Globitas acquires assets of Bakker.com to restart Europe’s largest direct seller of green products

Bakker.com has been rescued. The company is now re-launching under the management of group of Dutch entrepreneurs on the initiative of Globitas. Within the structure of the new Bakker.com there is an important role for employees and suppliers. Bakker.com, which was founded as Bakker Hillegom in 1947, has grown to become Europe’s largest direct seller of garden products such as flower bulbs, flower seeds and plants. As a mail order company, Bakker.com delivered these products in 17 countries. Last year the company ran into financial difficulties. Bakker.com was declared bankrupt on the 5th February. After a period of uncertainty, Bakker.com is now going to restart.

 

A team of Dutch entrepreneurs, together with the employees of the company, investigated the possibility of a restart. Some of the assets have been taken over in order to be able to continue and expand the activities. This concerns the buildings, machines and intellectual property.

 

Hands-on entrepreneurs with extensive knowledge in the field of e-commerce

The restart will be realized by a team of Dutch 'hands-on' entrepreneurs of Globitas, with extensive knowledge in the field of e-commerce, marketing, sales and distribution. Bakker.com employed 200 people last year, 130 of them in the Netherlands. At least 50 employees will transfer to the new Dutch company. Martijn van Scherpenzeel of Globitas; “Bakker.com offers unique opportunities. The company has been active for 73 years to deliver directly from growers to consumers. The entire value chain is skipped. This makes it possible to deliver a high-quality product to the customer's home at a fair price. ”

 

Platform for growers, e-commerce parties and retailers

Van Scherpenzeel makes a comparison with a platform like Netflix. “Platforms like Netflix skip an entire value chain and generate a lot of useful data about the viewing behavior of their consumers. They adjust their offer accordingly. That is exactly what we have in mind. Based on the data we receive from our customers through their purchases, we will soon be able to predict what a grower will have to put in the ground next year, in order to be able to sell well sought-after products. In this way we offer added value for the entire industry. ”

 

Bakker.com will be managed by CEO Erwin van Cooth. The team want to turn Bakker.com into a platform where other e-commerce parties and retailers can also deliver green products to their customers. Van Cooth; “Buying and distributing green products to consumers is very complex. Completely on the scale on which Bakker.com did, which itself operated in 17 countries. On this scale this would even be a challenge for Amazon. With the new Bakker.com we will work closely with other e-commerce parties and retailers. In this way, other parties can use the platform and our expertise and at the same time take advantage of a fast-growing market for online green products. ”

 

As part of the restart, stakeholders of the Bakker group will play an important role. With the slogan "together we learn from our mistakes and together we celebrate our success", a group of employees also become co-owners. These employees are closely involved in the restart. Van Cooth: “Suppliers will also be more closely involved in the business process, with data, efficiency and outsourcing playing an important role.”

 

About Bakker.com

Bakker.com was founded in 1945 by entrepreneur Piet Bakker. The Netherlands had just come out of the war and many Dutch people received food parcels and had become friends with the liberators from all over the world. As a thank you, they wanted to give something back, but there wasn't much in a country devastated by war. Apart from flower bulbs, which had served as an alternative food source just a few months earlier. As a young entrepreneur, Piet Bakker had an idea. What if we sent the flower bulbs as a gift package to the foreign friends? He started putting ads in newspapers and before he knew it; Bakker Hillegom was born. The company developed into the largest direct seller of green products, active in 20 countries, with a turnover of more than EUR. 160m. Due to the late entry into e-commerce, the company went bankrupt on February 5, 2018.