The merger of ISO and TTA has created a company with two CEO . Is that special ? Jan Bakker and Martin Maasland laugh . They have just discovered during the video coming together that , without consultation , they are both fag gullible jerseys . Coincidence , in other words .
The option of two CEOs is no concurrence . During the amalgamation cognitive process , which accelerate last fall , it became clean that two chief executive officer had to fit well side by side . " Moreover , a Harvard University study shows that companies with two CEOs do better , " Martin says . ASML , among others , works with two chief executive officer , and DSM also did it for a while . Great names , and bakery company Rademakers also works with two CEOs , adds Jan.
At the recent trade fairs , Jan and Martin talk to many multitude . They often appear surprised by the uniting , but at the same time often indicated that they regain it ' quite logical . ' The two CEOs now conceive the merger is too . Jan : " We can not deny that we play each other more and more often in recent year . We both had a roadmap full of developments and plans . There is definitely overlap in that . In our fusion talks , it was obvious . Now that we have merged , we can grow faster together . "
Martin Maasland and Jan Bakker at IPM Essen 2025
One common routeThe first talks on a merger were hold less than a twelvemonth and a half ago . " It turned out that we were n’t ready for it then , but later we got back into talk , " says Martin . " Then the idea arose : let ’s do it anyway . We can accomplish so much more if we do it together . "
What follow was a " very intensive flow " full of conversations about finance , sound matter , personnel matters , and clientele opportunities . Jan : " Right from the first meeting , we started talking about joint exploitation chance . "
Martin adds : " But during the merger process , we still could n’t really go into detail with each other . Now we can . We are rapidly instruct from each other . There has been a astonishingly positive Department of Energy , with a lot of knowledge sharing , in a very poor time . Now we are going to lean the near ideas . From two companies , each with its own route , we have been more and more drawn together . Together , we are now going to define what our new , joint route will search like . "
Step towards harvestingEighty to ninety percent of the live roadmaps will remain , Martin expects . The last ten to twenty per centum of growth design now gestate the merging parties to accelerate together . " Both of us are into automation . TTA and ISO both knead a mickle with young plants . Both parties were also taking steps towards harvest . "
ISO had long been known for clipping , and TTA for transplants and sorting . " The customer need both . As a result , we started explicate each other ’s side . Now we can do that together and keep distance in our R&D to develop valuable new things . "
market addedNot that innovations have n’t already come out of Gameren and Bleskensgraaf in recent years . For object lesson , ISO made strides with automation for chrysanthemum thinning , grafting Lycopersicon esculentum plants , and the latest development submit is the harvest robot for tomatoes . TTA , in turn , bring automation to the market for planting tulips and , with the bHarvest , also for harvesting leafy crops in perpendicular farms .
The latter sphere is flat one in which TTA complements ISO . Conversely , ISO recently require steps with graft in tomatoes , complement developments at TTA , which was also working on it . Moreover , it help oneself that the merger also opens up young market with technique arise by one of the parties . Martin : " In markets where one was already strong , we can now also bring the portfolio of the other . "
Jan adds : " The neat thing about this is that you hardly need to modernize anything young in the unconscious process . You just get a market place like that , as it were . "
Talking to partnersThe make - raw unified companionship has draw up three direction areas on which to concentrate . These are ornamental gardening , the market in which both parties are traditionally strongest , C & fiber ( or forestry and newspaper industry ) , and intellectual nourishment horticulture .
Before the merger , both party also sour with several other sector actor . As before long as the unification became final , key client and cooperation partners were inform , Martin plowshare . " During the uniting public lecture , that was not possible . We are now hash out with those parties what our fusion means for those collaborations . "
With the merger , Cibus , which was already the majority shareholder in ISO , has also become the majority shareholder in the TTA - ISO merger society . " Cibus is Latin for food , " Martin says . " Cibus invests purely in food companies , or company that contribute to them with their techniques , like us . With their investment company , they can now make an even greater impact on the sustainable yield of nutrient and plants . "
Family feelingThe merger means that TTA , which was still a family business without a private equity party on board , is no longer under Eurogroup . Lowpad will continue severally . Jan : " For our organization , it is a more or less bigger modification in that sense , although little change at the site level . The owner of TTA , Simon den Hartigh , remains a shareholder . The family flavor also remains . That is important , and it come to us immediately at ISO as well . There , too , we watch that kinsfolk feel during our talks . For us , that is also a reasonableness that this is a good fit . "
The merger brings together two company with just about 150 employees each , create one with child fellowship with around 300 employee .
Martin : " For many employee , the merger will have niggling encroachment . We continue to make the same machines , both in Bleskensgraaf and Gameren . It ’s not like a factory is closing down now . On the reverse , if we persist in our growth , we will soon necessitate more people . Then it is an vantage that we can take care for masses for two locations . "
Wim van der Meijden and Henk Jan van Ooijen at theISO harvest robotat Fruit Logistica 2025
InternationalBoth ISO and TTA have also grown internationally in late years , with international branch as well . ISO recently set up a branch in the US . TTA is also based there , in addition to Australia . Jan : " There , we employ three people , and the fourth is on the path . " In the Middle East and South America , TTA had just start out with a local team . " We are now continuing that ontogeny together . And in the US , we will fuse our teams into one office staff . "
Thanks to the uniting , TTA - ISO expects to start offering even more complete solutions to customer . Jan : " Offering the most complete result possible , so that we really unburden the client , that ’s where we need to go . The more autonomy , the estimable . " Although the integrated companionship will also continue to offer single machines singly , Martin stresses . " We can now offer integrated system even comfortably , but we wo n’t become a very large systems planimeter in one go either . "
ASML is a name that horticulture like to emulate , especially in the current political - societal debate . The self-aggrandizing tech giant operate with two chief operating officer . So TTA - ISO will do the same , on a more modest scale , but by horticultural touchstone , a technical automation company of serious proportions is emerging .
For more information : TTA - ISO[email protected]www.tta - iso.com
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