From Arend Lefferts to Dutch Mini Gardens
Dutch Mini Gardens is the trade name of the products that originally were developed by Arend Lefferts, born in 1921 and in business since 1939 starting with a grocery store. Later Arend founded a trading company in promotional articles. In 1987 he and his wife Golina (Go) started with a gift product which was a planting kit in a 1.5 inch mini cube; Arend as business man and Go as designer of the mini boxes. Some of her illustrations are still visible on mini and display boxes. Sales were realized mainly through personal contact such as on trade fairs and Arend was quite successful.
By 1999 at the age of 79 Arend Lefferts was still in business however less active and with some assistance of his friend George van Delft. George took care of the sales instruments of the emerging e-business, developed the first website and took care of e-mail communication with customers.
At the age of 83 Arend passed away in April 2005. His wife Go offered the business for sale and George and his business partner took over the company and made it part of Triathlon Groep B.V. (B.V. = Ltd) early 2006.
Triathlon Groep B.V. in Zwolle is in the market under the trade name Dutch Mini Gardens. The company´s website is www.dutchminigardens.com.
