Grodan

What Grodan does

Grodan, a division of the privately held ROCKWOOL Group, manufactures and sells stone wool (rock wool) growing substrates for professional horticulture. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Roermond, Netherlands, the company produces slabs, blocks, and plugs made from spun basalt rock fibers, used as inert, hydrophilic soilless growing media in commercial greenhouses. Its primary customers are enterprise-scale greenhouse operators growing vegetables (tomato, cucumber, sweet pepper, aubergine), propagation nurseries, floriculture producers (rose, gerbera), licensed medicinal crop cultivators, and an emerging base of high-tech strawberry and vertical-farm growers. The company employs between 101 and 250 people and serves EMEA, North America, and Poland-based operations through manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, Canada, and Poland.

Grodan's offering is structured as an integrated Precision Growing stack: the physical substrate is paired with the GroSens wireless root-zone sensor system (monitoring water content, electrical conductivity, pH, and temperature) and the e-Gro software platform, which applies machine learning to telemetry for yield prediction and cultivation optimization. This stack is supplemented by crop consultancy services (tailored advice, training, and seminars) and a recycling program achieving a 45% stone wool recycling rate in Western Europe, with approximately 10,000 tonnes annually composted in North America. Strategic technology partnerships include Signify for low-energy lighting research, Fluence for high-tech strawberry and medicinal crop trials, and Walker Environmental for circular-economy waste management.

Commercially, Grodan operates a B2B enterprise field-sales model selling substrates and bundled solutions directly to commercial growers, with distribution leverage from the ROCKWOOL Group's global infrastructure. Revenue is generated through physical substrate sales, professional crop consultancy services, and increasingly subscription/recurring digital revenue via the e-Gro platform. Specific pricing is not publicly disclosed, but North American General Terms of Sale indicate minimum order thresholds (US$100 / CAD$150), consistent with negotiated B2B volume contracts. Revenue figures are not publicly reported at the division level.

Name

Grodan

Legal name

ROCKWOOL B.V.

Website

https://grodan.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1969

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Grodan, a division of ROCKWOOL Group, manufactures stone wool substrates, root-zone sensors, and the e-Gro data platform for precision soilless growing, selling directly to commercial greenhouse operators across vegetables, floriculture, propagation, medicinal crops, and vertical farming.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Horticultural Growing Media

NAICS

Mineral Wool Manufacturing (327993)

akta.pro primary industry

Substrates & Growing Media (Coco, Rockwool, Peat Alternatives) (AFAAAHAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Irrigation, Fertigation & Nutrient Delivery Systems (Dosing, Injectors, Sensors) (AFAAAHAE)

Keywords

• Stone wool substrates
• Hydroponic growing media
• Greenhouse horticulture
• Precision growing solutions
• Vertical farming substrates

Headquarters

HQ city

Roermond

HQ country

Netherlands

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Stone Wool Growing Media Products: Sale of stone wool substrate slabs, blocks, and plugs for professional horticultural use. Products include vegetable solutions (tomato, cucumber, sweet pepper, aubergine), propagation solutions, floriculture substrates, and specialty crops.
2. Crop Consultancy Services: Tailor-made advice from crop consultants, including irrigation management, nutrient management, and cultivation optimization services.
3. Digital Solutions (e-Gro): Software platform for data-driven greenhouse management combining artificial and human intelligence for cultivation optimization.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Grodan manufactures and sells stone wool (rock wool) growing substrates — slabs, blocks and plugs — made from melted basalt rock, used as soilless cultivation media for professional greenhouse horticulture. The offering is bundled with the e-Gro open data platform for yield prediction and the GroSens wireless root zone sensor system, plus crop consultancy and end-of-life substrate recycling services, targeting commercial vegetable, propagation, floriculture, medicinal crop and vertical farm growers.

Product overview

Grodan is a division of ROCKWOOL Group providing innovative stone wool substrate solutions for professional greenhouse horticulture based on Precision Growing principles. The core product is stone wool growing media (slabs, blocks, plugs) made from melted basalt rock, complemented by the e-Gro software platform for data-driven cultivation and GroSens wireless sensor systems for root zone monitoring. These products work together: stone wool substrates provide the inert growing medium, GroSens sensors collect real-time data from the root zone, and e-Gro aggregates and analyzes this data with AI/ML to enable precision irrigation management and yield prediction. Additional offerings include crop consultancy services, recycling solutions for end-of-life substrates, and specialized solutions for vertical farming and medicinal crops.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• e-Gro: Digital software platform for data-driven greenhouse cultivation and precision growing
• GroSens

Products and services

• Stone Wool Substrates Inert, hydrophilic stone wool growing media made from melted basalt rock spun into fibers, supplied as slabs, blocks and plugs for soilless greenhouse cultivation. Used by commercial growers of vegetables, floriculture, propagation and medicinal crops to enable precise control over water content (WC), electrical conductivity (EC) and root zone environment.
• e-Gro Software Platform Open software platform that aggregates and analyzes data from greenhouse sensors and climate computers to help commercial growers make data-driven decisions. Combines artificial intelligence and machine learning for yield prediction, greenhouse environment analysis and correlation of plant, climate and outdoor weather data, supporting Precision Growing from root to fruit.
• GroSens Sensor System Wireless sensor system that continuously monitors the root zone environment in stone wool substrates, measuring water content (WC), electrical conductivity (EC) and temperature. Works together with climate computers and the e-Gro platform to enable precision irrigation management and data-driven growing decisions.
• Crop Consultancy Expert advisory service delivered by Grodan crop consultants, providing tailor-made advice, newsletters, seminars, training courses and trade journal articles. Helps professional greenhouse growers interpret substrate knowledge and cultivation experience into crop-oriented recommendations for optimum product use.
• Recycling Solutions End-of-life stone wool recycling programme that reclaims used growing media and converts it into secondary products such as bricks. Achieves approximately 100% recycling rate in Western Europe through the NWE recycling programme, with around 10,000 tonnes per year sent to composting facilities in North America.
• Vertical Farming Solutions Specialized soilless growing solutions for vertical farm environments, positioning stone wool substrates as clean and inert materials for hydroponic lettuce and other leafy greens in controlled indoor farms serving urban populations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 50% less water consumption compared to traditional cultivation
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• SignifycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGrodan and Signify collaborate to conduct low-energy tomato cultivation research with expected savings on heat-input up to 40%. This partnership focuses on optimizing energy usage in greenhouse horticulture through combined lighting and substrate solutions.
• FluencecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGrodan and Fluence joined forces to develop new concept for year-round, high-tech strawberry cultivation with a demonstration trial. The collaboration combines LED lighting technology with Grodan's substrate expertise.
• Walker EnvironmentalminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to solve a waste management challenge - specifically addressing cannabis waste management by making stone wool recyclable. Demonstrates commitment to circular economy solutions.
• AVAGminorOthersAVAG is the leading trade organisation for contractors and fitters in glasshouse horticulture in the Netherlands. Grodan is an active member promoting joint interests of affiliated members and fostering glasshouse horticulture.
• GLOBALG.A.P.minorOthersGlobal partnership for Good Agricultural Practice certification. Members create private sector incentives for agricultural producers to adopt safe and sustainable practices.
• RHPminorOthersEuropean knowledge centre for growing media since 1963. RHP certified substrates guarantee optimal start of culture with quality requirements for water and air content, pH, EC, purity and cleanliness.
• VPNminorOthersIndustry and interest organization of the Dutch substrate sector. VPN and its members stand for high quality substrates as a prerequisite for healthy growth of all plants.
• OVTOminorOthersOrganisation of Horticultural Consultants and Researchers, founded in 1985, with about 200 consultants and research workers mainly active in Dutch greenhouse industry.
• DelphyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDelphy provides worldwide expertise for Food & Flowers, contributing knowledge and expertise for success of partners in plant sectors worldwide.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Direct peers

• Cultilene (Saint-Gobain): Cultilene is the closest direct peer to Grodan — both produce stone wool (rockwool) growing media substrates for professional greenhouse horticulture. The two companies compete head-to-head in slab, block, and plug formats across Europe and globally for vegetable and floriculture growers.
• Jiffy Group: Jiffy produces a broad range of growing media substrates (peat, coir, pre-formed plugs) for horticulture and propagation. It directly competes with Grodan in propagation plugs/blocks and substrate slabs, particularly in nursery and young-plant segments.
• Pelemix: Pelemix is a major producer of coco coir substrates for greenhouse and hydroponic cultivation. It is a direct alternative-substrate peer to Grodan, particularly competing in vegetable and berry markets where growers choose between stone wool and coir.
• Klasmann-Deilmann: Klasmann-Deilmann is one of the world's largest producers of peat-based growing substrates for professional horticulture. It is a direct substrate peer competing with Grodan across vegetable, floriculture, and propagation applications.
• Premier Tech Horticulture: Premier Tech produces peat, coco, and other growing media for professional horticulture and is a global direct competitor to Grodan in the substrate category, including propagation and container-grown crop segments.

Emerging players

• PRIVA: Priva is a Dutch provider of climate computers, process control, and software for greenhouses and buildings. It is comparable as an adjacent digital/computing layer for the same professional greenhouse customer base that Grodan targets with e-Gro and GroSens, and increasingly partners or competes in CEA technology stacks.
• Freight Farms: Freight Farms builds container-based vertical farming systems and represents an emerging player in controlled-environment agriculture that intersects with Grodan's vertical-farming substrate solutions — both target the same 'local, year-round produce' thesis but from different angles of the stack.

Others

• Signify (Philips Lighting Horticulture): Signify is both a strategic partner (low-energy tomato research) and an adjacent technology provider serving the same controlled-environment-agriculture customer base. It is comparable as a complementary input vendor (LED lighting) for the same professional greenhouse growers Grodan serves.

Broad incumbents

• BASF Agricultural Solutions: BASF is a broad incumbent agricultural inputs company that, while focused on crop protection and seeds rather than substrates, competes for wallet share with professional growers. Its scale and R&D in digital agronomy overlap with Grodan's data-driven growing ambitions.
• Bayer Crop Science: Bayer Crop Science is a diversified agricultural inputs incumbent with growing digital farming and CEA-adjacent offerings. Comparable as a broad incumbent competing for the same grower customer relationships and increasingly investing in controlled-environment agriculture.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/grodan

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Grodan