In Baarlo, the Netherlands, Havecon started building a 3.1 hectare greenhouse for growing flowers in 2020. The owners Hans and Ruud have had a new high-tech greenhouse at their disposal for about 10 months after the old one was demolished a year ago. For them it was time to switch to new technologies and Havecon could provide this.
After the greenhouse has been in use since the end of the vacations, a lot has changed and the first crop of Santini's has already been harvested. Havecon spoke with Hans Hendriks about the past period:
How do you look back on the construction period?
'Very good, we experienced a very pleasant cooperation with Havecon and the contractors from Voorwinden. There were a number of critical moments during construction when Havecon and we had to switch gears, such as when designing the 26-degree glass deck. Because they worked so hard, even during the extreme winter and wet conditions, we had that on every Wednesday, fried fish with remoulade sauce was freshly picked up and distributed by our daughter Yoni to all the builders. It kept raining for many weeks and kilos of fried fish went through, but the appreciation of all the builders was enormous. In addition, on Fridays we all offered the employees a piece of flan, a piece of Limburg (region) for the people.'
What has changed for you since the arrival of the new greenhouse compared to the situation as it was last year?
'The new greenhouse offers us peace of mind and more production capacity. In the past period there has been a restless time, partly due to Covid, because of the changing market. For example, we are working towards special days such as Mother's Day, Valentine's Day and Halloween. We now have more possibilities in the capacity, which gives us more rest,space to work towards these days. The new greenhouse enables us to move with the market in a more flexible way.
An additional advantage of the new greenhouse is the minimum purchase of gas, especially with the current gas prices, which is a huge advantage. The double screening also contributes greatly to this, allowing us to produce even more sustainably.
Meanwhile, the first crop of Santini's has been harvested and that went well, but we still had to monitor it very closely because this happened while the construction was still in full swing. So we carried out extra checks to ensure the quality. Now that the greenhouse is almost completed, except for a few details, we can work towards taking the entire 3.3 hectare into use.'
Click here to read the interview (before construction) with Hans Hendriks from 20-11-2020.
For more information:
Havecon Kassenbouw B.V.
Lorentzstraat 8
2665 JH Bleiswijk, Netherlands
Tel. +31(0)10 266 32 70
[email protected]
www.havecon.com