He was one of the first employees of WBE and is still in the right place, even after 40 years of service.

Gerard Heemskerk is known to many at the auction and therefore a perfect person to interview.

Read the entire interview in our latest blog and get to know WBE even better!

Tell us something about yourself (age, relationship, place of residence etc.)
I am Gerard Heemskerk and I live in sunny Rijnsburg.
I am 59 years old and have been working for WBE for 41 years. I live together with Wieneke Heemskerk. Together we have 6 children, 4 of which worked, or still work, at WBE. The youngest two still live at home, the others have left home.

What are your hobbies (besides working hard at WBE)?
My hobbies are many, I like many things to do.
Examples of fun things to do are: motorcycling, going out with the boat, holidays, sports, cycling, my job, doing odd jobs, singing in the musical, going out to bands or pubs etc.

What education did you receive?
My education was kindergarten, primary school and LTS. After that, I didn't feel like going to school any more.

What did you do before you started working at WBE?
In Rijnsburg, everybody was working with flowers from an early age, so I went along with that. Before I joined WBE, I worked half a year at the auction in Rijnsburg with an exporter.
After that, I joined the army early (14 months with the hussars van boreel). I was only 17 years old at the time, it was a great time. Immediately after my military service, I started applying for a job with my uncle Jaap. It was a short application, because I had to start working right away. But I always had a good time.

What department do you work in at WBE?
At the moment, I am in sales/purchasing. Besides that, I do everything that is necessary or that comes on my path. I regularly work in the box, so I can see what is going on and have a better insight into the quality of the products.

At which branch do you work?
I work for WBE in the Westland.

How does your average working day look like?
An average working day at WBE for me is getting out of bed at 4.00 am.
Then I go and pick up two colleagues with the WBE bus, one in Rijnsburg and one in Valkenburg. We start at 5.00 am in the Westland. I start with a cup of coffee, then the selling/buying starts via mail, app, phone etc. If I don't have much to do I walk downstairs to help out.
I also go a few times a year to northern Germany and Denmark to visit the Christmas tree farmers.
In the last 3 to 4 months of the year I am busy with the Christmas greenery and everything around it. At the moment, because of the Corona, things are a bit different but that is just the way it is.

What do you like most about your job?
The freedom and the good atmosphere among colleagues.

What do you like least about your job?
The least enjoyable thing about my job, I don't have...everything has to happen so just do it.

What is your favourite product? Why?
My favourite product is, of course, lots of Christmas greenery.

Do you still have ambitions within WBE?
Ambitions, yes I always have them, but it is difficult.
I am not really looking, what comes, no problem. But maybe better for the young generation of WBE.

The biggest difference between the past and now? 

There are a lot of differences. We used to work with a small group. You were more dependent on each other then than you are now. Things like reporting sick and vacation days are also arranged very differently from then.

At the beginning of WBE I still mainly worked in the box. After a few years, when things got a bit busier on the clock, I started helping sell on the clock. I have done this work for about 25 years. At that time we had a great goodwill factor and a lot of fun with the customers. That is also different nowadays. Most contact is via email, app, or telephone. The contact between the seller and customer is different.

Fortunately, the goodwill factor is still there. And many of the customers from that time are still there.