concerns the logistics platform, our hubs. Specifically, it concerns our buildings, facilities, energy consumption and our sites. The infrastructure with which we fulfil a sector function in connecting growers and buyers at our hubs, but also the physical access to surrounding roads. We want and need to comply with legal requirements for safety and sustainability in line with EU targets. This involves both modernising our hubs and ensuring that our buildings are appropriately designed, sized and efficient. In the past, we grew organically, which sometimes led to inefficient building layouts.
In recent years, the focus has primarily been on keeping the cooperative affordable for our members, growers and buyers. This was also due to uncertain market conditions: Corona, followed by the energy crisis and then several years of high inflation. The investments we made were mainly focused on the digital platform.
We have worked hard to compile a comprehensive inventory of our assets, real estate, facilities and infrastructure. The status of necessary maintenance has been mapped out and prioritised. We have also investigated how we can use our real estate more intelligently, for example by bundling processes or moving the storage of transport packaging to external locations. This will create more space for rental or enable us to reduce the footprint of our buildings while maintaining adequate logistics processing capacity.
Tackling deferred maintenance now offers opportunities, including for smarter energy use
It has become clear that now is the time to strengthen our logistics hubs and infrastructure. We are facing deferred maintenance and need to invest heavily in this. This also offers opportunities to make the hubs more sustainable. Electrification is necessary to comply with legislation and emission reduction requirements. This can be achieved by expanding heat pumps, further rolling out LED lighting and increasing the already large number of solar panels on our roofs. But also by drawing up an integrated energy plan to use energy more intelligently. Wherever we invest, we do so in a smart and well-considered manner, with room for flexibility to respond to future developments. Sometimes this involves modifications to existing buildings in Naaldwijk and Rijnsburg, but also high-quality and sustainable new construction in Aalsmeer-Oost.
Investment plan
The plans currently on the table require substantial investments. Over the next 15 years, these will be on average up to 50% higher than our usual investment level. This involves an increase in investments from the current level of approximately 80 million to approximately 120 million per year. We have detailed plans with an underlying smart multi-year investment plan. We have already gradually started making the first necessary investments, which will increase rapidly.
Financing
Various scenarios have been developed and investigated to finance these investments. We have a sustainable credit facility with our banks, a sustainability-linked loan, but additional financing is needed. We will also call on our members for this. A preferred financing scenario has been determined in consultation with our Members‘ Council and Supervisory Board. We are currently discussing this with our members in order to arrive at a final decision together with the Supervisory Board and Members’ Council.
Towards a sustainable future
The goal is clear. We are building the future of our cooperative together and investing to be a modern and future-proof service provider. We are improving our real estate, facilities and sites and making them more sustainable. This will enable us to guarantee the continuity of our services to members, growers and buyers and to further implement our strategy. Investing in an attractive floriculture marketplace is not only necessary, it is also the best guarantee for a successful cooperative in the future. Together we are stronger.-
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