Members of FloraHolland voted against the proposed liquidity contribution

The General Members’ Meeting (ALV) of Royal FloraHolland Flower Auction Cooperative was held on Thursday, June 5, in Aalsmeer. The 294 members present, just 5% of the total number of members, listened as Lucas Vos presented his findings from his first months at FloraHolland. One of the most important findings is that the FloraHolland strategy is not sufficiently clear. He stated that the strategy process called ‘FloraHolland 2020’ should lead to greater clarity by the end of 2014 for members, customers and employees.

Rens Buchwaldt clarified the annual accounts for 2013. The first topic that was voted on was the crediting of only half of the liquidity contribution for 2013. This proposal did not achieve a majority of votes. This meant that further decisions regarding the annual accounts could not be taken in the meeting. 

FloraHolland will announce what the next steps to take will be regarding the annual accounts before the end of next week. The statutes have several stipulations about this.

Chair of the Supervisory Board (RvC), Bernard Oosterom, said, "We at the RvC are disappointed with the outcome. Although the argumentation to put this proposal to the meeting was completely valid in our opinion, the members decided otherwise in the meeting. We shall have to examine carefully the outcome of the vote and the extensive discussion."

Liquidity contribution

During the year, 1% of the suppliers' sales value is deducted as a liquidity contribution. If the result is positive at the end of the year, this liquidity contribution is credited to the member's loan fund, after a decision is taken at the ALV. As FloraHolland had a negative result in 2013, it was proposed at the ALV to credit just half of the liquidity contribution. The other half would be used to pay off the debt. This proposal was not approved.