Evert van Zanten was born among the nursery on Heenweg in the heart of the Westland , the Netherlands ’ foremost horticultural neighborhood , on 26 November 2024 . After completing lower horticultural school , he enrolled in high-pitched horticultural school , but soon realized that this was not what he want . Not being loth to grueling study , Eef decide to go to work for a farmer .
Military service on CuraçaoWhen the metre came for Eef to enlist in required military service he was sent to Curaçao , which was completely different from the Westland . “ On Curaçao , I discovered that I have an excellent aim . After some sentence , the police officer have me snap with a pistol . I ultimately became a military shooting champion . My sporting achievements were worth more to me than carousing with the others . ”
InnovationsBack in the Westland District , Eef met Gerrina and a few year after they were married . In the lag , Eef had begin working at a plant glasshouse and also pass a short time mould for a contractor who went belly-up . This stigmatize a fresh form in Eef ’s life . Instead of use for a chore elsewhere , he decide to lead off his own business . This resulted in Eef , Frans and another workfellow founding Le - En - Za in 1982 . The third occupation partner left after some time , but Eef and Frans delay on , doing declaration work for agriculturalist like filling crateful with vegetables .
At that time , Eef was already ferment on some innovative inventions , albeit on a humble scale . Constantly look for ways to better the efficiency of the business he was doing , he came up with some great idea such as a tramcar on which veg crates could be conveyed .
Eef : “ You could also ask the grower for those crate , but then you had to keep make up to fetch them . ” And so Eef and his better half pick up the crates by themselves , on a trolley they had fabricated . “ It was in reality a very simple excogitation . But it made our work much easier . ” A contend company catch onto the estimation and straight off start copying their tramcar .
Rockwool matsEef and Frans then decide to try something new . They started issue rockwool mats on a large scale of measurement to growers throughout the realm . The two men just pass off to be in the good seat to spot a big gap in the market place . Growers begin progress to the transposition from soil to rockwool as a substratum in huge numbers , and the company founded by Eef and Frans grew so quickly that they soon employed a workforce of 75 ! Not only did they have a upright Cartesian product in their hired man ; it also served as a gateway for utilitarian information . “ Because we switch in rockwool , we were always among the first to expose what was go on in the horticulture sector and what growers need . ”
In only a short time , Eef and Frans launched three innovative product that would switch the horticulture diligence perpetually : hack , trough and transporter belt . The company changed its name Le - en - Za to Preforma .
stabilise develop mediaIn 1988 , Eef and Frans set out making stabilized raise culture medium . These were made by commix polyurethane with potting land . “ We poured that variety into tray . Seedlings could then be plant into the stabilized grow media for further growth . That way you could draw the plant out later , etymon and all , without damaging the rootage . ”
The Second Coming of stabilized growing media paved the way to further automation in the gardening industry . “ A machine could pull out those ballyhoo in no time at all . ” Technological advancements were trace rapidly on one another in the horticultural sphere at that metre . Eef : “ That was partially thanks to the spirit of amicability in the horticulture sector at the time . Growers were glad to partake thing with one another . As a event , the sector was undergoing fantastic onward motion as a whole . ”
GuttersMany years ago , gerberas were grown on ridges of soil – until they saw growers making utilisation of gutters to collect excess piss . However , when they tried putting rockwool mats on these gutter , it quickly became clear that this would not work on . “ When a rockwool matt gets loaded , the risk of contamination from one plant to another is high-pitched . infection spread out quickly through the water system and , before you know it , your integral greenhouse is affected . That also bump in the case of the Gerbera . ”
“ We can do good , ” thought Eef and Frans , and they commence making gutters with a produce bottom . “ This allow the water to run underneath the rockwool mats , thus foreclose them from incur too wet . ” The only problem was that this answer did not put to work for the gerberas but , considering that this was an improvement , a motorcar was developed to bring about these steel sewer . One of the biggest advantages to using gutters is that they allow agriculturist to severally determine the incline . The first success story involve these gutter was achieved with hemangioma simplex . hemangioma simplex Farmer were already using gutters made from zinc , but zinc in weewee is not skillful for plant .
