Ted Swart started it all on a business trip with Gerard Apeldoorn to Indonesia to research sales opportunities in the used refrigeration market. Gerard already had an export business to Indonesia.
It was quickly discovered that there was a market for used refrigeration equipment, since new equipment is expensive. Refrigeration equipment, produced in Europe, that are used are therefore much more affordable for businesses in Indonesia, amongst other countries.
Gerard sets up Ted with a contact, Mr. Wahyudi Samdodra, manager of Kemfarm in Semarang, central Java. Kemfarm is a business that also owns the Kem Chicks and Kemfood brands (CEO Bob Sadino).
Kem Chicks is one of the first supermarkets “Western style” in Java, where the traditional model was and to a large degree still is the standard.
The research quickly shows the potential market in not just Indonesia, but pretty much all of Asia.
The first customers from Indonesia are starting to show an active interest.
Ted spots an advert in a Dutch national newspaper offering cold rooms and after a few sales to Kemfarm, more companies are starting to show an active interest, as a result of which Ted founds HOS and the first HOS website is launched.
More foreign customers are coming in.
Ted resigns from his day job as a butcher to fully focus on selling used refrigeration equipment, initially from a small storage location Gerard owns. An increasing amount of Dutch companies start to sell their used refrigeration machines to HOS in order for Ted to give them a second life. Export starts to increase steadily and expands from Asia to the Middle East.
A new facility
2004 is the year of the first big export orders.
This marks the year of the start of co-operation with Mr. Bambang Sutantio, owner of multiple businesses for meat-, chicken-, sausage- and dairy production. PT Macroprima and PT Cisuara Mountain Dairy are industrial powerhouses in South-East Asia and the co-operation with Mr. Sutantio continues to this day.
HOS delivers compressors, evaporators and chillers to Indonesia and in the meantime the inventory is steadily increasing, creating the need for a new facility, which is found in Haarlem, in a former slaughterhouse. The first staff member is also hired
HOS officially becomes HOS BV
Another new facility.
The business continues to grow and yet more space is needed for all of the inventory HOS BV is quickly acquiring, so a facility in Heemskerk is purchased. The number of employees has grown to 10 and refrigeration rental company Rosreco is acquired. The owner, Wim Ros, is kept on board as HOS BV employee in the role of refrigeration equipment customer advisor.
The next steps in professionalism.
The inventory keeps growing in almost explosive fashion and another facility is purchased, this time in Hillegom, where a workshop is set up as well. The team keeps growing and Marcel Hazeu is hired as Technical Director, who has many years of experience in commercial and industrial refrigeration.
This allows HOS BV to make the next steps in professionalism and in its ability to give all of the used refrigeration equipment a proper second life.
Less export and more solutions driven sales.
The organization that was mostly product sales driven until then is slowly transforming to solution sales driven. Instead of only selling products to installers that need product quickly and cheaply HOS BV starts to sell solutions to end customers as well, pre-engineered by Marcel, prepared by a professional workshop and delivered if necessary with P&ID for the installer of the end customer.
The first big projects are begin delivered to customers in Egypt and Vietnam, with all components for big complete installations.
And long lasting business relationships are being formed with installers, who repeatedly make purchases for their customers based on quick delivery times and relatively inexpensive prices.
In the meantime the rest of the world also seems to have discovered HOS BV and 50% of sales is now in Europe and 50% outside Europe.
The start of our compressor overhauling department.
HOS BV hires a highly experienced overhauling specialists and starts overhauling compressors of all major brands, which as a result expands the customer base even more.
Beside sales through the website HOS BV is also present at many exhibitions, often with partner companies in Sudan, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland and Egypt.
In Hillegom construction work is undertaken to modernize 4 halls and the workshop is also rapidly expanding.
A family business is born
A new large storage facility is purchased in Swifterbant, located in central Netherlands and with 45.000m2 storage surface.
2019 is also the year that Ted’s 18 year old daughter Marit joins the company
Future proof.
Re-construction and modernization efforts of our Swifterbant storage location are finalized and on the back-end of the Hillegom location the final big hall has also been modernized. The employee count is up to 25 and HOS BV is operating ever greener and more circular each year.
From solar panels on the roofs to transformation to water-based paint to full circular operation of used refrigeration equipment, HOS BV tries to improve in a continuous fashion.
The acquisition of RCF Nederland marked the start of 2024. It’s owner Dick van den Bergh had the company for 22 years, specializing in overhauling of commercial and semi-industrial compressors. This allowed us to add this segment of the market to our product range and more importantly to integrate the enormous skills and experience of Dick into HOS BV, which benefits our compressor specialists and technicians.
In 2024, we continue to expand and improve our company. We have started with the renovation plans for our workshop, doubling its size. Additionally, we are working on the construction of mobile racks, which will provide us with an additional capacity of 3000 pallets.