We have grown by staying small

As competition in the Dutch greenhouse construction market intensifies and prices come under pressure, Ton Frensch, Marcel Frensch, and Tim Zonneveld are charting a different course, one centered on complex projects, service, and long-term customer relationships.

© VDF Greenhouses

New generation
Ton Frensch started the company in 1999 together with Willem van Dorssen. When Willem retired in 2019, Ton continued on his own. Not long after, Marcel Frensch joined the company. “I came from a completely different background,” Marcel says. “I had little experience but a strong interest in greenhouse construction. I picked it up quickly, and eventually we started looking at how we could continue running the company together.”

The search for further succession led the company to look for someone who would fit well with its culture and way of working. Tim Zonneveld came into the picture through his previous experience in greenhouse construction. “We spent a long time just having coffee together first,” Tim recalls. “Simply to see if there was a click, how we saw things, how we worked. And it clicked.”

After a period of working together, the three decided to move forward as partners, giving Marcel and Tim an important role in the next phase of the company.

New look
The arrival of the new generation also brought a desire for a fresh look. Van Dorssen & Frensch BV remains the company’s legal name, but externally it now operates as VDF Greenhouses.

“Ton and Willem carried the name Van Dorssen & Frensch BV for many years,” Marcel says. “We liked the idea of having something more of our own and giving everything a fresh look.” According to the partners, the choice of VDF was not a break with the past, the letters were already part of the existing name, but was meant to preserve recognition, including among international customers.

Switzerland
A significant part of the company’s history lies in Switzerland, where Ton has been active for decades and has built an extensive network. “I have customers we’ve now built for twelve or thirteen times,” he says.

These long-term relationships are, according to the three partners, characteristic of how they work. When traveling to Switzerland for one customer, they typically visit several others along the way. “If we need to be somewhere for one customer, we’ll often stop by three, four, or five others just to show our face,” Tim explains.

That contact goes beyond new construction alone. Customers also call for service, parts, expansions, or advice on their next step. According to VDF, Swiss horticulture differs from the Dutch sector in several respects. Companies there often combine open-field cultivation with greenhouse growing, and expansions tend to happen in stages. “The customer we’re talking about didn’t build one huge greenhouse all at once,” Tim says. “He’s added 2,500 or 5,000 square meters at a time, several times over.”

Complex projects
VDF does not focus exclusively on large new-build projects. According to the partners, projects that require more customization suit the organization particularly well. “Our strength lies somewhat in smaller, more complex greenhouses,” Tim says. “From 100 square meters to 2 hectares, but complex.”

That doesn’t mean larger projects are off the table. In the Netherlands, the company has built a 3-hectare project, among others, and is currently involved in a 1.8-hectare new build. The size of its own core team, however, remains limited. During busy periods, VDF relies on a large network of subcontractors. “When things are busy, we might have fifty people working for us,” Ton says. “But when things are quiet, it’s just the three of us.”

Price pressure
The partners say they experience particularly sharp competition in the Netherlands, with large price differences appearing on some projects. “We put a huge amount of time and energy into a quotation,” Tim says. “Just when you feel most confident about a customer and think he wants to build with you, in the final round he receives an offer that’s significantly lower—sometimes by several euros per square meter. You naturally start wondering how that’s even possible.”

According to Tim, some current offers fall well below cost price and are no longer in line with the market. “We see that larger organizations in particular sometimes choose a strategy focused mainly on maintaining volume and winning projects, even if that comes at the expense of healthy margins. That doesn’t mean we don’t offer sharp prices ourselves—on the contrary, we try to make the sharpest and most competitive offer possible for every project. But we do think it’s important that the price remains in proportion to the quality, the execution, and the responsibility we take on as a company.”

He continues: “We deliberately choose a different path. For us, it’s not just about the number of hectares we build, but above all about the customer and the relationship we build with them. We know our customers by name, and we find it important to realize durable, high-quality projects together with them. That personal approach, combined with a financially healthy business, is what we stand for. We don’t want to take on projects just to stay busy, but projects that we, and the customer, can fully stand behind.”

For a relatively small organization, the partners say, it’s difficult to compete on those terms. Taking on projects below cost price doesn’t fit their way of working. “If you have to do everything for next to nothing, you need more and more projects just to achieve a positive result,” Marcel says.

Even so, the pressure on the Dutch market doesn’t mean the company is stepping away from it. Its visibility continues to grow, partly through projects, suppliers, subcontractors, and referrals.

Growth, but not for the sake of growth
Besides Switzerland, VDF is also active in other countries. In Italy, the company completed a project that involved removing one hectare of glass, installing solar panels, and adding a 2,000-square-meter facility.

In Switzerland, the company continues to build partnerships with local firms active in areas such as water and electrical systems. The goal is not to become as large as possible. “We’ve grown by staying small,” Marcel says. “Getting big isn’t the hard part, staying big is.”

Still, the partners believe some growth is necessary. As Ton gradually steps back, Marcel and Tim aim to further strengthen the company’s continuity, including through service and long-term customer contact. “It would be great to have a bit more continuity and to focus even more on service,” Tim says, “so that we’re also visiting customers more often.”

For more information:
VDF Greenhouses
Ambachtsweg 75
2642 KW Pijnacker
Tel.: +31 15 369 6382
[email protected]
www.vdfgreenhouses.nl