2025: Kreling Chrysanten

Kreling Chrysanten: a highly progressive family business that excels in collaboration and innovation
The Kreling Chrysanten Cooperative is a partnership of five chrysanthemum growers from the Bommelerwaard region, near Bruchem in Gelderland, with annual sales of 160 million stems for European retailers. According to the jury, the family business excels in continuous innovation.

Jury's verdict:

Your family business truly excels in continuous innovation. You're leading the way in your sector when it comes to devising and testing new developments in robotics and sustainability initiatives, such as soilless cultivation, triple-layer rooting, cutting machines, plug cultivation (reducing the need for peat), and naturally derived fertilizers. You're investing heavily in these areas, driving your entire sector forward. Your competitors look up to you. You're very open about your innovations and share your findings with the sector. That's highly commendable. You're truly leading by example and taking a leading role in this area.

Your company's image and engagement with your community are also leading. You've created a "horticulture barometer" to measure how local residents, businesses, and organizations perceive the activities and added value of your horticultural businesses. You also collaborate extensively within the Bommelerwaard horticultural region: Water Centraal, Energie Centraal, and Afval Collectief. And you're committed to biodiversity around your greenhouse. Others should certainly follow this example!

Your business structure is very well-organized. This is due to both your cooperative structure and your supply chain integration approach, which lays a solid foundation for continuity, both forward and backward. From planting roots to the final product: a complete story. Your family history provides a solid foundation. Entrepreneurship has been in your blood since childhood. The new generation is embracing entrepreneurship with great confidence. Your overall business philosophy and structure ensure stable future security and risk diversification. You also pay attention to your seasonal employees, such as by providing beautiful, dignified housing.

All in all, the jury believes you have courage, are willing to fall, and get back up quickly. You actively seek collaboration with other parties and forge valuable connections in the process. You are true entrepreneurs. For this reason, the jury considers your company a more than worthy winner of the Horticultural Entrepreneurship Award 2025!