De Isolatieshop

Turning the whole insulation industry upside down. With that goal in mind, Tim van Haaren and Martijn Aaldering founded the Isolatieshop in 2010. This sector has always been a fairly conservative one: there was trading in A-choice or B-choice products but never in both. The Isolatieshop put an end to that. Also, previously there were practically no online providers to be found in this market. The company shook up the market by providing a broad and deep assortment of insulation materials. They did this by keeping a lot of stock, by having an intricate distribution network and by following a clever online strategy.

Besides the Netherlands, De Isolatieshop is currently also active in Belgium and Germany. The renewed webshop means 70% of revenue comes from the digital channel. Out of these online sales, 80% is to consumers (B2C). Through the sales department they also control the B2B market. This consists predominantly of people who are self-employed, roofers, contractors, other traders, the carpentry industry, the prefab industry and increasingly also building companies. De Isolatieshop also carries private label products besides a variety of brands. De Isolatieshop also provides custom solutions to several insulation inquiries.

The challenge that the current management team faces is bringing the company into the next phase of growth. Management believes that these ambitions can be realised by raising growth capital as well as finding a successor for both founders. Investment company Nordian Capital Partners joined in 2021. Nordian invests in growing medium-sized businesses that have a lot of potential for further (international) growth. To provide the successors of the two founders, the position of Managing Director has been created.

The Managing Director’s goal is to define the whole strategy, structure it and execute it. He makes an important contribution to the strategy and growth of De Isolatieshop mainly through e-Commerce expertise. Within this, the commercial omnichannel approach is very important. The company now finds itself at a tipping point to the (post) scale-up phase in which many things can be improved to realise growth ambitions. Further professionalisation and strong operational management is key in this. Being able to keep an overview of company-wide priorities is essential in this position. Creating a winning team and further building on a strong positive culture provides a foundation for this.