Dutch auction Plantion presents its multi-year strategic plan to drive growth

At Plantion’s Annual General Members’ Meeting on Wednesday, 5 June, chairman René Willemsen introduced its multi-year strategic growth plan and shared how this plan will enable the cooperative to ‘innovate, connect and inspire’. Navigating Plantion through the years running up to 2027 will be managing director André van Kruijssen, who will stay with the auction for the foreseeable future.

Plantion members’ meeting adopted the financial statements and discharged the executive board for the policy pursued in the 2023 financial year.

Product sales in 2023 were €101.4 million, down 4.7 per cent from a year earlier. An important factor in this was the increase in gas prices in 2022, which resulted in a lower volume in 2023.

Plantion’s managing director, André van Kruijssen.

The clock auction performed similarly to 2022, with the online share growing to around 30 per cent. Due to the loss of some large customers, mediation fell somewhat short of expectations. Plantion Shop & Go showed nice growth. To everyone’s satisfaction, Plantion closed the year with a positive result of €212,000.

State of the industry

In the first five months of this year, Plantion recorded sales of €56 million, over five per cent more than in the same period in 2023.

The clock auction stabilised with another increased share online; Plantion anticipates continued growth of Clock Presales. Mediation and Plantion Shop & Go posted higher-than-expected sales.

René Willemsen, chairman Plantion.

Other achievements this year included a well-attended (400 people) joint funeral event with Plantion Wholesale Centre, Smithers-Oasis and VBW, the commissioning of a hub in Antwerp, the start of an auction group for organically grown produce and an agreement with TICA to open a branch at Plantion Wholesale Centre.

Multi-year plan 2027

Against the backdrop of developments in society, the sector and the company itself, Plantion renewed its policy towards 2027. The mission for the coming years continues to be ‘innovate, connect and inspire’.

This means further investment in 24/7 digital services combined with inspiring physical procurement opportunities. As an independent cooperative but in close cooperation with partners such as Royal FloraHolland, Plantion aims to put suppliers in the best possible position and provide a full-service solution to suppliers and customers. One of the challenges is guiding cooperative members to obtain FSI certification, which will become mandatory in 2027.