In 1997, Dirk took over the leadership of the family business, which is now one of the largest independent Benelux importers in the sports and outdoor industry. Back in '93, Dirk already recognised the huge importance of automation. Dirk: "From the age of 10, I was programming and later studied computer science. I was looking for an IT job when my father said: we are growing fast and need computers, why don't you come and do it? I then implemented the accounting package Exact for DOS and two years later we had an ERP system that was perfectly tailored to our business processes." (Enterprise Resource Planning: computer programme that supports all processes within the company, ed.)
Much more than a conduit
"Look, we don't add anything to the sporting goods themselves. The shoe that comes out of the factory is the same shoe we deliver to retailers. If you don't offer anything else extra as an importer, manufacturers and retailers may logically think: we'll cut those out. So you have to offer added values. Our first pillar is knowledge. Knowledge of the local market that the manufacturer does not have, knowledge of retailers' payment behaviour and knowledge of sports segments that not all retailers have. The second pillar of our added values is risk management. For example, there was an Italian manufacturer that sold its product in the Benelux but did not realise that the retailer was on the verge of collapse. You don't have that insight from Italy, but we do."
Faster, better and cheaper
Asked whether other importers don't also offer market and retailer knowledge, Dirk replies, "Sure, but the difference is that we can fulfil our knowledge-based 'added value' philosophy, faster, better and cheaper than our competitors and direct business models. For that, you need the best and most up-to-date data, and you can only collect that with an advanced ICT system like ours. That does not only provide quantitative data, expressed in Euros or numbers of articles. Instead, we have invested a lot in qualitative information. Every customer contact, phone call or e-mail from the accounting, marketing, complaints handling and field sales departments is recorded in our CRM system. So that information is always available, makes the business processes more efficient and also improves our customer service."
Advanced 'shenanigans'
Dirk likes to give an example of one of the many advanced 'shenanigans' as he calls it.
"Every week, we send as many as 200 reminders or more to various retailers. Invariably, 15-20 customers then call saying they never received the invoice. Whether we want to send a copy. The accounting department then spends half a day on that. How did we solve this? Our system automatically sends an encrypted PDF file with invoice list at the same time as the reminder. The customer then only has to click on the correct invoice number to view it. And if the customer really hasn't received the invoice, it is a piece of extra service. When you consider that some customers receive as many as 50 invoices or more from us every month, it saves us a lot of time and money."
'Our added values are knowledge, risk management and an excellent team'
80,000 IT hours
Dirk emphasises that with automation, you are never really done. "You have to constantly fine-tune, optimise and customise. Since 2005, we have spent some 80,000 IT hours on automation. All by the way, with internal IT people, 4 in total, including myself. I spend 20 to 30 hours a week as owner-director, as well as 30 to 40 hours as IT staff. Also because I like it."
Own rating system
TCK Sports Group is a long-time customer of credit insurer Euler Hermes. "We integrated Euler Hermes' rating system within our own IT environment with a rating system we built and customised ourselves. Does a client get an under- or no limit from Euler Hermes? Then, fully automated, we can put a credit on top of it ourselves. Does the client not pay? Then that extra credit also comes off automatically. However, when it comes to limit assessments for new clients or contract discussions with Euler Hermes, it is nice to have an experienced broker like Xolv at your side. After all, they speak more the language of the credit insurer. By the way, I only showed Paul van Uden of Xolv 2% what we can do with automation," says Dirk.
