N.L. Chrestensen the company with history

In 1867 the Danish young gardener Niels Lund Chrestensen founded his seed and plant breeding company in Erfurt - at that time the traditional Prussian - German centre for breeding of flowers and vegetables. The company grew fast into an efficient and innovative breeding and trading enterprise with worldwide activities.

During the Great World Exhibition in Chicago in 1893 the company was awarded the „Great Columbus“ medal for its new plant breedings and innovations. More than 1000 national and international awards followed. In 1908 Mr. Niels Lund Chrestensen was also one of the co-founders of FLEUROP services which nowadays operates on the global basis.

Since 1930 the company of Niels Lund Chrestensen KG has made a major contribution to the development of hybrid breeding and is still involved in modern breeding methods and in-vitro breeding.

In 1972 the company was nationalised. After the political changes it was successfully denationalised in 1990. Since then it has been modernised and successfully regained its leading position on the 'green market'.

N.L. Chrestensen the company with wide ranging activities

Export

In the international part of the business our company exports its products all over the world. Our customers are seed breeders, wholesalers, horticultural and agricultural producers. Our staff includes purchasing managers and export managers, who provide professional advice in German, English, Russian and Polish, scientists who are involved in maintenance and new selections, production managers, quality controllers and stock managers. The export managers fulfill all tasks at all levels of order processing, making our services of high quality. Such a complete management structure has allowed our company to satisfy the demands of our many varied customers. At a time when others have saved money on the quality of service, our managers continue to visit their clients all over the world to monitor the progress, to listen to the changing demands and to find ways of optimizing the cooperation. For our customers it is a good investment in relations, which pays off! We also invest in constant training of our employees and take care about their well-being. We remain a strong family business, based on the initial family enterprise, created by the Chrestensen family and run on good traditional business!

Horticulture department

We offer the complete range of horticultural propagated seed varieties (vegetables, flowers and herbs) to more than 4500 garden centers. Among our 3600 product lines, there are seeds which have been uniquely bred by our company as well as a large range of other offered varieties from a selection of worldwide well known companies.

N.L. Chrestensen the company with entrepreneurial spirit

Wholesale department

Together with our customers, according to the size of their business, we develop specific marketing concepts tailored to their requirements. We pay particular attention to the regional differences as well as seasonal fluctuation in developing the product themes, most suited to our clients.

We have over 6000 satisfied customers and a well developed nationwide sales force.  Our portfolio includes over 3000 products broken down into 12 different assortments (seeds, young plants, flower- and onion bulbs). We offer you exactly what you need - a competent business partner.

Seed production

We produce specialized seed varieties in-house which are supplemented by a world wide network of contract farmers in addition to our own cultivated land. We also use 19000 m²  in Erfurt in order to produce the elite seeds, which support our maintenance breeding program for more than 1200 species and varieties. Our cleaning facility is equipped with a wide range of state of the art technologies (colour sorters, gravity tables) and our in-house laboratory works in accordance with the latest ISTA-regulations.

The seed cleaning facilities, our test laboratory and of course our trial fields are part of our quality management program to ensure integrity of each seed variety, high germination rates and best possible purities. All this allows us to provide a comprehensive solution for many customers.