Veiling Rhein-Maas celebrating Five years

On November 29, 2010, exactly five years ago, the eight auction clocks at Veiling Rhein-Maas turned for the first time. Although the party on the occasion of this anniversary will be modest, there is reason to look back with a good feeling for five years of Veiling Rhein-Maas.

The creation of Veiling Rhein-Maas was an old desire in the Euroregion. Many growers and traders found three clock auctions in a small area a lot of good. All merger plans were effected only after Landgard and FloraHolland came together in the joint venture, which is now Veiling Rhein-Maas.

The begining was a challenge. From three different auctions with their own systems and cultures, a new auction was to be formed. Which had to auction with an autonomous pricing, a sufficiently wide range and demonstrate sophisticated services to its audiences. In particular, it focused efforts over the past five years. The growth of Veiling Rhein-Maas is above average since 2010, from 260 million euros to 350 million euros gross turnover in five years. This is a development against the current. In the Netherlands, the auction clock loses more ground to direct sales, Veiling Rhein-Maas is growing.

From the outset, the collaboration means to do so. Veiling Rhein-Maas sought contact with customers to discover, where there were gaps in supply and found growers to complete the offer. The insight into the available supply grew, with the introduction of a reporting year supply for suppliers of potted plants. By this year end message delivery in 2014 to digitize the ensuing information to be used more easily. Thus, supply and demand are better aligned and can be prevented supply excesses.

Veiling Rhein-Maas systematically promotes contacts between suppliers and customers. During meetings for suppliers and customers (including the annual customer and aanvoerders day) and during `Active 'Together (where commanders in the lobby of the auction present their products directly to customers) may develop good contacts. So both groups improve their understanding of the opportunities and ultimately reinforces the auction.

Recently, Veiling Rhein-Maas started its own customer magazine, `Rhein-Maas Temperamenten'. It contains the product, the story and the people behind it and the role of the auction business center.

What has not been sufficiently successful, is to bind customers to the larger Dutch Herongen location. The reason is largely legal reasons such as tax or business structure. Yet the marketplace Veiling Rhein-Maas has in the past five years, for suppliers and customers in the region and beyond clearly gained importance. Space - or rather the lack of it - is a red thread through the history of five years, Veiling Rhein-Maas. The availability of an additional hall in early 2015, this is temporarily resolved.

For a sophisticated service were two essential elements. Three cultures from the old auction was a new distilled (Veiling Rhein-Maas). Furthermore, the existing systems had to be made up-to-date. Meanwhile, the ancient cultures have largely faded and has created a new culture. Employees are expected, they work out clear standards and values: to understand each other, respect, be brave and each other's partner. With each other and in contact with customers and suppliers.

The continued development and improvement of working practices and systems is ongoing. An important milestone was the investment in the new wall clocks. Suppliers can thus positioning on the auction clock better their products and show important information, which may be in their purchasing decision value for customers.

The challenge for the coming years, in order to better exploit the potential of digitization. To improve the process, but also to better gather information about the offer and share.