Business premises improves logistics

The Kippie franchise formula began in the early ‘90s. From a hypermodern business premises, the franchisees will be even better served as of May of next year. RBK Food Projects, part of the RBK Group*, is overseeing the construction project from A to Z. 

It is a major and important step for Kippie. The new construction plans that the company has on the table behind the store chain for ready-made chicken products are meant to give the company room to grow, but also offers the opportunity to make everything fully future-proof. In the field of sustainability and energy efficiency, for instance. Arnoud Krijgsman, third generation in the family business, calls it a necessity. “We are becoming too large for our location in Poeldijk. In Waddinxveen, we will soon have another 7,500 square metres of business area, which should hold us over for a while. The first pile will be driven after the construction holiday period, and the opening is scheduled for May of next year.”

Right choice

Besides Arnoud Krijgsman, his cousin Willem Krijgsman Jr. is also among the directors of the company. For the realisation of the new business premises, they came into contact with RBK Food Projects from Deventer. “We partnered up with RBK because of their extensive knowledge and experience in the food sector. And we wanted an independent party that could help us choose the right parties for our new construction.” 

Because the construction has not yet begun, Hans van den Hoorn, who is involved in the project as an architect on behalf of RBK, only has the drawings to show. Van den Hoorn functions as director of the project. “RBK is no ‘traditional’ architectural firm, but a complete engineering company. We designed not just the building, but all building installations as well, and we looked at the logistics and routing, hygiene and finishing, insulation, and so on together with Kippie. And as an additional challenge, there was the desire to create a super sleek, modern building.”

Willem Krijgsman jr. (left), Hans van den Hoorn (middle) en Arnoud Krijgsman.

Sustainable growth

Kippie is a family company with the level-headedness you would expect. The grandfather of the current generation of Krijgsman, who still went door to door with butter, cheese and eggs, started the business with their fathers. Willem Krijgsman Jr. talks about that history: “Later on, this also included slaughtering chickens, and over the years, it slowly grew into a poulter's store in Delft, a market stand in The Hague, and ultimately, two store chains: Krijgsman Poeliers and Kippie”. The Krijgsman family later decided to merge everything together and move forward with all stores under the name ‘Kippie’. The franchise chain now has over 54 stores. But despite that scale, Kippie still has the characteristics of a small organised family business. Willem Krijgsman Jr.: “Lots of family members still work with us. For us, growth is not a goal in and of itself. We would rather continue growing in a sustainable way; continuity is more important to us than quick profits. And at least as important is that our franchisees need to earn a good living from it as well”.

Franchise

Kippie’s goal is to work exclusively with franchisees. So how does Arnoud Krijgsman explain that not all stores are in the hands of an entrepreneur? “We do have a few of our own stores. Sometimes, you get the chance of opening a store location without having found a suitable entrepreneur for it. But the goal is and remains: one hundred percent franchise.”

That choice for franchise is also a very important one for the new business premises. Aside from the chicken – whether provided in parts or whole – the company provides literally everything the stores need. From kitchen paper, marinades, sauces, packaging materials to even disposables and hand soap. Arnoud Krijgsman: “You could say that we transformed from a wholesale company into a 100% service organisation”. 

Transparent design

Thanks to the better routing, products will need to go through less hands and the sustainability improvement is enormous. Van den Hoorn: “It will be a gasless business premises. The solar panels on the roof can provide 70 percent of the electricity needs, and the residual heat from the cooling installations - which must keep the entire production and storage area at zero degrees - will be reused to heat the offices”. The Krijgsman cousins are very enthusiastic about the transparent design of RBK, which uses a lot of glass. Arnoud Krijgsman: “We wanted a lot of daylight in the new building. And we like the fact that you can look from the office to the production floor and vice versa. We don’t like creating distance, and this way, everything is easily in contact with each other”. 

*In addition to RBK Food Projects, RBK Group also consists of RBK Automatisering and RBK Milieu Advies.

www.rbk.nl
www.kippie.nl

Images: ©FOTOBUREAU ROEL DIJKSTRA