The Plantarium and GROEN-Direkt fairs are joining forces to create a single event for European garden plant retailers comprising a complete range of products, lots of novelties and loads of inspiration. The first edition is scheduled to take place on 24 and 25 August 2022.
At the start of 2022 the owners of the Plantarium and GROEN-Direkt fairs are establishing a new organisation intended to create a single complete event for European garden plant retailers. The past two years, Covid regulations forced Plantarium to cancel its fairs and GROEN-Direkt to take various measures such as abolishing its Product Promotion Plaza. In the days before the pandemic the two fairs were already organised side by side under the same roof. Now the time has come for the next step in cooperation.
After consulting various stakeholders the two fairs’ owners arrived at the conclusion that the only logical way forwards is to join forces. The first edition of the new fair is scheduled to take place on 24 and 25 August 2022 at the International Trade Centre in Hazerswoude/Boskoop (the Netherlands), after its official opening in the evening of Tuesday 23 August. GROEN-Direkt will continue to organise its traditional successful trolley and layer fairs under its own flag, but now of course to coincide with this new event. The aim for the coming years is to develop Plantarium|GROEN-Direkt into an event that is organised several times a year.
The Covid pandemic has put an awful lot of pressure on the events industry all over the world. It forced Plantarium to keep its doors closed the past two years, and it has had an impact on the ratio of GROEN-Direkt’s digital and physical sales. These and other changing market conditions urged the Stichting Vakbeurs voor de Boomkwekerij (SVB; Nursery Trade Fair Foundation) and GROEN-Direkt BV to get together to discuss the future of their events after consulting various market parties such as growers (fair exhibitors) and retailers (visitors). Both parties agree that what the Netherlands really needs is a single complete event for the outdoor green sector with an international appeal, with the possibility of organising presentations of novelties and giving visitors opportunities to meet one another physically several times a year. It was concluded that the best way forward would be as a single fair and a single organisation, enabling growers to participate with a single fair stand. GROEN-Direkt’s shareholders and the board of the Stichting Vakbeurs voor de Boomkwekerij unanimously approved the presented plans.
Jan de Vries, owner of Boot&Dart and chairman of the Stichting Vakbeurs: “The past few months, delegates of our board have had relatively peaceful, very intensive talks with GROEN-Direkt’s managers, which resulted in a wonderful solution for the two fairs, and also for our sector: we’re going to join forces and face the future together! Talks like this are always a bit awkward at first, but ours soon became more confident as both parties came to realise that we can mean so much more for our sector by working together. The world is of course constantly changing, forcing us to become ever more digital to keep up with developments, but if there is one lesson that can be learned from the present situation it’s that there’s still a need for physical contact, possibly even more so than ever before. We are very confident that all the plans we have made and the organisation we are going to create will enable us to organise a series of high-quality events in the years to come.”
Taaf Rosbergen, managing-director of GROEN-Direkt BV: “What few people would ever have considered possible is now actually going to happen: Plantarium and GROEN-Direkt are to continue as a single fair! Together we are going to create loads of room for stands – for growers, their suppliers and stock producers, but also for gardening hardware suppliers. This way we are going to organise the most complete and attractive possible fairs for our most important target group: garden plant buyers from within and outside the Netherlands. In addition to these fairs we will of course also still be organising our traditional trolley and layer presentations, where growers offer their ranges of products and transactions can be directly made. I think these future events will prove to be successful mixtures of business, inspiration and knowledge transfer. The talks with the Stichting Vakbeurs were very pleasant and I’m really looking forward to our future cooperation.”
About Plantarium|GROEN-Direkt
The new fair will be called Plantarium|GROEN-Direkt. The first edition of 2022 will take place on 24 and 25 August, after the official opening in the evening of Tuesday 23 August. On the 23rd the fair will only be open in the evening. On Wednesday the 24th and Thursday the 25th it will be open all day on both days. It will be held in and around the GROEN-Direkt hall at the International Trade Centre in Hazerswoude/Boskoop, the Netherlands.
