Carolien is married to Léon de Ridder and together with Jacques, Léon's brother, they run De Ridder Flower and Bulb Nursery in Noordwijkerhout (33 ha of tulip cultivation and 9 ha of gladioli). She had worked alone in finance for many years but, after the birth of her middle daughter in 1997, she decided to put her expertise to use supporting the family business. Here, she handles, among other things, the annual accounts and, since 2020, sales for retail tulips and top-quality gladioli. With her down-to-earth approach, decisiveness and keen insight, Carolien knows how to manage both the figures and the trade, partly through Floriday's efforts.
The nursery runs largely on home-grown tulips: 80% are used for its own forcing, 20% are sold. Bulbs are planted in November for greenhouse forcing, with tulip harvesting from January to April. An overlap with outdoor cultivation of peony tulips follows in April. Tulip bulb harvesting starts in mid-June. Then the harvesting of gladioli in the field starts in mid-June and continues until the end of October. Peak times, when different crops overlap, create hectic conditions and require extra temporary workers. And the weather plays an unpredictable role in this. Floriday has now become a stabilising factor in this, saving the company time and errors. 'It used to be a crime if a mistake was made in the Electronic Supply Letter. Nowadays this is quick and easy to adjust yourself in Floriday and Electronic Auction Transactions are easy to correct too'.
Contracts, direct trade, auction and clock presales
Almost all of the tulip nursery is used for contracts and the rest through direct day trading. Gladioli mainly through direct trade, auction and clock presales. The family business has now built a nice network in Floriday. Their good reputation helped in this regard. The company started selling digitally through Floriday in 2021, after its computer (with its own software package) crashed. "We had to move to a new working system and that became Floriday. There was no shadowing; I just started and would call Floriday support if I couldn't figure it out. We started using standing order contracts in 2021, but they did not work at all well for tulips initially. The framework was right, but not much was possible specifically for our bandwidths. Meanwhile, the contracts function in Floriday works well, including standing orders and bandwidths."
Our challenge: gladioli forecast lists and stock
Every morning at 7:30am, Carolien turns out two lists, a stock list and a forecast list, based on information from the nursery and the country. She then manually enters the supply into Floriday, checks the clock prices of Rijnsburg and Aalsmeer and determines her daily price. Although De Ridder Flower and Bulb Nursery makes good use of Floriday, several buyers are still getting used to it. Carolien encourages them to do so by actively sharing her supply via Whatsapp and providing a link that directs customers to her shop on Floriday. She also sees benefits for her customers: you can immediately see the right photos for the products, there are fewer errors, and you have your Electronic Auction Transaction right away.
As our challenge, I would still like to see the option to print a complete list of the daily supply that has not been sold by item name, so that we can register auction and clock presales before order picking, allowing the transport to leave earlier. ’
Keeping up and opportunities
In October, Carolien joined the Floriday tulip workshop. 'During this, Floriday took us through all the new developments that have been made in the past year. I will apply these again next season'. "Keeping up is important," says Carolien. 'Just start using Floriday and follow the tips that appear in the platform at the bottom right. Here, Floriday colleagues provide valuable information that makes the platform even easier to use. It takes some getting used to at times, but as the platform becomes more user-friendly, I find it increasingly nice to work with. It makes me happy'.
"My shop is growing with Floriday"
"Over the past few years, a lot has changed in how we manage and present our range. Thanks to my own shop in Floriday, I have gained a greater overview. This not only makes my supply grow, but also makes my shop look more attractive to customers. "You shouldn't have to think about doing all this in Excel," says Carolien. Floriday's ongoing development helps us to grow as growers. We have been able to expand our product range better, partly because the platform supports us in doing so. It's nice to work with a system that thinks and grows with you."