"Willem, watch out for your shiny shoes!"

He was stuck during an full Ramadan month in a Saudi-Arabian hotel room , unintentionally walk through newly teem concrete and became devoted to greenhouse grammatical construction . " Quite a story , is n’t it ? " Willem van Dorssen sighs .

The ' first one-half ' of Dutch nursery building company Van Dorssen & Frenschhas been working with Ton Frensch for more than 20 years , but his ingress in the horticultural manufacture actually was an accident . countenance ’s rewind to 1973 , when Willem lived in Spain . The landlord of his flat worked in the Middle East as a representative for a Dutch greenhouse builder . " He asked me if I want to join him . Every other month on and off and two day in between to enamour up . I agreed and all of a sudden I was a salesman for Kombi Greenhouses . “Ton Frensch and Willem van Dorssen . Saudi ArabiaAt that clip quite a lot encounter in the Middle East . Dutch company build greenhouses with cooling in the desert . " Strangely enough , greenhouses were also built ' just because the neighbour had one too ' . An tremendous amount of money was involved , although at some point that also break off " , Willem remembers .

For Willem , the escapade in Saudi Arabia endure for two years . " It was hard to get in the country . At the consulate in The Hague you always had to do your very good to get the stamps in your passport . In the country you were an outlaw . We always take 5,000 guilder in case we would drive against a camel - or worse . "

After Willem had to stay in the country for a whole Ramadan period due to a mistake with a visa , he never went there again . " There was nothing to eat , I was the only invitee in the hotel and could only drink a sip of water system in my room . Then I thought : what did I get myself into ? "

' Something special’Nevertheless , Willem became devoted to the sphere . " Well , external trade in capital letter good is just something peculiar . In picky in a cowboy - like grocery like greenhouse construction used to be . You are doing barter in all kinds of languages . For me it is a relaxed biography , although there are always risk involved . You have to remain on top of the office and you always have to pass on very well with your suppliers . "

Greenhouses next to the swimming poolAfter Saudi Arabia , Willem worked on projection in France , Germany , Slovakia , Russia and more . He remember a project in Slovakia particularly well . In 1997 he met a group of enterpriser in a Viennese hotel bar . They previously build up a thermal swimming puddle in Slovakia . " They tell me that the water they pump up was 61 degrees . The water in a swim pool can be 40 stage maximum , so I asked what they did with the remaining 21 degrees . I explained how , alternatively of adding frigid water , they could build greenhouses next to it with free heating . It engage two years , then we built a 4.5 million stain glasshouse project there . "

Dress shoesHe also suddenly remembers how he accidentally walked over a freshly rain cats and dogs concrete floor at a projection in Bocholt . " I flatten about 15 centimetre with my neat , shiny garb shoes in the fresh concrete . Two 60 minutes later I had to fly from Düsseldorf to Russia . That meant buying new shoe in a hurry . At the next undertaking where concrete was pelt , the boys had smartly hung up a mansion . " Willem , please be careful with those shiny shoes ? "

Very intimate in SwitzerlandWillem and Ton built the most greenhouse in Switzerland . A reliable market place in which they experience at home . " You have to show your face there very often . Up and down 40 times a year is no exception . Switzerland is not an light market for an enterpriser , but they evaluate quality and we can propose them that . "

" It cost us a caboodle of money to learn the market . Work permits , for example , are intemperate to get and if you do not have your support in order , you will be shut . The minimal remuneration is , commute , 3,100 euro per calendar month , a lot higher than in the Netherlands and our male child must be paid according to that Swiss rules . They check that on the pay slips . Those all are things that you memorize over the years . "

Fire and almost bankruptTwelve years ago , Van Dorssen & Frensch almost went belly-up due to a financial setback . " I told my married woman at the time : honey , I do n’t bonk if we can continue to live here . Well , she said , we just will start over again ? That ’s why we ’ve been wed for 46 years . "

" We were advised to file for failure , but both Ton and I were not lift that path . Decency come first . It direct some effort , in camera we put a few key signature on paper and now we can laugh about it . " Also amajor fire in 2017was overpower . " We have rebuild the building ourselves . "

Talent for languagesDuring all his travels , the language was never a problem for Willem ’s talent for language . He speak French , German , English , Spanish and of course Dutch at ' crossword puzzler degree ' and the courtesy expressions of Russian and Slovak . " If you verbalise Spanish , then Italian and Portuguese it not so much of a problem . We are often invited to say some words at the porta of a labor . Then I like to recite a verse form in the local speech . "

Willem likes to use that language cognition to cut into into the product he is selling . Although he has no technical backdrop , he incur it important to know what he is let the cat out of the bag about . " I have always looked tight at the bringing lists and in this fashion I learned the components of a glasshouse in detail . In Saudi Arabia I simply learn the brochure , about 80 pages , by heart . Of the two of us , Ton is the technical man and he sometimes jokes that I do n’t get it at all . It is authoritative that you know what you are talking about . Even when you are the salesman . "

ReducingSlowly but for certain Willem is reducing his activities within the troupe for retire in time . Looking back , he note that a dependable relationship with suppliers has also been a determining divisor for success . " The Duijnisveld caller has for year been supply our steel and atomic number 13 we buy from Alcomij . Van Looveren has for years been supply the glass . There is only one quantity to order for each undertaking , so we always select the company with which we prefer to work . "

For more information : Van Dorssen & Frensch BVNootdoorpseweg 13PijnackerThe NetherlandsT : +31- ( 0)15 369 6382[email protected]www.dorssen - frensch.eu