Montera Techniek celebrated its 50th anniversary on Saturday. The anniversary was celebrated with a reception for customers and with a barbecue with (former) colleagues in the evening. Laurens van Es, project and business unit manager, spoke on behalf of the birthday company from Pijnacker. The anecdotes, facts and figures below come from his speech.
Laurens was not even born when Montera Techniek (short for Montage elektronische regel apparatuur) was founded, as he noted at the start of his speech on Saturday. Nevertheless, he managed to flawlessly recount the company history, but not before calling co-founder and guest of honour Louis Wubben forward.
Laurens in the water technology room at Duijvestijn Tomatoes last year: "Choosing maximum flexibility in watering per tap section is something we see more and more often. (NL)"
Why does Montera have that name?
Montera emerged in 1973 from the former Van Vliet, which later changed its name to HortiMaX, which today is part of the Ridder Group. During these years, Van Vliet not only sold the climate and substrate computers of the time but also installed them itself.
Laurens speech
"When these computers began to find their way into horticultural country and so many had to be installed, too little attention was paid to further developing the computers. In order not to get in the way of that, the decision was made to split off the installation branch. What Van Vliet developed and sold, Montera installed."
Stone wool
At first, for installation, it revolved solely on rain machines, but not much later they became complete installations. In the late 1970s, co-founder Louis had a role in the rise of stone wool in horticulture. Together with several growers, extension workers and technicians, he spent months testing growing on rockwool and perfecting it. "I am sincerely proud that Montera is part of the principles of growing on rockwool which is the global standard today."
Special attention for Louis Wubben
In 1991, the name of Van Vliet Montera changed to Montera Techniek B.V. Not long after that, in 1992/1993, growers built substantially on the Baliade in Pijnacker. For Montera Techniek, this meant a jump in scale. "The company size went from 1 to 2 to 3 hectares. We were installing for several new nurseries at the same time for the first time."
Relocation
In 1993, Montera Techniek moved from Kerkweg to Ambachtsweg. The company is still located there (no. 24).
The increase in scale among growers continued. In 2002, Van Winden built an 11-hectare greenhouse and Montera Techniek was there for installation work.
2007 was also a special year. In that year, Louis retired on 10 November, after 34 years of loyal service.
Sale
2010 was a difficult year in what was also a difficult time for horticulture. Montera Techniek was up for sale. Montera ended up continuing with five people. Bosman bought the company from Pijnacker. "After that time, several people returned to the old nest," he says.
Team photo
In 2014, Bosman became Bosman Van Zaal after merging with Van Zaal. "Through this collaboration, Montera has been able to hitch a ride on further professionalisation such as the use of advanced drawing packages and machines which have given legions of additional possibilities."
Abroad
Until 2016, Montera always operated nationally. In that year, this changed with the first foreign jobs in Germany, Africa and South America, among others.
Finally then a special year, 2020. In this year, Montera took over the Sercom dealership from VNA, making the company a Sercom dealer in addition to Ridder.
And then there is 2023. That special year was celebrated on Saturday with now 20 employees (check out all the faces here). "With this group of employees, we are future-proofed and are confident of serving our customers for many years to come."
For more information:
Laurens van Es 
Montera Techniek
[email protected]
www.montera.nl