The benefits of a flexible family business: 'We never have to sell no'"

Polish doors and fencing on the Dutch market

Recognizable? The architect has drawn up a brilliant plan, all you have to do as a contractor is buy the doors. Only to be told by the supplier that what you have in mind is not possible. His double-thick catalog contains many beautiful products, but not the one you were looking for. Wouter van Kerkvoorde thought that there must be another way.

An example of a Wisniowski application.

So when he and his associate Dennis Geerdes started the company AW Netherlands, customization had to be one of the starting points. And they succeeded. "The sky is the limit; we just tell customers: just sign, we'll deliver it."

Flexibility is the magic word
The brand that AW Netherlands carries is Wiśniowski, the largest manufacturer of doors and fencing in Central Europe. As the name suggests, this is a Polish company. "And that can still sometimes raise eyebrows," Van Kerkvoorde knows from experience. "A German brand immediately evokes a sense of solidity; a Polish brand has to prove itself first. But if customers buy Wiśseeing niowski with their own eyes - in our showroom, for example - they are convinced."

Wiśniowski is a big company; it produces more than 85,000 garage doors a year and exports to dozens of countries in Europe. Yet it does not behave like a multinational. "Wiśniowski has remained a typical family business despite the growth it has experienced since its founding in 1989," Van Kerkvoorde says. What's the advantage of that for clients? Flexibility. Van Kerkvoorde explains: "We never have to sell no. Whatever the customer comes up with, we can deliver. Doors with vertical glass, for example. Very common in a country like Poland, unique here in the Netherlands. We can always adapt the product to the construction project, not the other way around - without charging extra for it."

To make sure that everything fits, Van Kerkvoorde comes to the construction site for a follow-up inspection. "It could happen to you that your brand-new overhead door turns out to be just a centimeter too short upon delivery. Prevention is simply better than cure. That's why we maintain close contact with the customer. As a result, we are always informed if the project is unexpectedly delayed. We then adjust the delivery and assembly of the doors accordingly."

Dennis Geerdes (left) and Wouter van Kerkvoorde of AW Netherlands.

The right translation
By the way, adapting also applies to the Dutch market. Because one thing is certain: Polish products cannot be adopted one-to-one in our country. "Just think about the use of a garage. In Poland it is meant to store a car, here the garage is used much more as storage space for garden equipment and bicycles, for example. Such a different use of space also requires a different kind of door."

As an experienced party, AW Nederland always knows the right translation to the local market. In addition, Van Kerkvoorde and Geerdes want to maintain the small-scale character of Wiśniowski also guard here. Thus, when you call, you immediately get one of the two men on the line; AW Nederland does not employ a telephone operator. In fact, the partners do all the work for their company themselves. So it may be that the phone rings when Van Kerkvoorde is just unloading a load at a customer's site. These short lines in combination with the down-to-earth approach of the entrepreneurs from Overijssel have proved to be a successful formula for years.

To know what AW Netherlands has to offer you with Wiśniowski? 

Go to www.wisniowski.nl or send an e-mail to info@wisniowski.viz.   

Text and Image: Wisniowski
Featured image: The office of AW Netherlands.