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Grodan’s positioning
Grodan is focused on the professional horticultural sector; the company supplies growers innovative cultivation solutions comprised of clean and controllable stone wool substrate in combination with advice and support services. Grodan’s substrates constitute the alternative for soil in professional horticulture. In addition to increasing output and improving quality, this environmentally-friendly cultivation method also enables growers to make savings in fertilizer, water, and energy consumption – or, in other words, stone wool offers total control of the crop. Grodan’s solutions find particular use in the cultivation of vegetables and flowers, including tomatoes, cucumber, sweet pepper, aubergines, roses, and gerberas.
Grodan, incorporated in 1969, is active in more than 40 countries all over the world. Grodan’s Head Offices are located in Roermond, the Netherlands. |
Rockwool International
Grodan is an integral member of Rockwool International, the world’s market leader in stone wool products. The concern focuses on stone wool applications beneficial to the quality of the environment, and to the safety and comfort of the public. The various Rockwool companies manufacture products for a wide range of diverse stone wool applications, all of which make optimum use of the opportunities offered by the material’s unique properties. The concern has a total workforce of more than 7,000, employed at companies all over the world. Rockwool International, with 21 factories in 14 countries in Europe, North America, and Asia, achieved a net turnover of more than 1 billion Euros in 2002. Rockwool is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. (Website: www.rockwool.com).
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Grodan’s mission statement and strategy
Grodan's mission is "to be the World Number One in substrate growing for protected crops”. Consequently, in pursuing this mission Grodan focuses on the sustainable cultivation of safe and healthy high-quality vegetables and plants.
Grodan’s operations are based on the three pillars which form the foundations of sustainability, i.e. People, Planet and Profit – pillars which are focused on professional partnership, security, best competence and best cost/benefit. This philosophy, which has been implemented throughout the entire organization, is substantiated by certification from a number of agencies, such as Milieukeur (the ‘Ecolabel’, whereby the company is the sole stone wool substrate supplier in the Netherlands and Belgium to have been awarded this certification), ISO 9001 and 14001 (production), EMAS (European Community ECO Management and Audit Scheme), and KIWA (Dutch products). |
Solutions
Grodan supplies innovative cultivation solutions comprised of clean and controllable stone wool substrate in combination with advice and support services – operations which are carried out in close collaboration with growers all over the world.
a) Stone wool products
Grodan supplies a range of stone wool slabs, blocks and plugs which accommodate the specific needs of customers, irrespective of the country or continent in which they are based. The product specifications focus on properties such as the watering strategy, crop control (generative / vegetative growth), the root-development in the slab, the control range and the response of the WC and EC, the firmness, the convenience (rate) of resaturation, the useful life (single season or multiple season), and the degree to which moisture is distributed through the slab. A number of examples of Grodan’s products are: - Slabs for the cultivation of vegetables: Grotop Master, Grotop Expert, Grodan Vital, Master Dry, Classic, Tempo, Growcube.
- Slabs for floriculture: FL, Roos Master, FMx, Grotop Roos, Growcube.
- Blocks for raising plants: Delta, Vitagreen, and plugs.
b) Knowledge and consultancy services
Grodan advises and coaches growers via the company’s Substratus cultivation-consultancy organization. Grodan’s consultants use their horticultural expertise to offer growers customized advice, whereby Grodan’s worldwide operations enable the company to bundle the knowledge and experience acquired by thousands of growers. In addition to personal contacts, Grodan also makes use of brochures, newsletters, e-mail, the Internet, CD-ROMs, faxes, and SMS.
c) Support services
Grodan supplies a variety of services to provide support for the company's products and advice, including services such as: - The Water Content Meter, WCM Continu (connected to a climate-control computer), WCM-Control (a hand-held meter which gives an insight into movements in the water content), EC, and the temperature in the slab; Gronow Bedrijfsvergelijk (‘Inter-company comparison’); Gronow Watermanagement (‘Water management’), Regador (an instrument which assists growers in water management, connected to WCM Continu in situations in which a climate-control computer is not available).
- Recycling: this Grodan service ensures for the responsible processing of used stone wool slabs; in making use of this service growers comply with the statutory requirements and conditions imposed by organizations such as EurepGAP.
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How is stone wool manufactured?
Stone wool is a natural product comprised of volcanic rock (also referred to as diabas or basalt). The production process, which simulates a volcanic eruption, is carried out at a temperature of 1500 degrees Celsius. |
Some of the benefits offered by stone wool - Controllable substrate: growers are offered much more control of the cultivation, for example in the determination of the quantity of water and nutrients. Large crops can be harvested using the substrates – and vegetables cultivated on stone wool are of excellent quality.
- Stone wool is by nature clean and very hygienic, thereby obviating the need for disinfection. Any diseases that do develop can be controlled using biological agents; consequently the use of crop-protection agents can be minimized – thereby guaranteeing food safety.
- Environmentally-friendly and sustainable cultivation from the beginning to the end of the growing cycle. On occasion diseases manifested during the cultivation period may require treatment with chemical crop-protection agents. However, stone wool does not buffer these chemicals – a property which allows for later recycling in the production of, for example, bricks or new stone wool products. In the Netherlands no less than 90% of the stone wool is recycled.
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For more information please contact:
| Grodan BV: | Industrieweg 15, PO Box 1160, 6040 KD
Roermond, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)475 35 30 10
Fax: +31 (0)475 35 35 66
| | | | | Website: | www.grodan.com |
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