Bill is committed to contribute to sustainable horticulture innovations

Bill Whittaker has been Oreon's sales manager in North America since January 2020. The goal: to introduce and develop the Oreon brand and help greenhouse horticulture companies in Canada and the United States with LED fixtures.

 

It is pioneering, because here the growers are still mainly familiar with HPS and passively cooled LED lamps. “Many greenhouse horticulture companies are very familiar with HPS and electricity rates in some cases are very affordable, which means that they prefer not to change. I explain to them that there are ways to improve your production, reduce your energy input, increase light levels and work significantly more sustainable."

And that is difficult in these times. A month after the Canadian entered service, Covid-19 started to take over. Traveling to the United States was no longer possible. “That is frustrating, because you need to be in front of the grower to be able to tell your story." Nevertheless, it succeeds. Bill has been working in the greenhouse horticulture market for more than twenty years and has built up a large network. He has amassed a lot of knowledge about sustainability, and he can safely be called an authority. “In the United States and Canada, water-cooled LED fixtures are still a relatively new solution, but I notice: there is a lot of interest."

Bill does not know the European market well enough to make a real comparison, but: "Europe is ahead of North America in implementing sustainable solutions."

Greenhouse horticulture in full swing

“Greenhouse horticulture is in full swing worldwide, certainly also in North America. We offer a perfect sustainable LED solution with the water-cooled LED fixtures. The key to the future is to use energy sources, such as water, electricity, energy, and light, as efficiently as possible. At the same time, you know that the profits of growers are always under pressure. With using our LED’s, this is possible by reusing the emitted heat, with our high efficiency fixtures and the high output of the fixtures. In the Oreon solution, everything comes together very nicely."

More control

He states: "As a grower, you want to be able to fully control your greenhouse and have a perfect climate, efficient use of heat and light and optimal production. And that is possible nowadays, that awareness is increasing among growers. We are creating a new market here and the soil for it is extremely fertile."

The competition is fierce when it comes to LED in greenhouse horticulture. "But there are not many that offer water-cooled LED fixtures. The difference is very easy to explain, but it is still new here so that takes time." In that respect, Bill is pleased with all the support from the head office in the Netherlands. "I'm not alone, I have the entire team of Oreon behind me!"

A product from the future

“I find it exciting that the market is so dynamic and that I can offer growers a product 'from the future'. When I talk to them, I want to know what their challenges are. It intrigues me how they develop and how they keep moving to be profitable. I am so committed to the fact that future generations also reap the benefits of sustainable innovations in horticulture. "