OptiCept enters agreement with one of the world's largest rose growers
One of the world's largest rose growers, The Elite Flower Group, is to begin treating roses with OptiBoost for sales on the North American and European markets. An OptiBoost machine will be delivered around the turn of 2022/2023 for installation in Colombia. The collaboration begins with a test period, which turns into a commercial agreement if the results are satisfactory.
The common goal is then full commercialization. The revenue from an OptiBoost machine is estimated at SEK 5–10 million/year. The agreement is constructed in such a way that the customer has the option to cancel after the trial period.
Treatment of roses in Colombia begins immediately after delivery. To achieve an optimal effect on the Colombian roses, OptiCept's staff will be on-site as needed for the optimization of the machine and ongoing production support during the initial test sales period of 6 months.
During this period, deliveries of treated roses will be made to existing customers in retail, primarily in North America but also in Europe. The goal for the customer is increased sales, reduced waste, and extended shelf life. OptiCept provides the OptiBoost system as well as staff for start-up and support. Elite provides roses, and staff for production, distribution, and follow-up of results.
The Elite Flower Group is one of the world's largest rose growers, producing 500 million roses annually in Colombia alone, where their main production is located. It also has plantations in Kenya and Ecuador, in total The Elite Flower Group owns 1450 hectares for flower cultivation and employs 32,000 employees worldwide. The Elite Flower Group is also a shareholder company of MM Flowers.
"We enter this project with very good results from treatments with growers. The Elite Flower Group is a world-leading player, I am of course very pleased that we together are taking a big and important step for the establishment of OptiBoost in the American and European retail markets, both of which offer us incredible potential," says Thomas Lundqvist, CEO OptiCept Technologies.