Learning from Siegen

He can do whatever he wants. And that's exactly what he does: what he wants. For example, building a garden centre where trees grow through the roof.

This garden centre, where the trees reach for the sky, is located in Siegen, Germany and belongs to Alexander Kremer. Because this man doesn't do things the way others say they have to be done (because that's supposedly the only way), he does them the way they suit the company he runs. "That suits us" or "that doesn't suit us" – he often says this when talking about his company, which he took over from his father in the fourth generation and which he wants to pass on to the fifth generation in better condition than he received it, just as his ancestors did.

As things stand and the way things are going at the moment, he will succeed. The bar is set high. "We had garden centres that were extremely successful," he says, adding immediately: "But at some point, they no longer suited us." And above all, he did not see a promising future for them in his company. "Let others build plant supermarkets."

Alexander Kremer has found a new guiding principle for himself and his garden centres, which he is using to shape his company: "Closer to nature." Consequently, he now only operates what he calls natural garden centres. This began in 2020, when the market – including the garden museum – was completely rebuilt at the headquarters in Lennestadt-Altenhundern, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Two years later, the Remscheid store with its Greenopia exhibition was converted, followed by the Lüdenscheid store in 2023 and Gummersbach last year.

And now store number five in Siegen, opening in mid-March 2025: it is the first newly opened Kremer location since Lennestadt and the first completely new development since Lüdenscheid, which opened in 2011. It should actually have come much earlier, as negotiations with the property owner Ikea, who has a site opposite, began 17 years ago. But it took three years to reach an agreement – and immediately after signing the contract, Alexander Kremer did something that one doesn't normally do: he announced the opening date down to the day. He kept to it – almost: despite all kinds of difficulties, the store opened with only a week's delay.

The new Siegen store is not just another off-the-peg garden centre: "Every garden centre should be unique," emphasises Alexander Kremer. He is certain that copy and paste would be a mistake. So, after the garden museum and Greenopia in the university town of…