Tilburg-based SB Supply is in the top 1000 fastest growing companies according to the Financial Times. It is one of the 22 Dutch companies on the list. The company of Sander Berendsen is listed next to Dutch companies like Swapfiets, Bunq and FastNed. Founder Sander Berendsen is very pleased: “What a milestone! Being on the FT1000 Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies proves that we not only work with a great team of talented people, but also with great partners to do business with. SB Supply is based in Tilburg University’s IQONIC and is an online shop for tablet, smartphone and laptop accessories. In 2019, the company was placed number 2 in the Ecommerce50 Shopping Awards 2019 and was also among the top 10 fastest growing e-commerce companies in the Netherlands that year.

TAKING BIG STEPS

“Our business has grown tremendously in the past year, many doors have opened and that brought us many challenges, but if there was anything we had to learn from the situation, it is that success is a mixture of great and diverse talent, being able to adapt quickly and knowing how to anticipate challenges,” says Sander. In 2019, he stepped into ‘a new adventure’: “We then acquired baby shop Von Va Voom. That shop got into bankruptcy and I was looking for further diversification. Although it is a completely different endeavour, it is a product ‘online’ and we are experts in e-commerce. The same processes are involved. I really believe in these niches. That has not changed at all compared to five years ago. We wanted to be experts and we made it happen. We are not becoming a shop where you can buy everything though, Von Va Voom will be a separate part of the company. However, that unit will make use of the same logistical network, the same economies of scale and the same purchasing organisation.”

TRENDS AND INNOVATIONS

SB Supply offers user-friendly and practical solutions that meet the highest standards in design and quality. And also behind the scenes the company is constantly growing. With its own developed, innovative softwares, SB Supply makes it possible to optimise processes in terms of product trends and purchasing, and to grow further. “This software has been developed internally, we started working on this in 2018,”. SB Supply was founded in the Netherlands in 2011 and has experienced tremendous growth since then. The founder has lived in Tilburg for almost 7 years. In the Netherlands, the company is located in Tilburg and Groenlo. The founding of the company was soon followed by a subsidiary of SB Supply, based in Vreden, NRW for the entire German speaking area. In addition, SB Supply also expanded into France in 2018 and further growth is planned. SB Supply’s international team consists of young and enthusiastic people who specialise in their own field. Through constant development and curiosity, SB Supply always strives to recognise the latest trends and innovations.

AMAZON 

“It was a good thing that we sought this internationalisation,” explains Sander. “The Netherlands is still only a relatively small part of our turnover. Abroad has become a much larger share. In addition to the Netherlands, we are now also active in Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, the UK, Spain and Italy. Whereby we do not yet do Spain, Italy and the UK with our own shops, but through the partner network of Amazon.” SB Supply works together with the trading platforms of both Amazon and Bol.com. Berendsen looks at it critically, but also soberly: “Compared to us, Bol.com is big and Amazon is very big. In 2018, Bol did 2 billion, Amazon did 200 billion worldwide. That is huge! And what does that make us then? Well,a fast-growing company that is in the top 1000 of the Financial Times! An achievement to be proud of.