Ball Horticultural Company is pleased to announce the purchase of a majority share of Kieft Seeds Holland (Kieft Pro Seeds), located in Venhuizen, The Netherlands.

“Kieft Pro Seeds is a highly strategic acquisition for Ball,” said Anna Ball, Ball Horticultural Company Chairman and CEO. “The addition of the Kieft product line will be complementary to the products in our PanAmerican Seed brand. We view their line of specialty annual and, particularly, perennial products as fitting very well with our product development strategies”.

“We not only believe that the depth of experience and the world wide exposure of Ball is the perfect fit to expand the reach of our genetics, but it also gives great opportunities for our people to continue developing and marketing innovative products,” said Cees van Diepen, managing director of Kieft Pro Seeds.

Plans are to combine activities of Kieft into the efforts that support PanAmerican Seed at Ball. The Kieft brand will continue to be active in the marketplace, to designate unique and high quality perennials from seed. The Venhuizen location of Kieft will be maintained along with the activities of breeding, seed technology and production as performed there today.

Kieft products will continue to be marketed through all distribution companies worldwide.

Cees van Diepen, the former majority owner of Kieft, will remain involved in the company for the foreseeable future providing management of the Venhuizen facility as well as providing product development support for selected annual and perennial breeding programs.

For more information:

Anne Leventry, Ball Horticultural, +1 630 588 5293
Cees van Diepen, Kieft Pro Seeds, +31 (0) 228 541 844