The Netherlands: Your Gateway to and from Europe

Not only due to the unique strategical position The Netherlands can be seen as Gateway to and from Europe but there are also other interesting benefits. 

A number of developments have already taken place. For example, the Customs Control Centre, a central helpdesk for customs services customers, has recently been realized. The Cargo Checkpoint pilot project was launched on 21 September, in which various monitoring and inspection procedures were integrated in a single monitoring procedure.

Schiphol SmartGate Cargo also includes the ‘Information Broker’, a system developed by Cargonaut that allows both the aviation sector and government bodies to determine whether a shipment will require inspection at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in advance on the basis of electronic pre-departure and pre-arrival information.

As from September 2015 Estron Group proudly introduce Tabata Europe Corporation as a new customer. Apart from the fact that we need to prove our highly appreciated service level to satisfy this new partner, there was another challenge. After a period of test cases, Tabata was the first customer that get implemented in our new warehouse management system. Almost one year further, it’s time to evaluate. This is why we met Bob Rigterink managing director from Tabata in Amsterdam.

In 1952 Tabata was founded by Mr. Tabata. He was not satisfied with the existing diving masks that were on the market. From Tokyo he started the research, development and production of masks with his vision of how to make a perfect mask. According to Bob: “ You still see the vision of Mr. Tabata in our products. High quality components with very much attention to the details. This is why you can find our products in the higher segment of the diving and swimming industry.” Tabata has a large assortment of diving and swimming equipment. Diving masks, snorkels, fins, buoyancy compensators, swimming glasses and all kind of accessories.  The diving equipment is known as Tusa and the brand name of the swimming equipment is View. Bob: “We have a large scale of products that can fulfill almost all requirements from our customers. Sometimes we do get a request outside our product range. In this case we have a lot of partners worldwide to satisfy their requirements”. 

Nowadays Tabata has also a production side in Taiwan and distribution locations in America, Australia and ofcourse Europe. From Europe they serve also markets in Russia, Middle East, Africa and the Dutch Antilles. Estron Group is the logistic service provider for the European and additional markets. With over 800 pallet places of stock and dozens of shipments per day we manage the supply chain and we live up to the expectations of Tabata. Bob: “We have known Martin Terlouw, Marcel Krikken and Joeri Blaak for years. It is not a coincidence that our paths have crossed. When Martin introduced Estron Group, our first feeling was that we were dealing with a professional company. We both felt the possibilities to make use of each others strengths to bring both parties to a higher level. Although we are in two complete different branches,  there is much similarity between the business philosophy of both companies. There’s some kind of synergy that makes there is a lot of commitment between the employees of both companies. With mutual efforts we go for the best solution there is for  the customer. This is why we call this a partnership.”

For Estron Group it was not only the start of a new partnership. It was also the official start of putting our new WMS into practice. Even though all tests were positive, it still was a very exiting moment. Not only because of the transitions itself but also because of the promising possibilities the new software should bring. For example: interfaces with other software so that less manual administration is needed, web interfaces and automatic status alerts for real time overviews and planning, KPI’s and reports to control and improve work flows. Bob: “Changing to another logistic service provider always brings a lot of questions, but they also implement a new WMS system at the same time, can you imagine!! Will they be able to achieve the expectations? Is their new WMS implemented as expected and working fluently? Or are there any other start up problems? We must say that we hardly noticed or felt anything from this operation. At a certain moment I though, even I got a bit worried and called Martin Terlouw to check as I couldn’t believe it was going so smoothly.”

When we look to the future, there is a lot that we can achieve together. Bob: “ A goal from us is to focus on markets where we see chances. In Italy for example there is a large market for diving and swimming gear. Also there are a lot of chances to reach new markets via the internet. B2B and B2C. We need a constantly developing logistic service provider that can handle the demands of our customers. Customers want easy ordering via the internet and short delivery times. 

We as Estron Group take this challenge and together with Tabata we move on to the future.