Search our website
Search our website
CloseForm

Stay tuned! Subscribe to our monthly newsletter:

Customercase: “Good employees are scarce!”

Back to overview

'Good employees are scarce!'

At the end of the summer, we are guests at Pico Bello Hortensia for this customer case. Co-owner Paul Kouwenhoven receives us at the largest of the two hydrangea cultivation locations in Bleiswijk. At this 6-hectare location, together with the new location, which is a little further away, a total of 10 hectares of hydrangeas are grown, good for almost 2.3 million stems, consisting of 22 cultivars, which can also be cut in 3 colours. Family business par excellence

Furora Hortensia at Pico Bello hydrangea!

Paul is our interviewee today and he doesn’t mince his words. Pico Bello is a real family business, because in addition to Paul, son Richard works in the company. What many probably don’t know is that Richard is the founder of Pico Bello. He started the company 9 years ago, and over time his father Paul joined as a partner. In the meantime, son and brother Bob also fully participate in the company. And more in the background, but just as important and the connecting factor, wife and mother Yvonne Kouwenhoven.
Nice detail: the 3rd son of Paul & Yvonne has also been infected by the hydrangea craze within the Kouwenhoven family and earns his money as a hydrangea cultivation advisor.
Pico Bello is more than just a name. Pico stands for small and Bello for beautiful. “Beautiful down to the last detail! You have to uphold your company name!” says Paul. The Italian hand gesture that goes with it is the starting point for the company logo.

Is one of your biggest frustrations staff…..
the Furora from Bercomex is the solution!

Good people are scarce!

Hydrangeas can be cut from April to early December. “We are in the middle of the peak of the season,” says Paul and he continues: “This runs from the 4th week of August to the 2nd week of October, when most fresh hydrangeas are delivered. During this peak period, many people are needed to cut flowers 6 days a week. Finding good people to neatly bunch these stems is extremely difficult. In addition, the costs of good staff are skyrocketing. By working with the Furora, we need fewer people and those we do need, with less capacity.”

Paul: “The Furora bunches the hydrangeas with two fingers in its nose”

With the arrival of the Furora, the worst personnel problems are a thing of the past.
Paul no longer wants to lose the Furora. “You start to prepare yourself for it,” he says. Since the arrival of the Furora, bunching is no longer Paul’s biggest concern. The flowers are placed on the Furora’s supply flower line, where Paul spends most of the day himself. It gives him the opportunity to have some of the lesser stems cut shorter, which means he can do an extra ‘pre-selection’.

With the Furora, a maximum of 4,000 stems per hour are processed for a larger variety. But on average, the Furora processes 2,500–3,000 stems per hour. It sorts by bulb diameter and stem length. The flowers are then collected in buffer belts in Quadro stations on a preset number of stems. When the number of bunches per barrel is in the buffer, these bunches are bunched by the bunch-binding-binding station and transported to the collection belt. A colour bar on the collection belt shows the correct sortings. The Furora offers 9 sorting exits, 8 of which are bunched and a 9th that sorts unbunched. This way, Pico Bello is able to get all stems to the desired sorting in one go.

At least 4 people saved

The Furora takes over many tasks that were previously performed by employees. No more tables where flowers are sorted and bunched. This already saves four people in the entire processing of our hydrangeas and this could even be more.

“Because we have had the 2nd location since this season and we also process the flowers from that garden at the main location, it is still a bit difficult to estimate,” says Paul. The staff savings are therefore probably even higher.

Barry, the labradoodle who always sits in the chair next to Paul and listens to the interesting stories that Paul always manages to tell.

It took a while…

Pico Bello already approached Bercomex in 2018 with the question whether it was possible to process hydrangeas with the Furora. The Furora and Bercomex were not ready for this at the time, until the talks were restarted in mid-2019. Then it turned out that the further developments of the Furora made it possible to process hydrangeas. “Fortunately, everything went quickly and the installation of the system could start in April,” says Paul enthusiastically.

Installation by Invaro Services & Supplies

Invaro Services & Supplies is the service partner of Bercomex and in that capacity provides the installation, service and maintenance of all Bercomex machines. The installation was carried out by lead mechanic René, a ‘world guy’, as Paul nicely describes him. The installation went very smoothly and the collaboration with René was particularly pleasant.
And then you have to start working with it! Learning to work with a machine of this size is a must. This takes time and patience. We couldn’t handle our smartphone from day 1 either! Right?
Finally
Unfortunately, we (Pico Bello and Bercomex) have not yet been able to show the installation to the general public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are eager to do so. If you would like to come and have a look, please contact us!

Furora Hydrangea

  • Vision Technology

    Various cameras analyze the Hydrangea

  • Quadro bunching station

    Full batch per barrel in bunching station

  • Uniform bunching result

    Uniform bunches in length and ball diameter
See all photo's

Benefits of the Furora Hydrangea

Significant savings on labor costs

The productivity per person increases due to the fully automatic bunching system. Individual bunchers are unnecessary. The Furora Hortensia sorts and bunches the Hydrangeas fully automatically according to the preset bunch specifications. Depending on the type or time of year, 3 - 4 employees process the Hydrangeas with the Furora Nova. This makes it easier to exchange people between the shed and the greenhouse.

Uniform bunching through advanced vision technology

The Furora Vision module assesses the individual Hydrangea on bud diameter, stem length, stem thickness and if desired also on colour parameters. This results in uniformity of each bunch according to the preset criteria per bunch station.

Quadro bunching stations for multiple sortings at the same time

Two Quadro bunching stations can bunch 8 sortings. The number of sorted stems first comes per bunch in the buffer belt. This ensures batches the size of a container. This allows a container to be filled directly from the collection belt. The Quadro bunching station forms the bunches in the bunch-binding module with the CRM binder. The bunch is formed vertically and then put away on the collection belt.

Faster process due to fully automatic system

The flowers are placed directly from the picking trolley onto the conveyor belt. The stems are fed into the singulator at maximum length using the pre-processing unit. This singulates each stem for individual processing. All this at a speed varying from 2,500 to 3,000 stems per hour. For larger batches, a higher number is possible due to less changeover time.

Would you like to view the Furora Hydrangea near you?

    Would you like to know if this machine suits your situation?

    Please contact us:

    Piet Stroet

    Call +31 (0)229 502 150
    or send an email to:
    sales@bercomex.com

    Share this solution:

    Stay tuned! Subscribe to our monthly newsletter: