Youthful, fresh and colourful

A brand concept for plants that functions throughout Europe – anyone who ventures to tackle this topic must be quite sure of what he is doing. And Raimund Schnecking is. Volmary’s marketing director is not only convinced that it is possible to establish a brand in the green market. Above all he is convinced that Volmary is definitely the company capable of achieving this. “We know how to make clearly better products because we are plant breeders, and we are experts in plant marketing as well,” he says. The company presented its brands at IPM, the International Plant Fair. Taking “Grow for Gold” as its slogan, the Volmary Plants brand, V-Plants for short, is designed as an international consumer brand for garden retailing. The garden centres of DIY stores are expressly included in this category. The range includes bedding and balcony plants, shrubs and grasses, cut flowers and pot plants, as well as vegetable and herb plants. The brand offers retailers year-round sales themes. In addition, seeds are distributed under the Volmary name as well. Volmary’s aim is to link the new image to a more appealing approach in order to reach a younger public. Visual communication works more powerfully with emotively stirring pictures of people. “Youthful, fresh, colourful” is how the marketing director summarises the brand relaunch. This is why it became necessary to give the website a facelift as well, and become involved in online social media. The POS hasn’t being forgotten, either: V-Plants products always come in colourfully printed pots. This is all happening with the aim of reinforcing the value of plants as products – which completes the circle back to the idea of brands, as Raimund Schnecking emphasises: “That is lifestyle.” 20 languages Volmary is based in Münster, northern Germany. In Germany alone Volmary employs a workforce of some 320. The company also has mother plant enterprises for vegetatively propagated varieties in Turkey and Kenya, where the combined workforce comes to around 450. Young plant production facilities are located in both Germany and Poland. The range of products for specialist retailers is supplied to almost every country in Europe, from Italy to Finland and from Spain right across to Ukraine. The young plant catalogue is available in 20 languages. Download: