The 11th Veiling Rhein-Maas Customer and Supplier Day took place on 14 January. The auction hall in Herongen was filled almost to capacity with more visitors than ever before.
Eva Kähler-Theuerkauf, President of the ‘Zentralverband Gartenbau’ (ZVG), gave the opening speech at the event. She also addressed the many current challenges facing its sector - regulatory requirements at European level, climate change, sustainability, digitalisation, a shortage of skilled workers, business closures due to a lack of succession and the necessary transformation of working models. The ZVG President has full confidence in the green sector and the many horticultural businesses, believing that these challenges can be mastered together. She concluded with a positive ‘Who, if not us?’
‘Customer and Supplier of the Year 2025’ awards
The highlight of the Customer and Supplier Day was the ‘Customer and Supplier of the Year 2025’ awards. Companies had until mid-November 2024 to submit their sustainable activities to Veiling Rhein-Maas as ‘Customer of the Year’ or ‘Supplier of the Year’. The finalists in both categories were presented at the event in short videos in which they were able to explain why they deserved the respective award.
The garden centre Famiflora, headquartered in Moeskroen, Belgium, came out on top in the ‘Customer of the Year’ category. Douwe Baert, buyer for flowers and plants, presented the company's extensive sustainability measures in his application video. These include a total of 10,000 solar panels at the various sites, a fleet of almost exclusively electric vehicles, sustainable underfloor heating at the Moeskroen site and energy generation using biomass pellets made from the garden centre's own organic waste.
The other finalists for ‘Customer of the Year’ were Garten Grewe from Rotenburg Wümme (DE) and Tuincentrum van der Spek in Zevenhuizen in the Netherlands.
Holzäckerhof in Unterpleichfeld (DE) in Bavaria, which was represented at the Customer and Supplier Day by owner and operations manager Sebastian Sauer, won the ‘Supplier of the Year’ award. As well as producing peonies, Holzäckerhof is also committed to sustainable energy production. In addition to photovoltaic systems, the farm also operates a large 2.5 megawatt biogas plant, whose waste heat is also used to heat buildings in the neighbouring village. Thanks to the biogas plant, the farm is also self-sufficient in terms of electricity. More and more alternative products are being used as input materials. In addition, flowering energy crops are being planted to replace more and more areas of maize.
The other finalists in the ‘Supplier of the Year’ category were the nursery Artmeyer from Hörstel-Riesenbeck (DE), Gartenbau Welzel from Kerken (DE) and LG Flowers from Pijnacker in the Netherlands.
”Congratulations to the Famiflora garden centre and Holzäckerhof on winning the ‘Customer of the Year’ and ‘Supplier of the Year’ awards. They impressed our guests at the Customer and Supplier Day the most with their extensive commitment to sustainability and are therefore deserving winners. Many thanks also to the other finalists and the customers and suppliers who did not make it to the final. We are all united by the common goal of continuing to promote sustainability in the green sector in as many ways as possible,” said Cees Hoekstra and Günther Esser, Managing Directors of Veiling Rhein-Maas.
Click here to watch a video of the Veiling Rhein-Maas Customer and Supplier Day 2025 to get a greater insight into the event.