Director-owner of ETC Design Center Europe, Len de Koster, tells MASTERS why ETC is unique and how he and his wife, Linda, started.Text: Bart Jan Brouwer | Online editor: Natasha Hendriks
Image: John van Helvert
“In 2008, my wife and I purchased the current ETC building in Culemborg. Interior design was on the rise during that period, but designers had to be able to source their furniture from somewhere. ETC Design Center responded to this and has resulted in ETC today offering a total concept where interior design professionals will find 120 showrooms spread over 15.000 square meters. All this aimed at the high segment of the interior/exterior industry. What ETC has to offer cannot be found on mainland Europe. The interior design center can be seen as a very luxurious department store for interior design with all kinds of exclusive and valuable items. The only difference is that ETC focuses on the Business-to-Business and not on the private market. However, an interior design professional can take his or her client here to make choices together. The professionals who come here are mainly retailers in the high segment, stylists, architects, the hotel industry, the project market and designers from the maritime market. This attracts both national and international guests with very different goals. Some people just come for a sofa, others come for miles of wallpaper or upholstery. All in all, we notice that ETC Design Center Europe is becoming increasingly European.”
“My wife does the creative part - for example, she has set up the ETC Design Café -, I am mainly concerned with finding the right parties.
As a centre, we do not admit just any exhibitor. Quality and craftsmanship are very important, but we also let our gut feeling speak for us. I personally have a preference for beautiful materials. Here we have blinds made of leather, wallpaper made of wafer-thin wood and carpets in all shapes and sizes. Some people label our products as expensive, but that is the wrong term: they are expensive. Something is expensive if the price-quality ratio is not in proportion. Something becomes valuable when you know that, for example, a carpet is completely hand-knotted and has been worked on for nine months. As a centre, we have had the honor of receiving many special guests and some exhibitors have collaborated on very special projects. Without going into detail, we can say that the center has been visited for the realization of several royal projects.”
“It's very strange: there is a crisis going on that many companies are suffering enormously, but here we only have entrepreneurs who are happy. As a centre, we sometimes even have the luxury of having more requests than we can accommodate. Visitor numbers have also only increased after the first wave of the coronavirus, it seems as if everyone is busy with their interior. The trend you see now is that, due to the increase in home workers, the old-fashioned office is returning. Very nice desks are being developed for the home. And we see the rise of the fabric Boucle. It all becomes a bit lighter, less pompous. To share such developments, we organize the ETC Design Experience. On these days, interior professionals can immerse themselves in the latest trends, colors and inspiration. In addition, ETC also offers various training options under the name ETC Academy: a range of courses, training and workshops provided by various partners.”
“This site used to be the clubhouse of the cycling club, of which I was a member as a ten-year-old boy. This is a piece of my youth, and it goes back even further: as a four-year-old boy I caused pollution in the ground here when I hit the handle of an oil tank with my go-kart and oil flowed out. The oil tank belonged to the rubber factory where my father worked as manager. Later I bought my own problem back and then solved it myself. I still do cycling. For example, I have already climbed the Alpe d'Huez twelve times with Friends Team Culemborg and I am part of the organization of Alpe d'HuZes. Part of this building has been made available to the Alpe d'HuZes as storage for catering, merchandise and facilities, among other things. Every year in May I take three weeks off, then thirty trucks come here to load everything and then drive to France. And then I go back up that mountain; on my carbon bike. My wife is always in stitches. Look at my posture. And then I come home with 'honey, I have carbon pedals, 50 grams lighter'.”
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