Wilbert Stek: passionate cutting specialist excels with a wide range of varieties |
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| Emiel te Walvaart,
Saturday 4 October 2025 |
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| 172 sec |
Wilbert Stek is a cutting company for tree nurseries from Gendt, near Nijmegen, led by Wilbert van Luenen. The nursery has been in existence for more than twenty years and has been located at its current site in Gendt for over fifteen years. In the early years, the specialist focused solely on Buxus, but as is well known, he now offers a broader assortment including Euonymus, Ilex (crenata and meserveae), Osmanthus, Photinia, Thuja and Taxus. The company grows cuttings under 1.4 hectares of glass and has 2 hectares of mother plants. Six permanent employees work there, along with six people with a distance to the labor market, and the company can draw on a pool of about fifty students.
| Cutting specialist Wilbert Stek |
Wilbert Stek offers good and flexible service and the right price-quality ratio. The company has a wide and loyal customer base in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as in Germany and the rest of Europe, mainly on a contract basis. Having a good mix of customers and mutual satisfaction with the cooperation is important. Therefore, deliveries are mainly made to order, which means there is no large stock. One of the goals is to deliver a better product each year than the year before. Another key point is the reduction of crop protection use. In recent years, considerable steps have already been taken with compost tea and minerals. These developments are continuing, because “the future of our sector does not lie in chemical crop protection.”
Ideal moment for customer contact
Wilbert Stek will bring as many types as possible of all the varieties in which the company excels to GrootGroenPlus. He will also show the different forms in which they can be offered. In this context, he highlights Euonymus, available as two cuttings in a 104-tray. Taxus will also receive attention with some new varieties. Buxus, available in one, two or three per cup, will not be forgotten, nor will Ilex. In terms of Buxus, Wilbert Stek is working on something new, but the fair comes too early to present it.
‘For us it is primarily a relationship fair,’ says Van Luenen. ‘We have many customers from the Zundert area whom we can meet there. But customers from other parts of the country also come by, as well as from abroad, such as Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, etc. I really appreciate the international character of GrootGroenPlus, a great bonus. Existing customers take priority, but that does not mean we do not meet new prospects. In three days you can speak to an incredible number of people, something you cannot achieve otherwise unless you want to spend five weeks in the car. Normally I have a lot of telephone and email contact, but it is really nice to sit down together over a cup of coffee. We then evaluate the past year with the customer and often discuss plans for the upcoming season.’
Ultimately, what matters to Wilbert Stek is that it becomes three enjoyable days. ‘The atmosphere there is always fantastic, which makes doing business much easier. The organization deserves credit for that. Although people themselves must create the atmosphere, it must be facilitated. GrootGroenPlus is a pleasant fair to attend, also regarding setup and so on. It is convivial and without much fuss, because I do not like that and they know it. If you ask something, they almost always come up with a good solution.’
Challenges
According to him, the trend of good sales in 2021 has continued this year, with the caveat that everyone is somewhat more cautious. ‘Consumers have less to spend and were not able to spend much for a few years. Now they are spending money on multiple things, while the garden, after the investments during the COVID period, is already in order. Inflation and rising (energy) prices also play a major role. Nevertheless, the garden has gained interest, partly due to the greening trend. So let’s not be too pessimistic, because the role of paving in the garden has diminished. A greener garden is therefore essential for the future.’
The issue of rising costs does not bypass Wilbert Stek either. He sees it as a challenge, especially the rising energy prices. He uses gas to keep the plant cycle going properly; in winter, heating is used to maintain rooting speed. The plan is to purchase a heat pump as an alternative to gas. In this way, Wilbert Stek tries to keep costs under control to deliver an affordable cutting. But some things, such as more expensive trays and fertilizers, are unavoidable. ‘We will simply work a bit harder to deliver the customer as much as possible a quality and affordable product.’ But in some cases a price increase is inevitable. However, at the cutting company in Gendt hardly anything runs on autopilot and the course is steered tightly.
Wilbert Stek bv
Smidstraat 1
6691 ES Gendt
tel: +31 481 - 42 55 43
fax: +31 481 - 42 29 63
mob: +31 6 54 25 54 46
www.wilbertstek.nl
route blue, stand number b034
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This article was previously published on september 20, 2022 on the website
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