OUR (HI)STORY

In 1979 Peter Hoek, together with his brothers, started a flower shop named ‘Fleurado’ in the town center of the village Katwijk. After 5 years the young entrepreneur wanted to undertake something different. Peter sold the shop, bought a refrigerated truck and drove all the way up to the South part of France where he started to sell Dutch flowers to French wholesalers and florists.

After a couple of years driving all the way to France on a weekly basis, Peter found that the empty truck he returned to Holland was not very profitable. He found that not only in Holland growers produced beautiful flowers, but that the climate in this part of Europe was perfect for growing amazing flowers buyers ‘back home’ never heard of. Anemone, Eucalyptus and Ranunculus were well known flowers in Italy and France but extremely rare in Holland. And there it was, the solution for filling the empty truck. Buying flowers from local growers and selling them again in Holland.

This decision of Peter, starting with importing flowers and selling them in Holland, forms the foundation of our business. More and more wholesalers, flying Dutchman and exporters became interested in these flowers and greens from Italy and France. After buying flowers from Peter for a while, customers started to ask if there was a possibility to also buy Dutch products at Hoek, since it saved them a lot of time. They could buy from one supplier, instead of sourcing the flowers from different places themselves. To meet the demand of the market, Peter bought a Cash & Carry with cold stores to be able to serve his customers in the best way possible.