 |
 |
 |
 |
There are two people behind one of the greatest success stories of all Danish nurseries - Sunny®. Niels Larsen is a qualified greenhouse gardening specialist who set up his own nursery in 1987. Niels, now 45 years old, is responsible for the company's business areas and also has the necessary expertise in terms of production. The other person involved is Bjarne Larsen, 53, who is also a qualified greenhouse nurseryman. Bjarne, who set up on his own as a producer in 1982, is responsible for the company's product development, including plant breeding, marketing and market development.
The two Larsens were the first to start breeding Osteospermums under the name of Sunny®. In the early 1980s, when the breeding operation was started and the Sunny® business was established, there were only two varieties of Osteospermum. The two nurserymen felt that this was too restricted a basis for cultivation.
They felt the range should be extended and new varieties developed, primarily for their own use. Today Sunny® is the trade mark of the most comprehensive range of protected Osteospermum varieties marketed throughout the world.
From the very beginning, work at Sunny® involved a high degree of professionalism with structured development in the form of breeding, acquisition of plant variety rights, screening and virus testing of new varieties, as well as the acquisition of trade mark rights.
No fewer than 50 varieties have been developed by Sunny®. This has resulted in Osteospermums today becoming one of the major bedding plants cultivated in Europe and the USA - much to the delight and satisfaction of plant lovers.
But breeding and development of cultivars does not stop here. Bjarne Larsen anticipates that each year Sunny® will launch between 4-6 new varieties onto the market.
Remaining steadfast and faithful to the idea behind the plant breeding business of Sunny® was most difficult at the start, when the costs of development were high and earnings were almost non-existent.
"It was good for Sunny® that there were two of us. Niels is the business man, and I am the creative breeder of plants," says Bjarne Larsen, who adds: "But we respect each other's expertise; we have trusted one other and working together has been a total success!"
It has been an incredible experience for the two owners of Sunny® to go through the transition from being local plant producers to breeders on a global scale.
Suddenly the whole world is your workplace!
