Gartneriet PKM A/S was founded by Poul and Marie Madsen in 1948, when they took over a vegetable horticulture with five small greenhouses totalling 1,500 sqm in Søhus near Odense. The production grew steadily, especially when Poul Madsen began to specialise in plants in the late 1950s. Around 1960 the production of Campanula, Schlumbergera and Rhipsalidopsis started.
Poul Madsen was an empathetic and positive man with a ‘people first’ mindset. He never concealed the fact that hard-working, enterprising and loyal employees were essential for the success of any company. He was a practitioner who saw opportunities rather than constraints. From Poul Madsen’s approach to people and positive mindset grew the spirit that still prevails in the company.
There was no doubt that Poul Madsen wanted his passion for horticulture to live on in his children, and indeed 3 of the 4 children became trained gardeners. It was his son Kristian who was to take over PKM. After some years of globetrottting in Norway, Germany, New Zealand, California and South and Central America, where he worked in horticulture, developed an innovative mindset and learned to see opportunities instead of limitations – just like his father – he was ready.
In 1983 Poul Madsen and his son Kristian founded the limited company ‘Poul & Kristian Madsen’s Gartneri ApS’ and in 1989 Kristian Madsen took over the nursery in full. This was followed by an instructive time with both ups and downs, where Kristian really found his place in horticulture. He learned the importance of strong customer relationships and that skilled and committed employees are an indispensable prerequisite for a healthy business.
In 2001, PKM added another family member to the staff when Kristian Madsen’s wife Anett was hired to handle marketing, administrative and representative tasks. Since Kristian’s business card said ‘gardener’, it was only natural that Anett’s would say ‘gardener’s wife’. An expression of the informal family spirit of the company. Anett has today taken over as CEO of PKM.
With his roots deeply founded in the city of Odense and inspired by the world around, H.C. Andersen wrote and sketched his fairy tales with a curious and conscious perspective on life. Fairy tales, that are joyful to young and old. Fairy tales, that at first seems entertaining but upon further reflection highlights manners, responsible behaviour, right and wrong. Sharing the roots of life with the author lies deep within us to create joyful stories through beautiful flowers while being responsible for nature. We want to deliver flowers for you with consciousness in mind. To us, that is what good manners and responsible behaviour – towards plants, people and planet – is all about. Based on good behaviour – in big and small ways, for people, nature and animals – we set the standard for a more climate-friendly crop production. – our guarantee that you can create your own joyful stories with our flowers while caring for the world around. –
We achieve this by living our values every day through our work and actions.
We want to form clear goals and strategies and distinctly communicate them in everything we do. We will ensure high efficiency and quality in all our actions. We prioritise employee involvement and treat everyone with openness and respect.
Our approach to running a horticulture production can be summarised in the following set of values.
All relationships must be based on respect, honesty, loyalty and consideration. All employees must have the opportunity to influence, develop and improve their own competences in order to achieve their own as well as the company’s goals, and to share responsibility for both their own and the company’s development.
We value people who take responsibility, get involved in the company and come up with ideas on how we can improve and develop. We can and we will.
We will innovate and develop our products and relationships in the market. We must be ambitious and constantly strive to be the best. It’s about creating the greatest possible potential in the company and in our collaboration with others. In other words – never finished, constantly improving.
Campanula, or bellflower as it is also known, is PKM’s largest product and comes in several different varieties and colours, which are constantly being developed. Development and production are carried out in the horticulture facilities, in the northern part of Odense, by 150 skilled employees. About 20 million plants are produced here, of which about 90% are exported to the European market.
PKM’s greenhouse area has grown significantly since the beginning in 1948 to reach 190,000 sqm today, with an additional 40,000 sqm of open field areas.
Besides Campanula, the main cultures of the horticulture are Schlumbergera, Rhipsalidopsis, Gentiana and Muehlenbeckia.
