Dutch cooperation Oxin Growers on track to turnover of '1 with 9 zeros'

The World Horti Centre hosted the kick-off event for growers, buyers and employees of Oxin Growers to gain inspiration and meet in an informal way at the start of the new growing season. The merger association is celebrating five years of operation this year and director Ton van Dalen revealed another milestone at the opening. Namely, this year's turnover is expected to exceed the '1 with 9 zeros'.

That turnover is achieved by 230 growers from the Netherlands and Belgium. 82% of members are active in greenhouse vegetables, 10% in fruit and 8% in outdoor vegetables. Ton calculated the average farm size for each sector: greenhouse growers have an average of 9 hectares, outdoor growers average 80 hectares, and fruit growers average 27 hectares. The top 10 customers represent 70% of sales at Oxin Growers.

Next on the floor was brand strategist Ynzo van Zanten, former Head of People&Culture at Tony's Chocolonely. He started his presentation with a current global survey that showed that 23% of employees call themselves engaged. "In the Netherlands, it is often seen as positive when the noses are in the same direction. But it is time to embrace behavior where not everyone is looking in the same direction, and also look at what is happening left, right and behind you."

"At Tony's Chocolonely, we used to say that we were keen to emulate the competition, but then we had an employment contract with a non-competition clause. We turned this document of mistrust into a 'ticket of trust' in which we mainly mentioned the nice conditions, such as that employees were allowed to take home as much chocolate every day as they could carry themselves. Also, the pregnancy of colleagues was often seen as something inconvenient. We immediately decided to give 1,000 euros baby bonus cash. And if the baby was then named Tony, the colleague got another 1,000 quid to take home," Ynzo said.

In other words, at companies like Tony's Chocolony and Innocent where he worked, work happiness was the focus, and, above all, it was all allowed to be a bit of fun. "Anyone who had something to celebrate could press a red alarm button, then cheers rose up and that certainly contributed to work happiness. Fierce attractive employment is in a small corner. If a customer called the office, the colleagues would sing Una Paloma Blanca by George Baker." The growers and traders present also sang along to this song, some a little more at the top of their lungs than others, after which they enjoyed the buffet again.

Click here for the photo report of the kick-off event

For more information:
Oxin Growers
Tel: +31 (0)180 203 202
info@oxin-growers.nl
www.oxin-growers.nl