MASTERS TO WATCH: Experience the new world with Le Feu

donderdag 4 november 2021
16:03
By: Patrick Stoffer

Le Feu, a Danish company that produces high-quality bio-fireplaces, made its entrance at MASTERS EXPO last year. These eye-catchers are suitable for interiors, terraces and gardens and are also environmentally friendly and portable. In conversation with co-founder Maikel Horn.Text: Bart-Jan Brouwer
Online editing: Patrick Stoffer
Image: John van Helvert

New world

"I come from the real estate industry. We also import women's fashion brands and for twenty years we sold the loose-leaf diaries of the famous English brand Filofax to 450 dealers nationwide. Because of my work in real estate, I go to many interior design fairs in Europe and the Far East. A year and a half ago, I discovered Le Feu at Maison&Objet in Paris. I was impressed by this Danish brand's bioethanol fireplaces and initially wanted them for my own projects. I was curious to know who their representative in the Netherlands was, but they didn't have one yet. I saw enormous potential in the product and thought: why not do it myself? But I couldn't do it on my own in addition to all my other activities. My friend Lizet Baars also fell for the product and wanted to take on the adventure with me. Then I managed to enthuse my good friend Jur Nederpelt. Having been an F-16 pilot in the army and then a captain at KLM for over thirty years, he had retired - though still young and energetic. Le Feu opened a new world to him. He, too, was impressed with the product. Jur and I picked it up together financially, and by the end of 2019, the establishment of JuMa Trading BV was a reality. We immediately started finding out which other countries were not yet in the distribution network. As a result, in addition to being the exclusive importer for La Feu in the Netherlands, we also serve the Italian market and, with partners on the ground, handle distribution in Germany, Spain and Portugal."

Bakfiets

"In February 2020, we went public with Le Feu for the first time, at the Ambiente fair in Frankfurt. There we had a large booth with 15 employees from all the countries we distribute to. We had an incredibly good fair. For Germany we had secured 120 to 130 orders, put away a container here, a container there... Unbelievable! In March, covid came over and 95 percent of all European orders were canceled. In one fell swoop, everything was gone. That gave us time to look at the business in a different way. We adapted the idea of marketing the fireplaces as wholesale through retail and stores: we started our own stores and also built two insane websites, one for consumers and one for B2B. We transformed the strategy by first making the brand a brand instead of doing it at stores, as was traditionally the case in the past. On Jur's initiative, this beautiful spot at Prinsengracht 529 came into the picture. There we started as a temporary pop-up store in November 2020. The first Saturday we opened, we immediately sold 15,000 to 20,000 euros worth of Le Feu's. Customers even came riding by on a cargo bike: 'Put it in.' We have since opened a store in The Hague as well."