Dear Customers and Business Partners,

The coronavirus pandemic has changed our lives. Political leaders are cautiously exploring avenues they hope will return us to normality. A careful balance is required between protecting the population from COVID-19 on the one hand, and economic stability on the other.

Many companies are being pushed to their limits at this time – including those in commercial horticulture. We hope the burdens you and your business are facing remain manageable, leaving all future options open. A strong partner, we are continuing to stand shoulder to shoulder with you.

Since the end of February, our crisis management team has been working every single day to protect our workforce from infection. Full substrate production operations are ensured. Our sales and advisory teams are still there for you. And we are engaging with policymakers to maintain free movement of goods in the commercial-horticulture sector.

Other topics were originally planned for this first edition of our Newsletter. But now, of course, it is the coronavirus crisis that is dominating content. We are currently monitoring developments that may point the way to a new future for horticulture. As we’re keen to share these experiences and start a conversation with you, we’d like to hear your views – please write to us at .

We wish you, your families and your company all the best. Stay healthy and safe!

Best wishes,

Moritz Böcking, Bernd Wehming
Managing Directors of the Klasmann-Deilmann Group

“We do not belong in a home office,” says Linda Rakers. A Technical Consultant at Klasmann-Deilmann, she is currently working from home because of the coronavirus pandemic. “We belong beside our customers at their nurseries.” The impatience felt by the sales and advisory teams is tangible.

The teams have learned that providing advice over the phone can also be successful. “I find it easier if the callers can see each other,” Linda Rakers reports. There are now lots of different options for video conferences. “The advantage is that it makes you closer to the person on the other end of the line,” she says. “You can look at each other. Alternatively, you can point your smartphone camera at the plants or inside the greenhouse.”

Our sales teams and technical consultants are currently sharing the same experience as other people all over the world: modern IT can help to enable close cooperation, even at a distance. “It still feels strange to use digital sales methods for analogue growing media,” admits Linda Rakers. “For many growers, this also feels unusual, but there is currently a noticeable increase in acceptance.”

That’s why Klasmann-Deilmann has launched a webshop in which each customer can keep his or her own account. All it takes is a few clicks to order the required growing medium. The customer’s personal order history makes it even easier. Linda Rakers is convinced that solutions such as the webshop would have become the norm sooner or later. “But now we can put them in place even faster.”

Please ask your Klasmann-Deilmann contact about access to the webshop.

The coronavirus pandemic is boosting acceptance of digital solutions. Klasmann-Deilmann‘s Innovation Team in the Netherlands are developing applications to take horticulture into the future. Sjors Beijer has played a central role in moving the Log & Solve online platform forward.

“Both Klasmann-Deilmann’s customers and employees can jointly use the Log & Solve software,” explains Beijer. “It collects and structures data from the horticultural companies. Information is bundled, evaluated and then presented in a graphic overview.

Log & Solve helps to raise the efficiency of the chosen growing method and to reduce failure rates:

• The basic version takes into account analyses of substrate and water samples, notes about cultivation activities, observations of the plant crops, photos and much more besides;
• In the extended version, modern sensors continuously measure the nutrient content and moisture of the growing media directly in the plant pot and automatically generate status reports;
• Data that is already collected in the greenhouse on air humidity, temperature and light levels can also be included.

On this basis, any unwelcome developments can be identified faster and thus averted. Questions and problems are posted via Log & Solve straight to the Klasmann-Deilmann consultants who, referring to these data, can provide prompt advice. “The whole system works just as quickly with a smartphone as it does on a computer,” Sjors Beijer says. “The customer and the consultant can be in different places and discuss the processes taking place at the nursery.”

It remains to be seen whether the coronavirus will change the world. “We assume that digitisation will get a massive boost – in horticulture as elsewhere.”

If you would like to know more, visit www.logandsolve.net/en or e-mail Sjors Beijer and Co-Anne van Waaij at .

Despite the coronavirus: #stayinghome is not an option for Klasmann-Deilmann’s production operations. Employees working on the peatland railway, loading vehicles or the mixing facility are indispensable. Bas Treffers, Head of Production at Klasmann-Deilmann Benelux at the port of Rotterdam, emphasises: “Our colleagues are doing overtime to ensure that the production of growing media continues at its usual pace. They are keeping not only our business going, but also the commercial horticultural sector as a whole.”

