Business organisation VNO-NCW is celebrating an anniversary: 125 years of entrepreneurship in the Netherlands. Entrepreneurship can also be condensed into one company. A family business where the generations succeed each other. Like furniture maker Arco in Winterswijk, which has now existed for 120 years. Director Jorre van Ast and his father - and predecessor - Willem talk about their company and what kept them going. Paul Scheer wrote the article below on behalf of VNO-NCW.
How a fall from a horse leads to the start of a family business. It is 1904 when Wouter van Ast, brigadier of the military police, falls off his horse and breaks his right leg. What exactly happened, history does not tell. What we do know is that it left him with permanent injuries, forcing him to look for other work. The only option he sees is to start his own business. Van Ast opens a Christian bookshop in Winterswijk. When he noticed that customers wanted to have religious pictures framed, he decided to start a frame factory and glass shop behind the shop. This eventually led to furniture factory Arco (named after his son Arend Cornelis). Started small and now grown into a company that is perhaps better known abroad than in the Netherlands. How did this family business manage to survive? Willem van Ast and son Jorre on their time in 'the business'. 
Willem van Ast managed Arco and handed it over to son Jorre. He is now in charge.
Photo: Sam Rentmeester.
Wake-up call in time
"We are going to make tables." That's what Willem van Ast (79) was told when he joined the company in the late 1960s. That might not sound like a crazy choice for a furniture company, but it constituted a break with their production until then. They made 'small furniture' such as coat racks, lecterns and wall mirrors. But tables already formed the bulk of sales, and by specialising further in them, they were better able to compete.
Until in the middle of the "difficult period" of the 1970s, as Van Ast calls it with a good sense of understatement, the economic crisis also hit the company in all its intensity. "We were really on edge," he looks back at Arco's premises in Winterswijk, which looks as sleek and austere as the tables made there. After all, the crisis meant less money from families to buy a new table. "I also had to lay people off during that time. I found that a very difficult task and a big responsibility. After all, these were people who had often worked for the company for many years."
Modesty
Arco owes its survival to a large order from construction company Ballast Nedam. That was building a military base with 1,300 homes in Saudi Arabia at the time. Could Arco supply the furniture for that? Within six months, please. It took a lot out of the company. People worked in shifts, even at night, to get the job done on time. But as a result, Arco did make a profit again after a year of losses. "A large order like that is the luck you have to have every now and then as an entrepreneur," Van Ast says with Achterhoekian modesty.
That profit was used to buy computer-controlled machines, which were just emerging at the time. Five different operations could be performed on such a machine, whereas until then one machine was needed per operation. Arco was there early. It was also badly needed at a time when imports of cheap classic furniture from Eastern Europe and Italy were taking off. "That shook us up. Other furniture factories didn't see it or were too late."
Van Ast did realise that more was needed to survive. For him, the most important thing was that Arco had to keep delivering (high) quality, because that was the soul of the company. To fend off foreign competition, he decided to focus on more contemporary, modern furniture. "That was where we could still make a difference," he said. Dealers did not immediately react enthusiastically to the new line. "What are you guys up to now? I often got that question at the time," Van Ast looks back. All in all, it was quite exciting. Until a German sales office came forward that did find the new line interesting. Then the ball started rolling.
Dutch design
He drew the first modern designs himself, with a furniture education in his back pocket. Soon, renowned designers such as Arnold Merckx were brought in to come up with new models. And something else new: tables were made according to customers' specific wishes. As a result, no two tables were the same. Except for the look: sober and timeless.
Gradually, a movement emerged in the Netherlands that would come to be called 'Dutch Design'. Van Ast and Arco were part of it. While studying in Rotterdam, he had shared school desks with the sons of other furniture makers, and those contacts had continued. The 'modernists' started presenting together at trade fairs and in their own showroom at Pastoe in Utrecht. Van Ast: "There was healthy competition. If furniture manufacturer Castelijn came up with a new design, I thought: damn. And then set to work to come up with something new myself."
In the DNA
It was up to son Jorre van Ast (44) to take over after the turn of the century, together with his sister Floor. They did not arrive in a well-spread bed, because even then it was exciting. This time, the real estate and credit crisis created uncertain times. Houses were not being built and consumers were putting off spending. Van Ast still felt "young and inexperienced" in the business, but realised that something had to be done. In this case, that became producing for the corporate market. Would Arco's tables fit into their plans?
That's how the company managed to survive this crisis too. However, they had to show more of themselves. "As a modest Achterhoek company, we were not used to that," he says. But if you wanted to make inroads nationally and internationally, you had to be known. Especially as a manufacturing company in a country that did not and does not really have a manufacturing culture. Because otherwise, when people think of furniture, they only think of Italian and Scandinavian design, and you still lose. Van Ast: "We want to show that here, manufacturing is also in our DNA."
He emphasises the innovative nature of his company: design, development and production in one hand. Like his father, he thus managed to win a major customer. Computer giant Apple had found out about the company through the Essenza, Arco's first solid table from 1999, and ordered many tables for its headquarters in California. Not bad for brand awareness, of course. Again, this was a big job in a short timeframe that demanded a lot from the company and its employees. And so things could just go wrong if the job turned out to be too big after all. After all, entrepreneurship is also about taking risks.
Staff shortage
The focus on tables for the working environment became even stronger after the corona period. A new view of the office as a place for meeting and sharing knowledge emerged. And that requires tables. And that demand is only increasing as staff shortages grow in the Netherlands. Employers increasingly realise that they need to be attractive to their staff. So the workplace should also be good and comfortable.
Arco itself also suffers from the staff shortage. Skilled workers are hard to find. One advantage of the Winterswijk location is that Germany is nearby. And that vocational training in woodworking has not disappeared there, as it has in the Netherlands. Of the 60 or so employees, around 20 per cent are from Germany.
According to Van Ast, the future of the company is one of sustainability and circularity. This is already the case. The wood is certified (responsible forest management and new planting). And from the surrounding area, avoiding unnecessary kilometres. Arco is also committed to repairing tables, so they don't have to be discarded too soon. "As a family business, you are always thinking about the next generation. I too want to leave behind a beautiful company. The same goes for the world."
More information:
VNO-NCW
The Malietoren
Bezuidenhoutseweg 12
2594 AV The Hague
+31 70 349 03 49
www.vno-ncw.nl
Arco
Parallelweg 2-III
7102 DE Winterswijk
0543 546 098
[email protected]
www.arco.nl
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