Open day at Versland Selection

Many relations, family members and other interested parties used the occasion to see the upgrade of Versland Selection on Saturday 8 April. Versland Selection is specialised in leafy vegetables and radish, and has worked its way up to become a market leader in recent years. Versland takes care of sales for an increasing group of Dutch and Belgian growers. Outside of the Dutch season, Versland works with foreign growers, a total of about 120 growers, 50 of whom grow year-round. In the near future, a considerable expansion in the number of foreign growers is expected. Dutch and Belgian supermarkets, vegetable cutting plants and exporters are the company’s customers.

During a tour, Ed Koelewijn and Lex Balijon say that half of the current building was leased from 2000. In 2010, a quarter building was added to that, and the final quarter was added in 2015. A day after signing the final lease, Versland Selection bought the property, and they started thinking about making the total surface a whole. This resulted in thorough alterations and redecorations. The former radish washer from The Greenery was combined with the Versland washer, and The Greenery growers were also absorbed into the Versland washer. Because of the enormous growth experienced by the company, plans were made to realise the vision for the future.

Ninety per cent of trade is ‘cold’ product, that’s why the cooling was significantly expanded by 2,000 pallet places. These have been divided over nine cooling cells, two high with systems from Van Kempen Koudetechniek. Every cell has its own climate control. Benefit of this is that the most ideal climate circumstances can be created for each product. The new cooling system is energy-saving. This is partially possible because of an automatic heat exchanger, which uses condensation from one cooling cell for the cooling in another one. Sustainability is important, which is why all TL lights — about 1,000 lights — have been replaced by LED lights. The production hall has been equipped with a climate control system, and, additionally, the company has a vacuum cooler at its disposal to quickly cool newly arrived product back down to the desired temperature.

During the tour, we walk past a diversity of displayed products. It is noticeable that Versland is large in small products. We walk past pallets with special types of lettuce, such as baby leaf, oak leaf lettuce, curly endive and more, and a little further there’s pak-choi cabbage, blanched celery, courgettes, fennel, Chinese cabbage, herbs, lamb’s lettuce and radicchio. Large amounts of these products are sent to customers daily. “It’s usually a large amount, but if a customer asks for only 15 boxes, that’s not a problem,” Ed says.

For those who are familiar with the old situation, it’s noticeable that the offices and the forwarding office have also been completely modernised. The ‘old’ offices have been equipped with double glazing and new siding, resulting in a fresh appearance. The offices are equipped with new furniture and computer systems, and each desk now has three displays. The large conference room can be doubled thanks to a sliding wall. “That always comes in handy when a large group of people has a meeting,” Lex says.

The forwarding office has been built in such a manner that the floor is about a metre above the warehouse floor. This gives the responsible people a good view of the logistics business in the warehouse and on the loading docks, and ensures short lines towards the workplace. The drivers were also considered by creating a pleasant waiting room with a coffee-maker and shower facilities for the foreign drivers. Versland has four inspectors. They inspect incoming and outgoing products. Quality is guaranteed this way.

We have now reached the production department were types of lettuce and radish are prepared. The production process takes place in two separate rooms, ‘the clean and the dirty one.’ In the dirty room, we see five production lines, two of which are for loose radish, one for bunched radish and two for leafy vegetables. 

From the grower, the product arrives in plastic cube crates developed by Loopack with through-flow cooling. A perforated tube runs through the middle of the crate, so that there’s better distribution of cold air, and heat can be prevented inside the crate. Ed indicates the lifting systems with crate tippers that have been installed at every washing line. The use of fork-lift trucks is limited to a minimum thanks to this lifting system, which increases security. The mentioned crates are lifted and unloaded on the washing line by buffers, an efficient way to handle crates. The unwashed lamb’s lettuce, rocket or spinach then comes on a transport belt on which dirt and sand is shaken off, and through a number of water baths in which bugs, bits of wood and sand are removed to the clean room where the lettuce is packed in crates. The lettuce is inspected by people throughout the process, so that only the best product is packed.

About 30 to 40 tonnes of radish is processed daily on the loose radish line. This radish is also placed in a bunker after which the product is transported to a role belt. Thick wire has been welded to the roles, which removes the leaves and roots from the radish. After this process, the relatively clean radish is put through a water bath and ends up in a machine in which knives have been installed that remove the final leaves and roots. After this, the unsorted radish goes in the ‘clean’ sorter and then to the packing department. The final phases for the clean product is sorting. This is done by a role sorter. The space between the roles decides the size to be sorted. At the same time, five sizes can be measured. The largest sizes are usually meant for vegetable processors. When asked why optical sorters aren’t used, Ed says: “We did trials, but red is a difficult colour for the current generation of optical sorting systems.” To guarantee quality, the sorted radish is placed in a cold store for one night, and is packed and brought to the customer the next day.

The bunched radish arrives from the grower in wooden crates, pool containers or cardboard and is placed on the transportation belt to the washer. The radish is cleaned by spray nozzles and goes through a number of water baths. The clean radish enters the ‘clean’ packing room and is provided with covering film.

Versland executed the modernisation with Arjo de Koning, who is connected to Versland Selection as an advisor. Arho has years of experience in retail, and much knowledge of vegetable cutting plants and packing questions. He guided the entire process of new building and refurbishment with Ed. In cooperation with engineering firm Schneider a new water treatment plant was developed. At full capacity, the production process takes about 120 cubes of water per hour, but only five cubes of clean water is added every hour. A ratio of ten per cent clean with regard to 90 per cent purified water. The water will have had one full circulation every 20 minutes, and the system refreshes itself three times per day. An organic cloth filter has been applied in the system, which filters product residues from the rinsing water. During the washing process, the first two rinsing baths use purified water, and the third bath uses clean water.

When we enter the packing department, we see five packing lines for loose radish. The lifting system with buffers and tipping system is also in use here, to limit fork-lift truck handling here as well. The loose radish is inspected on colour and cracks once more before packing, and then transported via an elevator belt to the weigher. The radish is weighed by the multi-head weigher, and then its packed in 125-gramme pointed bags, or 250 and 500-gramme block bottom bags. On the other lines we see one-kilogram packaging that are then packed per ten in an overpouch. Other options are 2.5 and 10 kilograms of loose radish. These bulk packs mostly find their way abroad. “In fact, all packaging is possible, it’s only a matter of adjusting and thinking with the customer,” Ed says.

About 400 people signed up for the open day, but the number of visitors was between 700 and 800 people. A successful party after a period of refurbishment that went well, so that Versland Selection can continue to be a market leader in the world of leafy vegetables and radish in coming years.