In horticulture Corona has hit hard. Many horticulturists were forced to throw away plants. One would think that larger investments would be put on the back burner. Nevertheless, we see another trend at WPS: after having dealt with the first blow, it turned out that the demand among horticulturalists for automation was increasing.
Managing Director WPS Digna van Zanten: "Scarcity of labor continues to increase, which also increases opportunities in automation. Corona has increased the awareness that labor is a vulnerable factor in business operations, and in addition, the "pain" of organizing labor through corona measures, among others, is becoming even greater. Organizing labor is time consuming and costs a lot of energy. Another positive point that has led to an increase in requests is the fact that most potted plant growers already have a turnover in line with their 2020 budget or above, which means that there is also room to invest in automation. Corona ensures that people spend more time at home and therefore invest more in plants. We also see this movement in Europe, Canada and the United States. In addition, WPS focuses on the top leaders of the potted plants market who are always going forward, even in uncertain times. We expect an increase in requestst in the last quarter and look forward to the future with great confidence!
Less dependent on personnel
The main reason for this is that many horticulturists have come to realise that too much dependence on personnel endangers their business operations. Because of Corona, employees stayed at home, making it much more difficult to get the plants out of the greenhouse.
Social distancing
In addition, on the work floor social distance had to be taken into account. Not always feasible when growing plants. By automating processes you need less personnel and keeping distance and hygiene is much less of a challenge.
At WPS, we have therefore noticed an increase in interest in our automation solutions for internal transport and delivery: fewer actions are required and there are fewer contact moments between people. An additional advantage is that automation also brings peace of mind and overview into the greenhouse.