In December of this twelvemonth Heemskerk Flowers will be strike off its 60th birthday . 2021 is therefore all about this anniversary . Throughout the year they will be look back over the retiring 60 yr , in which a mickle of remarkable thing have happened . For example , did you know that Heemskerk Flowers was the first bloom wholesaler to take off selling prime and plants online ? Or that their founding father , Bert Heemskerk senior , also used to dye flowers himself ?
As well as front back at our fine history , they would also like to look forward with you . " We are ready for the future . With project such as sustainability and innovation we are preparing ourselves for everything to come ! "
In this article , Bert Heemskerk and Roos Heemskerk , brother and sister from the second contemporaries , who are now in armorial bearing , share their experience . issue let in how they enter the business in a raw manner , how foundation has enable them to make great jump forward , and what they believe is the keystone to success for Heemskerk Flowers .
‘ lease ’s go right smart back in time . What do you know about how your Father-God begin the business?’Bert : ‘ When he was 15 , he started as a buyer at a flower wholesaler . He was the youngest vendee . At that time he was already serving a number of customers by betray them flowers outside working hour . He then started his own business organisation forcing tulip together with a business partner . ’ Roos : ‘ After that he bought flowers on military commission for other customers , and launched a mobile wholesale business concern . This was in the 1980s . First there was a route to Amsterdam , and then a telephone number of routes to the UK . Once we had a webshop things developed very rapidly and we started sell remotely in more and more countries . That ’s how our exporting commence - shipping orders . ’
‘ Did your sire ever ram the mobile sweeping routes himself?’Roos : ‘ He claimed he did . But I call up the he drive to Amsterdam a total of three times and buy the farm along to the UK once , to Wales . Nothing more than that . But if he wanted to lend weight to a story , he claimed that he had been a roving sweeping equipment driver for 20 year . ’ She laughs . Bert : ‘ He also dye flowers . There were virtually no dyed flowers at the clock time . He went reckon for dye . I was still little , and I evoke that maybe we should buy habiliment dye . So we went to the druggist in the village to try it out . ’‘How did you join the company?’Roos : ‘ From an early age we always worked in the clientele . Outside school hours we serve where we were needed . For example , when I was 12 I split a lot of spray carnations in the corsage workshop . I also remember that we come out a 2nd sweeping business in Rijnsburg selling plants . Jan Leeman - who still works for us - started it . During the holidays I avail out there . Then I come to get Jan ’s notes at the clock auction and stuck price stickers on the plant . I was 17 . ’ Bert : ‘ I spend a lot of clip wielding a sickle on the plot of country that we had . ’ Roos : ‘ In our Clarence Day it was very normal to go straight into your category commercial enterprise from agrarian school . But that was not the case for us - we had to finish our education first . ’Bert : ‘ Yes , you had to get your making - that was very important to our father . I went to HEAO business college and WO ( higher pedagogy ) and then another six months at university , after which I was nauseous and tired of didactics . I was 23 . Soon after that I started as a mobile wholesale driver in Switzerland . Wilco Kelder , who still works for us , had a route there and I engage over from him . I did n’t speak a word of French at that time . I went to a monastery to learn it . I spent about two long time driving to Switzerland , after which I short had to help with the purchasing . ’ Roos : ‘ I live along on the route to Switzerland once . I think it was very concentrated because you kip very badly . Bert only let me come along if I promise not to moan that I needed to go to the toilet . On the way back I declare out for eight hours , because I did n’t presume say anything . ’‘When did you start up working in the business , Roos?’Roos : ‘ In term of Education Department I did the same as Bert , only I skipped WO . After business college I went to Erasmus University in Rotterdam . Then they could n’t find a box executive program . Our sister Jannet was the box supervisor at the clip , but she did n’t savor it so she wanted to stop . So I very confidently say that I would do it . I was 24 . I plant it very hard work . Starting at 4 in the morning , so my warning machine clock give out off at 3 a.m. We did n’t have any heads of department yet at that time , so I was in bang from the start to the conclusion of the process . After the first two weeks I inquire : what have I got myself into ? But you do n’t give up , obviously , so you get stuck in . My first love remains the shopfloor - I still savour that the most . ’‘Were you accept immediately when you bulge there so young?’Roos : ‘ Yes , I was . I had been around for a farsighted clip , so everyone already knew me . I call back the I had a friend with me and that I enjoin an onetime actor that the waterproofing needed to be done differently . My booster was amazed that I dared to say that . But for me that was just very normal , because I had always been around the concern . ’
‘ Was your education utilitarian for the business?’Bert : ‘ Certainly . I had graduated from HEAO business college in Day Trading & Systems . When I had just start push to Switzerland , I also create a software program program at the same time . That is when the innovation started . When I started drive to Switzerland , there was 1 invoicing car - 18 months later we already had some 25 PCs . I clearly remember when a Modern software package was quick one Friday afternoon . And when someone contract F7 , everything seized up . You never forget fourth dimension like that . We had to cook up everything ourselves . There really was nothing at that clock time . At one point I asked the Flora auction bridge mansion for a barcode on the legal transfer notes . When we were scan the barcodes , the entire auction floor emptied because everyone wanted to watch . It ’s so simple , but none of it existed back then . ’
