Wholesale in times gone by
Diederik: "Actually, the story of our company goes back a bit further, my great-grandfather had a wholesale business for things you used in the house. Think buckets, brushes, cleaning stuff. My grandfather started in 1948, just after the war. Having been put to work in Germany during the war, he spoke the language well and looked further from home for stuff to resell. In Germany and Italy, he particularly focused on picture frames and trays. His company was called De Vergulde Arend, the main sales channel in those days was the Trade Markt in Utrecht. That was really the trade fair in Europe. My father took over the company in 1969 and renamed it Kersten BV. My brother joined the company in the 1980s and I in the early 1990s. We were a traditional wholesaler buying from importers. That's how it was back then."
From Christmas to living
"Meanwhile, we were fully into Christmas items, which was booming business in the 1980s. We decided to start importing more ourselves from the Far East. And slowly but surely we shifted from selling Christmas items to home decoration. We grew steadily, I can still remember in 2000 an article from the Retail Council, they had done research and we were in the Top 3 of the biggest wholesalers. To be honest, we didn't even realise that ourselves. So we grew and have continued to do so. We now supply in 72 countries and are committed to the experience we sell. Every customer group has a different taste and we respond to that."
On- and offline
"Because of corona, we started thinking and working differently. Where previously sales were done a lot through trade shows, during corona we had to explore other ways. We invested much more in an omnichannel approach. Online and offline aligned well. And after corona, spending patterns have changed quite a bit, people have less to spend and during corona they paid a lot of attention to their interiors. That too is something we have to deal with."
Critical and sharp
"We have been working with Xolv for quite some time now, we made that choice because we were also really looking for a sparring partner. A club that thinks along with us, that is critical towards the insurer when necessary, but that also dares to say to us 'that is not a wise thing to do'. We have credit insurance and we work with CreditDevice. This allows us to manage more by exception and look at the potential risks. That is a different way of looking at things. It is more important than ever to be wary where customers are concerned. We are not successful until a customer has paid. Xolv keeps us on our toes. We really consult on the bigger things, on the reliability of new customers, for example. And vice versa, I think we also keep Xolv on its toes. For instance, I wondered whether there were possibilities to insure the down payments we make. And we then discuss that. Solutions are always there, as an entrepreneur, I make my own assessment of whether the costs and benefits remain in balance."
Pictured: Diederik with his son
Photographer: Jessica Hooghiemstra
