Leo Kromhout

Everyone at Heemskerk Flowers knows Leo Kromhout. And no wonder—he has been with the company since 1988! With no prior buying experience, he started as a buyer and quickly proved successful. From handwritten purchasing lists to digital systems, from the buyers’ gallery to the in-house dealing room—he’s seen it all! Over the years, he has also packed air freight boxes, helped assemble bouquets on busy days, and even organized staff parties. Today, he works as a quality controller in the plants department. Read more about this versatile colleague!

The start

Leo started at A. Heemskerk BV as a buyer on 1 January 1988. Prior to that, he had spent 13 years driving a mobile wholesale flower truck in the Netherlands. Despite the fact that Leo had no buying experience, they were confident that it would be fine. And it certainly was!

Passion for buying

At that time buying unusual flowers was becoming increasingly important. There was a lot of demand for new, distinctive and extra-large flowers. This is where Leo’s passion started.

A lot was still done by hand in those days. Hence orders received by fax were copied by hand, and the totals were hand-counted. This meant that Leo had to work from 3 a.m. to 5 p.m., and sometimes as late as 8 p.m. on Friday.