‘ Heemskerk Flowers was the first prime wholesaler to start offer flower and plants online . How did that go?’Roos : ‘ We acquired a big customer in France . This customer sell from an ordering leaning , but did not have sex in advance what the flowers cost . They found that annoying . So we make up one’s mind to keep peak and plants in neckcloth so that we could give a Mary Leontyne Price . But because the customers could not see the products , they did not deal . Two sales stave then walked through the stock with a webcam in ordination to be able to still show the products . This was very time - consuming . ’ Bert : ‘ Wehkamp clothes store already existed , and my wife used it to buy trousers for my children . She bought then there because she could see photos of the trouser . That was the solution for us - we had to add together live photo . So we adjust up a photo studio where we set out photographing all the product . And then thing get down to betray . Two sale staff , Jan van Egmond and Roel Stijnman , then started online sales in France and London . They were offering something completely new : customers could buy directly from the Netherlands and see the products using live picture . ’
Roos : ‘ Sales then come out develop apace . Italy was added , and we were already deal in Russia . But there was no stock control condition yet , so the stock figures were n’t right . ’ Bert : ‘ So we needed scanners . I told my father that we take those machine . He involve : what does that price ? I said : 13,000 guilders each , which was a lot of money in those days . My father asked : how many do you involve ? About ten . Well you should grease one’s palms them if you need them , he said . He really have me free rein in that respect . ’‘Your father gave you both a lot of responsibility and trust . ’Bert : ‘ We did n’t clear that at the time . We only bed it now . ’ Roos : ‘ You just did your affair , you made certain that your work was complete at the end of the 24-hour interval . So we did n’t think about that at all . But you sure know about it if it was n’t right ! So you always definitely did your sound to ensure that everything was done properly . ’ Bert : ‘ Yes , you did n’t want to fail . No , he was not particularly romantic . I retrieve an occasion during a busy Mother ’s Day week . I had packed up flowers for a mobile wholesale machine driver . before long after my father came over to demand whether I had pack Sonias for this driver . So I said that I had packed them . My father was fierce , because the driver claim that he had not receive them and wanted a credit for them . My father emptied the whole motortruck until he found those Sonias . I do n’t have a go at it how that ended , but it was not good for the gadget driver in motion . ’‘Did you always know that you would get together the fourth-year direction team?’Bert : ‘ No , we did n’t think about it . It just happen of its own conformity - a raw exploitation . Roos : ‘ I always declared that I did n’t desire to join the company , I wanted to bulge something myself . Something with knight for case - a childhood dreaming . We did indeed just tumble into it . I do think of that at one point I thought it was time to change the old - fashioned office . In that room we were read that the new generation had arrived . There was no particular point when we on the spur of the moment link the elderly management squad . We did n’t have any title of respect back then either , such as elderly direction or MT or DT ; it was n’t an military issue . ’ Bert : ‘ That ’s not how we were raise either . You need to do what you need to do . ’ Roos : ‘ And my Church Father did n’t just vaporize at a particular full point . He was far away in his later years , but still very snug . He knew exactly what was going on everywhere , and otherwise he would encounter out . He was always involved . But if it was salutary weather condition he might not come into the office for a few days . He go and fiddle golf game or garden . When the weather was unfit he could n’t get here tight enough again . ’
‘ What do you think is the key to the troupe ’s success?’Bert : ‘ Our core value : Passion , Professional , Innovation and Pride . ’ Roos : ‘ You do it together - you ca n’t do anything alone . It ’s a special cultivation and mentality amongst the faculty . Just do it - do n’t yammer but get stuck in . You really need that in day trading as well - it ’s so dynamic . You have to run if you ’re buy the farm to keep up , and you want to be able-bodied to make out with that . The strength of the tractableness that prevail here is also key . ’ Bert : ‘ Yes , on busy days everyone work on the storey , from sales event stave to the IT department and the bookkeeper . Because the order take to be send out ; there ’s no option . ’ Roos : ‘ I find that those are the best day of the year , the special days , when everyone fall in in . When we are working as one big squad , and you’re able to also see what you ’re doing it for . ’
‘ What are your favorite special days?’Bert : ‘ My favourite is the Mother ’s Days , because you sell all sorts of different blossom . ’ Roos : ‘ I do n’t mind - I love all the special day . Because for me the national logistics remain the same . Bert is in buying , so he is more Byzantine with the eccentric of flowers that are buy . For me it ’s more about the ‘ bombination ’ , that you ’re all working together . ’
‘ Which is your favourite heyday or plant?’Bert : ‘ Peonies . When you place them in a vase they bloom into a very liberal heyday . Roos : ‘ For me it ’s the hydrangea . Those flowers have a beautiful colour palette , and they also last a long time . You really are bringing something beautiful into your home . ’
For more information : Heemskerk FlowersEmail:[email protected]www.heemskerkflowers.com
