Christian Oosterlaan of Pack TTI has attended many international trade fairs. Pack TTI's HortiHands, VegHands and FlowerHands brands provide machines that make life a little easier for growers worldwide. "More and more often, growers cannot find employees or they are confronted with too expensive labor prices. In these cases, automation is a great solution," says the man who recently took full ownership of the company.
In June, Christian took over the last shares in Pack TTI from Hans Juursema. Christian had been a shareholder since 2020, just before corona. "Since 2017, I have grown into the company. Actually, I quickly became an 'owner', but now it's official."
Hans and Christian.
Relocation
However, Christian assures us that the market shouldn't expect big changes after this management news. "We offer many harvesting, processing, and packaging solutions for flowers, plants, and vegetables. We will continue to do so. For many countries, our affordable machines are already so modern that they can make great strides. Even in countries where you wouldn't immediately expect it, labor is a problem. For example, I recently sold a machine to bind spices in Albania."
Pack TTI, which is an international trading company, buys machines from various countries. Sometimes they also make their own machines. Christian has good connections with Asian manufacturers, among others, but he also stocks machines from Germany and elsewhere. Last autumn, Pack TTI moved from Zwijndrecht to Bleiswijk to continue its growth. "We are now even closer to our customers, sometimes they even come to me," he laughs.
Increasingly tech-savvy
The mechanical engineering graduate points out that machines should be simple, in the good sense of the word. "We deliver quality, but also find it important that customers can easily carry out maintenance themselves. To that end, we supply parts, possibly with an explanatory video. It turns out that customers are often able to maintain our machines themselves."
The brand-new business owner notices that machine users are becoming increasingly tech-savvy. "Personally, I really enjoy the combination of trade and technology, and I will continue on this path. I think it helps that I can have a good technical talk with users."
Christian closely follows developments in robotics and AI, but does not expect Pack TTI's brands to go in that direction yet. "In the Netherlands, we are always ahead, we do that well. However, it may take many years before these techniques will spread to other parts of the world. For many international users, our machines are already very modern, even without all the luxury options such as touchscreens. Nevertheless, we also offer this type of machines, for example for our flower-binding lines."
For more information:
Christian Oosterlaan
Pack TTI
Lange Vaart 1
2665 KT Bleiswijk, the Netherlands
+31 88 425 62 40
[email protected]
www.packtti.com