By way of response to the coronavirus pandemic, strict hygiene rules are in force at production plants: employees have been instructed to disinfect items such as keyboards, touchscreens and steering wheels after use. Face masks and contactless thermometers have been ordered. Breaks are taken in different rooms. “Separating the early, late and night shifts was important in order to reduce the risk of the infection spreading within the plant,” says Michael Perschl, Managing Director of the two companies ‘Produktionsgesellschaft Nord’ and ‘Produktionsgesellschaft Süd’ in Germany. In the dispatch departments, too, our own staff are kept separate from truck drivers. “The bottom line is that this even protects the horticultural companies that the drivers are heading for,” Perschl adds. “We are breaking the chains of infection wherever possible.”

“In Schiedam,” says Bas Treffers, “we keep a list of the different roles that can be assumed by our employees. Their main role is, of course, the function that they normally have. But they have additionally been assigned to a second and third role as stand-in: if there is a bottleneck somewhere, we can quickly appoint someone to help out.”

The Klasmann-Deilmann Coronavirus Crisis Management Team holds a video conference every day. “Reviewing the situation at our production plants takes priority,” states Managing Director Moritz Böcking. “They make the difference between whether or not we can continue to supply our customers, whether or not things keep running smoothly at Klasmann-Deilmann. Despite all these challenges, we know that our colleagues come through time and again. That is something for which we are extremely grateful.”

Horticultural companies are of crucial importance for the food industry. Growing media thus play a key role in the cultivation of vegetable young plants and other crops. We advocate that the transport of growing media remains permissible during the coronavirus crisis. This letter was sent to politicians and crisis management teams in many countries.

Dear Sir or Madam,

The coronavirus is spreading throughout the world. Klasmann-Deilmann has therefore set up a crisis management team to protect its own staff, its customers and business partners against infection with COVID-19. At the same time, we are doing everything in our power to safeguard supplies to our customers in the commercial horticultural sector.

Our growing media are essential for growing vegetables, soft fruits, herbs and mushrooms. Although it may not be evident from the finished vitamin-rich products, most of them were grown in a substrate, especially as young plants.

The development of the pandemic is leading to restrictions in the movement of goods. Governments are, however, taking great care to ensure reliable supplies of food, medicines and other vital goods to the populations in their countries. And so we are appealing directly to you.

When further restrictions are imposed upon the movement of goods, we urge you to advocate that the transport of growing media inside Germany as well as to and from neighbouring countries remains permissible, as countless vegetable growers in Germany and throughout Europe would otherwise no longer be able to maintain production.

It is crucial for our operations that suppliers can deliver the raw materials that are essential for the production of growing media to us at all times. These materials include peat, wood fibres, lime, fertilisers, sand, clay, etc. And it is crucial for our operations that we can participate in the free movement of goods inside the European Union and beyond its borders at all times. Growing media count as indispensable inputs to the supply chain of the food industry.

You know that Klasmann-Deilmann GmbH is a responsible business enterprise to which sustainable development matters. As well as protecting our workforce and customers, we believe we are under an obligation to safeguard our production and delivery capacities, which are ultimately indispensable for supplying the population with healthy foodstuffs.

We would greatly appreciate your support for our endeavours and your commitment to the free movement of goods for our raw materials and finished growing media. Please forward this letter to the competent crisis management teams in your own country.

Yours faithfully,

Managing Directors of the Klasmann-Deilmann Group
Moritz Böcking           Bernd Wehming

K-Newsery* is the digital newsletter published by Klasmann-Deilmann. Topics covered will range from feeding the world population, climate change and the use of peat in growing media right through to innovative ideas for commercial horticulture. Our newsletter looks ahead and tries to identify the contribution we can make to our industry. It will inform you about our own experience as the leading producer of growing media and also feature the independent opinions of recognised experts from all over the world.

The following are just some of the topics we are preparing for upcoming issues of K-Newsery:

• Log & Solve: we explain the advantages of the digital platform for taking horticulture into the future;
• The future of commercial horticulture: we look at potential scenarios of how horticulture could change after the coronavirus crisis;
• Alternative raw materials: we present our new growing media which contain a high percentage of wood fibres, green compost and/or coir and still enable reliable crop management.

If you would like to hear more about a certain topic or share a valuable experience of your own, please send an e-mail to or tell your contact at Klasmann-Deilmann about it.

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* K-Newsery is, of course, a made-up word. The “K” stands for our logo. “Newsery” is a mixture of “news” and “nursery”.