Rimbaut is a tree nursery that focuses on exporting with a wide range of products cultivated outdoors and in containers. The company has a large network so that customers can buy not only its own products but also specialities grown by other producers.
‘We are strong in offering our customer a complete service: we look for very specific plants and offer top-quality products.’
Three generations
Rimbaut tree nursery was founded in 1950 by Sylvain Rimbaut. In 1985, his two sons Freddy and Jacques founded B.V.B.A. Rimbaut en Zonen. And in the meantime Peter, Jacques’s son, has also joined the company. So continuity is assured.
Outdoor and container cultivation
‘Our nursery covers 30 ha of outdoor cultivation and 3 ha cultivation in containers. We grow a wide range of trees, fruit-bearing plants, roses, ornamental shrubs, hedge plants, conifers, box, yew and holm oak outside in the ground. We are also known for our premium-quality, different types of conifer in large sizes,’ emphasises Peter. ‘Our nursery outside has increasingly evolved into a nursery for avenue trees where we apply a greater distance between the plants. In that way we achieve a better quality of tree and facilitate mechanised lifting.’
‘In addition, we use our container fields to grow a wide range of amongst other things ornamental shrubs, conifers, climbing plants and heathland plants,’ Peter summarises. ‘We opt for large pots, which helps us to guarantee high-quality products.
Respect for the environment
‘Outdoor production is by definition very ecologically sound production. We have invested in the right machines that make it possible for us to mechanise our weed control for 90%. As a result, our use of pesticides is very low and our products undergo a strict audit by the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, the FASFC, for quarantine organisms,’ says Peter.
One stop shopping
‘We focus strongly on export; our customers are mainly wholesalers, large garden planners and their suppliers. We offer them the service that they can buy everything in one place. And we can do that thanks to our central location in Flanders’ main tree nursery region and our good contacts with the more than 100 companies in the region,’ Peter informs us. ‘And as a member of the Boweco cooperative, we share strong sales and logistics, whilst we can continue to focus on cultivation and the quality of our products,’ Peter concludes.
Company in figures
- Employees:
- 3 managers
- 3 permanent employees
- 2 occasional helpers
- Company surface area:
- 30 ha terrain outside
- 3 ha container fields outside
- Export: 75 % of the turnover
- 25% France
- 25% Germany & Austria
- 25% Netherlands
- 25% domestic market and other export destinations
