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van Hoekelen Greenhouses, Inc. is a Pennsylvania corporation
operating a 7 1/2-acre greenhouse facility on Plant Road,
and a 7 1/2-acre state-of-the-art greenhouse facility on
Lofty Road, in Kline Township. The Lofty Road facility
includes an 85,000 square foot Operations building, a 45,000
square foot Cooler building, and an additional 40-acres of
outside growing area. The Plant Road facility includes a
20,000 square foot Cooler building. Another 7 1/2-acre
building in McAdoo houses our Administrative Offices and
80,000 square feet of Coolers. Cok and Lori A. van Hoekelen
started the original 3 1/2-acre greenhouse facility on Plant
Road, in 1988. Since then the company has maintained an
exceptional growth pattern in both sales and expansion of
facilities.
van Hoekelen Greenhouses, Inc.
(VHG) grows and distributes many types of plants such as
tulips, hyacinths, mums, poinsettias, cactus, etc. In
addition, VHG has a Freight Department, which includes
dispatchers, to keep company trucks running year round with
outside loads, during our off-season period. VHG has been
continually expanding their fleet to accommodate the time
sensitive delivery requirements of our customers in 48
states. Our original fleet consisted of two delivery
trucks. Currently, our trucking fleet consists of 30
tractors, 30 reefers, and 6 straight trucks.
Cok van Hoekelen has a lifelong
work experience in the greenhouse field. His career began
working with his father on a bulb farm in Holland and
earning his degree in Horticulture. In 1969, he relocated
to the United States to assist a firm in Northern New Jersey
with their bulb crop. Two years later, he was managing a
100,000 square foot greenhouse facility. Within five
years, he was Vice President. By the time he left the
company in 1983, the facility had increased in size to
484,000 square feet as well as increased sales by 2,000%.
In 1984, van Hoekelen moved to Southern New Jersey and
joined a wholesale greenhouse business with a 60,000 square
foot facility. He supervised new construction, which
increased the facility to 160,000 square feet. At the end
of 1987 when he left this company, annual sales had grown
1,000%.
Throughout the United States,
Cok van Hoekelen has established an excellent reputation in
construction design, supervision, marketing, purchasing,
production and shipping. His experience in the
horticultural industry has given him tremendous insight into
the plant and flower markets.
Lori A. van Hoekelen,
CEO, has worked in the greenhouse
industry for over thirty years. Her expertise includes all
facets of financial planning, human resource management,
inventory control, product development to promote sales growth, and contract negotiations.
Sharon Fazakas (van Hoekelen),
Human Resources, and Lori Bowser (van Hoekelen), Accounts
Payable, daughters of Cok and Lori van Hoekelen, add a
second generation to the on-going success of VHG.
van Hoekelen Greenhouses is one
of the largest employers located in the Kline
Township/McAdoo area, contributing to the local economy and
tax base as well as the generous contributions to local
government agencies, churches, and civic groups. VHG was
ranked one of the top 100 growers for several years.
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