The establishment of Sluis & Groot in 1867 helped lay the foundation for what we now know as 'Seed Valley'. Kapé Breukelaar reflects on it on LinkedIn, following Planasa's acquisition of ABZ Seeds.
His mother, Marietje Groot, married Peter Breukelaar, an ambitious economist. In the early 1960s, he was the first in-law to manage Sluis & Groot. He became responsible for international expansion. The then almost 100-year-old family business grew rapidly with acquisitions and foreign branches. In 1980, the company was sold to Sandoz.
His father continued to follow the seed business, as an enthusiastic shareholder of the listed buyer and later Syngenta. In 1993, together with some former colleagues and peers, he invested in a new venture: Strawberries From Seed (ABZ). Strawberry plants have traditionally been propagated via cuttings, but seed propagation was the future. They were investing 'seed capital' in the purest sense of the word. After years of getting started, the company became increasingly successful over the past 15 years. Those early successes Kapé's father was still allowed to witness.
"I am happy and proud that, in the spirit of my father, I was able to make a considerable contribution to the sales process on behalf of the next generation of the original 'seed investors'. Those had 32 years of patience because they understood that seed breeding is a matter of a very long time. A rarity in investment land."
After 158 years, a long family history in seed breeding ends, Kapé, who works at FisAlert, concludes his post on social media.