3 Daughters – 3 Weidemanns
The flower producer Reymers knows: Per 100 grams, a Weidemann costs less than a good bar of chocolate.
The horticultural business of Karsten and Silke Reymers produces flowers for the big florist Blume2000. In long greenhouses, the family with two employees grows horned violets and a summer flower mix in hanging baskets. Later in the year, the products then change to daisy shrubs, lavender and chrysanthemum shrubs, depending on the season.
The residential area in the Vierland and marshlands directly behind the northern Elbe dike is very old and is a traditional location for growing vegetables. The plots of land have grown accordingly: they line the street, close to each other, house on house. Behind the houses, however, extend long, narrow plots, many of them with greenhouses. "You have to travel long distances on such long plots of land", says Karsten Reymers, who took over the over 300-year-old family business from his parents in 1991. The trained gardener maintained two old narrow-gauge tractors to move the plants and heavy CC containers over the long distances. However, this solution was not ideal and the technology was outdated. When a farmer friend raved about his Weidemann, the Reymers family began to think about the idea of wheel loaders and visited the Tarmstedt exhibition. They took a close look at the Weidemann trade fair stand here. In addition to the technical advantages, they are also impressed by the design of the machines. Finally, the flower producers contacted their local Weidemann dealer, the company Westphal in Hamburg. They just happened to have had a matching Weidemann 1250 CX35 in a dark red special colour on the lot, which he brought to the Reymers family to try out the same evening. Not just the colour, but also the functionality, manoeuvrability and the quite operation convinced them and so the machine remained on the farm. When Karsten Reymers took over his parent’s business in 1991, they were still specialised in vegetable cultivation. He converted the production to bedding and balcony plants and initially supplied many weekly market suppliers, flower shops and dealers. As the cooperation with the bulk buyer Blume2000 intensified, the product range was slowly reduced and the quantities increased. In 2008, Silke Reymers took over her parent’s gardening business. Since the two farms were practically adjacent, the areas were simply merged together.
After the Weidemann purchased in 2010 had proven itself so well, the duo considered replacing it with a slightly larger one. In the end, however, one more machine was taken into the fold in 2014, and had to be painted in the special color. Karsten Reymers decided to go for a second loader instead of another one easily enough: “I once calculated the 100-gram price of the machine and came up with about €1.35. A good bar of chocolate already costs €1.80. So the investments are in the green”. “Besides, the 1250 already had a family connection”, adds his wife Silke Reymers. Since then, both loaders have been sharing work: the 1250 CX35 with a lightweight bucket to feed the potting machine, and the 1350 CX45 with a pallet fork to load the CC containers. Often 60 to 65 of these containers have to be moved for each order. “It is much easier to move the goods with the Weidemann than with a tractor or forklift”, explains Silke Reymers. “Loading has also become much faster since then”.
The Weidemanns are almost family members now, and Reymers’ daughters want to learn to operate them. Therefore, while 6-year-old twins Mirja and Annika are still too young, 8-year-old Nina is already tall enough to reach the gas pedal from the seat. If you have three active daughters, you have to have a Weidemann ready for each of them, but naturally. The third loader was actually planned for 2018. However, because it's nice to have good technology and because financing is made easy, the next member of the Reymer Weidemann family arrived in 2017 itself. This time, it was to be a 1380 that was customized for the horticultural business. It was somewhat larger than the first two loaders, so that, for example, heavy earthworks could also be completed with ease. Very important - it had to have heated seats and last but not least, of course, the characteristic dark red special color again! To welcome the new Weidemann, the Reymers family, with their neighbors, hosted a small reception with canapés and drinks. Managing Director of Westphal, Jens Mewes, did not miss the opportunity to deliver the wheel loader personally.
“I would like an electric eHoftrac next”, so enthuses the gardener. “We can then do a lot of work at the campsite nearby, a piece of which we own, while it's still being used”.
