A year ago, Jesse Keizer from Koekange saw the main location of his online hardware store Wovar go up in flames. After the entrepreneur quickly found an alternative place, the move to a brand new home awaits.
“Life is smiling at me again, we are looking forward to moving”, Keizer (28) looks ahead. The new building is located in the Westpoort industrial area, on the west side of the city of Groningen. The new building was already planned, but the fire has accelerated the completion.
“The contractor started earlier,” says Keizer. “I thought that after the fire I would need two years to fully recover, but fortunately that was not too bad. The turnover is extremely good and we are continuing where we left off.”
Yet it took quite some time before the Koekanger could leave the fire behind. “The past period was real fucking hard, also for my colleagues. Everyone had to give everything, it was very intensive. We’ve only been busy getting things back on track, instead of growing.”
“The fire cost me a total of one and a half million euros. But I completed it two weeks ago with the insurance, so it is now closed. That took a lot of time and energy and I still have a big hole in the budget. “
Immediately after the fire, Keizer switched quickly. “Then we rented a building close to the old location. It was really: clear your mind and go. The fire was on Saturday and on Monday we were already able to move into the other building.”
“For a week we worked hard with a lot of people from early in the morning until late at night. And no one complained, although fatigue did set in at the end. But after a good week we were open again, that’s a world achievement.”
The cause of the fire was never clear. Keizer: “The building was completely destroyed, and that same night it was demolished due to the risk of collapse. The fire brigade immediately said that they could never find out the cause.”
“I’ve been working on it for a long time, but now I don’t care anymore. It could also have been that I should have pointed out a guilty person and then I would have had to recover my money. Well, then I would have received nothing at all. “
And now the move to the brand new building, where the latest things are currently being tested, awaits. “We now have a semi-automatic order picking system,” says Keizer. “The box in which we ship the order first goes through the warehouse on a roller track. Then the order comes to you instead of you having to walk through the entire warehouse with a trolley.”
The relocation of his company is not the only new chapter in Keizer’s life. His first child was born a few days ago and today he celebrates ‘his’ Father’s Day for the first time. “That is very special. Your life can change considerably in a year.”
“Everything has turned 180 degrees and I could not have imagined that a year ago,” Keizer admits. “If you’ve had a fire you don’t sleep well, but you don’t sleep well with a baby either. But this reason is a bit more fun.”