It's a beautiful name, yet it's virtually unknown in the horticultural sector. While the company has been on the market since 2012, and since 2017 in the Netherlands in Monster, as GS NL. How is this possible?
"It's quite simple, actually", explains Marco Brok, Managing Director of GS NL. "Our parts are hidden, as it were, in the fixtures of the lamps, so the grower doesn't see them. But in the mean time, many fixtures we provide input for, sometimes under a private label, hang in growers' greenhouses around the world."
Marco Brok and colleague Lars van der Voort last fall on the production location in Beijing, where an SMD Pick and Place machine was put to use, to improve meeting the demand for drivers.
Driver controls the lamp
That contribution is in the producing and supplying of drivers, which enable HPS and/or LED products to function under every worldwide available voltage and wattage. "You could say it like this, in every LED product there's a circuit board, so a driver, to control the lamp", explains Marco.
"For an HPS lamp to start up, for instance, a high peak voltage is needed, and then the driver has to manage the lamp and give exactly that voltage with which the lamp provides the demanded wattage. That is important for maximum return and a long lifetime."
How it started
As mentioned before, the first steps in the greenhouse horticulture were taken in 2012. A Dutch son of a grower met a Chinese business partner, and they decided to make the combination China-horticulture. They started the delivery of small series that were produced in Beijing, but now we're talking about serious amounts, and Golden Scorpion works with various fixture producers around the world.
"The first real lighting whirl was, when we started, going on for about ten years, and at that time there was a great demand for quality parts", remembers Marco. "After a tour of lighting companies, we were told what they missed, and we started working on those parts. The main demand was for a stable product with quality A parts."
101 patents
The result? A 101 patents. "'Under the skin', a lot is happening with electronics. It's a very competitive market, in which you want to protect what's unique and what you've developed yourself."
Made in China
The first big orders mainly came from across the ocean, in North America. "There, we've established a big market share, mainly because it was easier to start there. On the American and Canadian market, they are more used to parts from Chinese make. Because they are just good, and meet the strict Northern American demands, which are often even stricter than here in Europe. In Europe there's often still a wrongfully negative image to the stamp 'Made in China'.
Visiting tomato grower Agro Care in the Wieringermeer with the major of Beijing.
'I'll take fifty'
One look at the website of GS NL reveals that there are quite some certifications in the field of fixtures. GS NL has experience with that. "FCC, ENEC, CSA/UL, DEKRA, these may all be hazy to the grower, but we know them by heart. It shows that our product meets even the strictest regulations in the field of (fire) safety, fault sensitivity, net behaviour and sustainability."
For Marco and his team, in the Netherlands now five people in the field of service, logistics, sales and finances (see all the faces here), the purpose is to spread the GS NL story. "That's getting better, together with our OEM partners with whom we work in the lighting market. 'I'll take fifty or a hundred', may sound negative if a grower says it, but for us it's positive. We can handle the challenge and comparison with our competitors."
For more information:
GS NL
www.gs-nl.com/nl
[email protected]
Vlotlaan 332
2681 TV Monster
The Netherlands
+31 (0) 174352014