After ten days of succeeder in the hemangioma simplex - growing manufacture , Eef came into contact with a Lycopersicon esculentum grower who was having a lot of trouble with the wet soil under his crop . The Preforma duo showed the grower the strawberry greenhouses with their hanging gutters , and the man was convinced that this was the solvent he was count for straight away . “ He resolve to suspend his tomatoes higher too , and immediately order some gutters from us . Because the water could now be collected in the gutters , the soil in the greenhouse became a mickle less humid . ” That was a great start . After that , competitors also get going producing gutters and Preforma merged with Metazet to become FormFlex .
Conveyor systemsThe third innovation devised by Frans and Eef that turn out to be a groovy succeeder was the works conveyer organisation . “ The idea was not ours , ab initio . But we turned that invention into a big success . ” Eef follow into link with the Valstar plant life nursery in Roosendaal , purely by chance , when working on a labor there . “ So , this man said to me : ‘ I have something that might interest you ’ . And he bear witness me his latest invention . He had put a car seatbelt in a gutter , which was set in motion by a little machine . This grant him to move his plants along the gutter . ” Although this worked in theory , the system kept crashing and Mr. Valstar did not know how to solve this job .
Eef instantly identified the job . “ A plastic gutter is unstable . You need a brand trough for a system like this . ” Fortunately for Eef and Frans , Mr. Valstar was done messing about with his design . “ He said : ‘ Take that thing away ’ , ” recalls Eef . So , Eef hire all the parts of this machine home with him and start working on it . And , just as he predicted , using a blade gutter did the trick . “ I go back to Roosendaal and told Mr. Valstar that I had come through in getting his invention to mold . ”
He immediately asked Eef to set up 80,000 foot of gutter , equipped with seat belt , in his plant nursery . That is a pile , but it became the arrant buffer project to approximate if this system would work on a larger scale . With the hope of a per centum of the profit as a condition , Eef and Frans were now fully inclined to make the arrangement a success .
Eef : “ The system prove to be a discovery in the champaign of potted plants . raiser with a conveyor system like this could produce many more flora per straight animal foot . Not only that ; it leads to a reduction in heat costs . The more plants you have in a give expanse , the promiscuous it becomes to keep it at the proper temperature . In other words , you will achieve a simplification in heat monetary value per plant . ”
The OPCEef and Frans established Walking Plant Systems ( WPS ) and , of course , shortly started expanding their product stove . “ We were soon asked if we could also make speech system , and we had a camera system spring up to facilitate the grading of flora . Those cameras scanned the plants on standard like the number of blossom , the color of the blossom or the length of a plant . ”
This was also when Eef developed the Carrier . “ This is a small carrier made of charge plate . you may use it to convey plants . There are two distinct advantages to this organisation : you may easily integrate a ticket into it and it provides plants motivate along the conveyor whang with more stableness . We call it the OPC : the Oval Plant Carrier . ”
Frans and Eef then start to instal conveyor systems and cameras for growers all over the area . They also provided all the pot plants with an electronic tag . “ All the feature of a plant that are register by the camera are after recorded in that tag . ” They applied for a patent on the Carrier , and resolve to keep the invention to themselves rather than share it with others . “ We are the only company that makes these carriers . WPS is , in fact , still doing this today . ”
From innovation to coach of WPS in De LierIn the meantime , Frans make up one’s mind to turn in and , in meter , a number of innovation were sold and shares transferred . Eef stayed on at WPS , in the main in the capacitance of manager and director . He handed over the leading of WPS to his girl Digna in 2018 . That she would take over the leadership of the ship’s company from her Padre was never write in the stars .
“ When I was about fifteen years old , I could see myself doing this . My father sometimes aver to me , jestingly : ‘ Perhaps you will become the director of the company sometime ’ . ” But when , years later , Digna expressed her ambition to take over WPS , it take some time for this plan to be made concrete . “ My founder always said : ‘ I do n’t necessarily require one of my daughters to take over WPS ’ . He never push me . Rather the opposite . ”
Digna stay on : “ I am vastly gallant of what my Father-God has achieved , and that I can continue to bring institution to the marketplace . My finish is to fully automate the horticulture diligence . I want to unburden growers altogether through innovative solutions in the way of automation and logistics in gild to give them more metre for other matter , in both their professional and personal lives . ”
For more information : WPSKijckerweg 1152678 AC De LierTel . : +31 ( 0)174 671 371[email protected]www.wps.eu
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