40 years ago, Mentens Tree Nursery began with an extremely modest 2 ha of agricultural land. With a great deal of care and hard work, the parents of the current manager Mariëlle Mentens expanded the family firm to create the 85-ha international tree nursery that it is today. Mariëlle and her husband Bart have now taken over the day-to-day running of the business. Their key focus has been to invest in quality. Apart from the introduction of new types of plants, their decision to grow plants further apart has been key to their current success.
“Quality drives sales”, Mariëlle explains. “This simple truth is the cornerstone of our strategy.” And it is a strategy that is bearing fruit. Today, Mentens Tree Nursery supplies 14 countries in Europe and beyond.
“We have moved to wider-spaced cultivation”, Mariëlle explains. Hedging plants, for example, are grown further apart, which means that they have more space and light. When it comes to applying fertiliser, we adopt a highly targeted approach. We regularly take a soil sample from every plot. If this shows that the potassium or magnesium content is too low, then we make a very precise adjustment. We have now eliminated excessive and inefficient fertiliser application. This is more environmentally friendly, but above all, it is good for the quality of the plants”, Mariëlle explains. “Thanks to the targeted application of fertiliser, the plants grow stronger, are more disease resistant and are less prone to mildew. This also means that we can keep the use of pesticides to a minimum.”
Products
Mentens Tree Nursery cultivates some 70 different types of plant. It specialises in multi-trunk trees, solitary shrubs, large hedge plants and topiary plants such as Box, Taxus, Prunus and Osmanthus.
“Because demand is so strong, we have planted a large number of additional evergreen multi-trunk trees over the past two years”, Mariëlle Mentens adds.
Export
70% of turnover comes from export. Lorries depart from the family firm in Meeuwen-Gruitrode to deliver to customers in no fewer than 14 countries, including Turkey, Uzbekistan and Russia. “We maintain contact with our Turkish customers ourselves through an annual trade fair in Istanbul. For Uzbekistan and Russia, we work through an intermediary.” Mariëlle also has some news to share: last week saw the dispatch of the company’s very first order to Norway. “Four years ago, someone from Norway came to look around, but it is only now that the visit has led to an order. This shows that it may take time, but in the end it pays dividends”, Mariëlle laughs.
Mariëlle has a clear answer to the question of what makes Mentens Tree Nursery truly stand out. “Apart from the quality of our plants, we are also known for our special sizes. For example, we have large quantities of 2.2 metre-diameter box balls. Sizes like this are not readily available. Or there’s our collection of 4-metre high spiral-shaped box, very compact plants with a 2-metre average base size, and so on.”
Future
“Over the past few years, we have focused strongly on improving the quality of the plants. In the short term, we will continue to invest in this by implementing the highest level of quality assurance on every site.”
Also high on the list of priorities is to expand the agricultural land to 100 ha. “As we now cultivate our plants further apart, we need more agricultural land. The goal is to expand to a maximum of 100 ha, because we do not want quality to become subsidiary to surface area.” Within five years, Mariëlle and Bart also want to invest in new offices and warehouses.
As regards exports, the company is focusing on its existing markets. “We target landscape architects, large garden contractors and large garden centres in the countries to which we currently export. We can see considerable growth potential there, and it is this that we want to capitalise on first and foremost.”
Mentens in figures
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Employees: 16
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Land area: 85 ha openfield cultivation
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Export: 70% of turnover
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25% The Netherlands
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15% Switzerland
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10% Ireland
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7-8% Great Britain
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7-8% Germany
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7-8% Luxembourg
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Other: Poland, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Russia
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Future:
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Implementation of the highest level of quality assurance, and expansion of agricultural land from 85 ha to 100 ha.
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