TRADE AND MARKETING Schouten focuses more on export and commerce after 75 years ten seed potato growers that have worn-out, old jump grader still go for a new one. Both in Holland and abroad. If you don’t need an enormous capacity there’s absolutely no reason at all to change over to a different, usually more expensive, grading system. Only seed potato growers who grade a great many tons for themselves or for third parties go for graders with a higher capacity than the jump grader. And we also sell those now. In the Netherlands, five grading lines with precision graders are sold every year and we sell three of those. The number of potato precision graders that we sell annually in Holland and abroad is much higher – a total of thirty. This proves the importance of these jump graders.’ You want to focus even more on export than you used to, if I look at the appointment of a new export manager. Why? (GS) ‘Because we’ve got a lot of work coming in right now. This means that we don’t have time to go and see customers across the border. That’s why we’ve brought in an export manager. Together with our current representative, he’ll try and structure the world-wide market, so they’ll each take on half the world market.’ (AS) ‘As a company, we think it important to show your face to the customer and create interpersonal communication. There’s a considerable demand for our grading lines from Eastern Europe, for example, but we’re not selling many closer to home to countries such as France. You’ll find a lot of potential as a result of the increase of seed potato growing and the export of table potatoes. We have dealers in France working for us, but we don’t go there enough ourselves. Our new sales team is there to stimulate the dealers so we’ll also be selling more machinery in that country.’ Arjan Schouten: ‘Thanks to reasonable production costs, we’ve always been able to maintain a good sales position.’ Why are you looking so much for growth in new markets? (GS) ‘Export has always been an important part of our marketing strategy. But we’ve never put a lot of energy into it. As we see the multiplication of seed potatoes gradually moving to other countries, we think it important to spend more time on the export market. But the Netherlands will always be our home market.’ Construction parts can be fitted much faster and welding work that used to take half a day is now done in two hours.’ You’re indicating that some competitors in the market have disappeared and that you’re still the only one with a jump grader. Is the demand for that machine growing or declining? (GS) ‘From the interest at shows and in advertisements, it seems that the market only wants precision and electronic graders. Our own experience is different, however. Eight out of (AS) ‘Look, we’ve reached the point now that we have to sell more. Our organisation is so well structured that we have adequate staff to take that path. We just know that we can easily make an extra turnover of 1 to 2 million euros. We’ve got the potential. Whether we produce 5 or 10 kilometres of conveyor belts, it basically doesn’t require more work. But it does give more production and turnover. And to recruit extra people to achieve that greater production is absolutely no problem right now. 6 Potato World 2012 • number 4 Pagina 5
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