"Before I became managing director of SMEG Netherlands on October 1, 2021, I worked first for the American toy manufacturer Mattel for thirteen years and then for the German plumbing specialist Grohe for eight years. What I have in common with Americans is that work is not finished until it is finished. And actually it is never finished: work and private life run into each other. For Mattel, among other things, I did Direct Import, in which position I spent several weeks a year in Asia. I was able to see a lot of the world and had the best bosses, as the most talented managers were sent to Europe for three years for the European experience. When my wife, an Italian, became pregnant with our daughter and I was ready for another challenge, she did like the idea of me being home a little more often. At that time, Grohe came my way. There I became Sales Director, first for the Netherlands, then for the Benelux. After I had been interim Managing Director of Grohe Belgium for six months, I accepted a job within the company to handle the largest international accounts. The ink was not yet dry or the corona pandemic broke out. I was sitting at home in my office... After a year and a half I was done with that: I thrive on interpersonal contact. I started to look around and I saw SMEG. I had never worked for an Italian company before, nor for a family business. That seemed like a lot of fun, partly because my in-laws are Italian."
"SMEG is known for its refrigerators, kettles and toasters. I was hired to make it broader. And to charge that SMEG is an Italian brand. That's why we started working more with Italian manufacturers. For example, we make limited edition refrigerators and toasters with Dolce & Gabbana. SMEG's caption is "Tecnologia Che Arreda," technology with style. German brands are very much on technology and functionality, we add emotion. Italians love beauty: a plate of food is beautifully prepared, fashion looks beautiful... Life is too short to skimp on beauty. Italians understand very well that time spent is qualitative, while the Dutch are more often focused on quantitative. The beauty of my job is that I can add a piece of beauty to the Dutch kitchen landscape. SMEG products are an enrichment for every kitchen. Both our small and large home appliances boomed during corona. People sat at home and kept looking at that ugly toaster and kettle. Moreover, people have been living smaller and smaller, and the living room often overflows into the kitchen. So that kitchen is becoming increasingly important. Not least because cooking and eating have come to occupy an increasingly important place in our lives, partly due to the popularity of cooking shows. All those things work in our favor. You can also see this in the sales of our coffee machines. The Netherlands is originally a country of filter coffee, but people increasingly want better coffee. We have beautiful machines in all colors, matte and shiny, that make really good coffee. Bean to cup: upstairs the coffee beans go in, downstairs the coffee comes out. The Consumers' Association gave our espresso machine SMEG BCC02 the highest test score for best taste."
"When I started at SMEG, I submitted a plan to double in three years. Due to the changed macroeconomic situation, that may take a few months longer, but double we are going to. Whether the market in the Netherlands grows or not is irrelevant. I don't care if the pie gets bigger, I just want a bigger piece of the pie. We are a relatively niche player in many categories. If we double in some of those niches, we will have a top year. That upward trend has started and I am proud of that: we are growing faster than the market. That has mainly to do with drive, looking where opportunities lie, never resting. We have grown both in large and small equipment and in all channels: electronic retail, kitchen retail and online. In addition, we have entered new channels, including the project business. We just equipped three hotels with minibars: our iconic mini-format refrigerator. We are also taking our first steps into residential construction. For many homes, our induction stoves and cooktops are a godsend. People who want to cook without gas often don't realize that they have to convert their meter box from a 1- to 3-phase connection. With our products - and this is unique - you can leave the meter box intact, because they have Eco-logic. This allows the induction cooktop to be set to lower power. I am also proud that since I took office, the mindset of the staff has changed even more to a can do mentality. I got that from the Americans. I like to have people who are on, always working on it. In return, I create an environment where they enjoy coming to work. My adage is: choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. One of the great things about getting older is that you become less bothered by ego. In the words of Stef Bos, one of my favorite singers, "The longer I live, the less I know, the less I think in right and wrong, in truth and lie, in love and hate. When your ego becomes less, you can give more growth to those around you. I don't like to lose, always want to meet my targets. At the same time, I try to bring others along in the momentum to give them the same thing I had in my younger years, which was that people believed in me."
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