Established in 1979, Kobout – based in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, the Netherlands – has used reliability, honesty, partnerships, and loyalty, to develop as a business – which has seen it still working with both customers and suppliers it met at the very beginning.
Over the last 43 years of activity in the world of fasteners, Kobout has always been clear that as a business it does not just focus on the commercial aspect of how much money it can make. “Whether it is for our colleagues, customers or suppliers, we believe that business is more than just fasteners and making sales. That is why over the last decade we have invested heavily in hiring highly skilled employees, adding two additional warehouses, as well as a new elevator system and new offices,” explains Jan-Arie de Jong, head of the purchasing department at Kobout.
The company also launched a new Warehouse Management System at the beginning of 2022, which initially created some issues, but by the middle of 2022 was fully operational and puts Kobout in a strong position for the future. “Even though we took a few years to develop the WMS and train our personnel, we still hit a couple of hurdles when it went ‘live’, which resulted in everybody having to put in the extra effort to make sure we were still delivering products to customers when they needed them,” mentions Jan-Arie. “However, with the new WMS we are now able to double our order lines and provide an even better service to our customers.”
Other investments by Kobout include a new laboratory/R&D centre, as well as individual investments in departments – including its value added logistics and services department. “It’s amazing how quickly the VAL/VAS department has grown, with customers very interested in the Kanban, RFID, and other logistics services we can offer, as well as the private label service, assembly and packaging, and various kinds of labels we can supply,” explains Jan-Arie. “Another popular department is metalworking, where we can offer cutting, bending, drilling and a variety of other processes, which has received a lot of interest from customers.”
Jan-Arie concludes: “With 13,300m2 of warehouse and approximately 25,000 stock items, mostly in our ‘Blue Line Boxes’, we will continue to meet the needs of customers, whilst ensuring that the partnerships that we develop make our day-to-day business more than ‘just fasteners’.”
Hall: 3 Stand: 2102
Will joined Fastener + Fixing Magazine in 2007 and over the last 15 years has experienced every facet of the fastener sector - interviewing key figures within the industry and visiting leading companies and exhibitions around the globe.
Will manages the content strategy across all platforms and is the guardian for the high editorial standards that the Magazine is renowned.
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