Tree nursery Willaert is a total partner where professional clients can find any green product a garden needs in its clearly organised range. Willaert’s range of products is aimed at garden landscaping, garden centres and public authorities; it has an extensive Cash & Carry. Logistical ease of use for the client is pivotal; efficiency and environmental awareness form two important cornerstones.
‘We market anything that grows and flowers in the garden. With over 30 years of know-how and experience, we offer more than 5000 different varieties. Our motivation is to serve the entire gardening sector.’ Rudy and Els Vannevel – Willaert, business managers
A founder with a passion for plants
In 1964, Noël Willaert started a modest vegetable farm in Roeselare. He soon specialised in growing plants. At the beginning of the nineteen nineties, Noël Willaert definitively became a professional tree nursery. By setting up a commercial nursery with a Cash & Carry, he came up with a completely new concept, aimed only at the professional market. ‘A driven man, Noël inspired his people,’ states son-in-law Rudy Vannevel. In 1999 he took over the company together with his wife Els Willaert. ‘Together with our team we are continuing to develop the life’s work of founder Noël.’
About the company
‘Tree nursery Willaert is a trading platform for professionals, ranging from garden landscaping and garden centres to public authorities, focussing on a well-organised Cash & Carry. We receive our clients in Roeselare at a site that is 12 ha. Since 2009 we have had a second branch in Opglabbeek, that is another 1 ha’, Rudy Vannevel summarises.
Products
‘We want to offer our clients a complete range, from the smallest plant to the most impressive tree’, Rudy Vannevel commences. ‘That is why we call on a fixed network of international growers for our range of plants. All of them are professionals whom we’ve selected ourselves and who guarantee the best plants. Together, they represent over 90 ha worth of production. Our range includes shrubs, hedge plants and conifers both in containers and in the ground. In addition, we also have many ground-cover plants, perennials and roses. And we purchase whatever our partner producers do not offer to have the broadest possible range of products.’
Logistical ease of use
‘We’ve organised our company in such a way that our clients can select the plants they need in an efficient way. Thus, our range of around 3000 varieties are carefully arranged in alphabetical order, from perennials to heavier trees. And in our Cash & Carry department, our clients can use an electric cart to easily get around our 12-hectare site,’ says Rudy Vannevel.
Sustainability
Forward thinking and sustainability are extremely important cornerstones for tree nursery Willaert. In 2010, the company succeeded in obtaining the MPS Florimark label, an award for sustainable business. Rudy Vannevel illustrates their care for the environment with a few concrete examples in the area of saving energy, water and waste management and other logistical measures: ’Our offices are as well insulated as possible. We use timers and sensors to ensure that lights do not remain on for nothing. Naturally we also recover water and we have an 11,000 m³ collection basin for rainwater. For our packaging material we opt for packaging that can be re-used multiple times and we recently started using biodegradable pots for a good deal of our P7 pots. In addition, our logistics system is efficiently organised and our carts meet the Euro 6 emission standards. And all the carts we have at our Cash & Carry are electric. Finally, we also invest in biodiversity around the company itself. Thus, we recently created an 8 m-wide bee and butterfly-friendly around the company and car park’, concludes Rudy Vannevel.
Company in figures
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Employees:
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2 managers
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90 permanent workers
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10 seasonal labourers
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Company surface area:
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10 ha in open air
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1 ha glasshouses
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1 ha warehouses
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Export: 60 % of the turnover:
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53 % France
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40 % Belgium
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7 % other
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Products:
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3000 varieties
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8000 references
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