BIG INTERVIEW
“On the first day of the restart, there was nothing. It was a blank piece of paper,” explains de Haas. “We had a lot of ideas on how we wanted to do things.
But to actually realise those ideas has been what we’ve been working on the last six months. “It’s pretty impressive to see what the team has done in such a short time. It’s been hectic, intense, but it’s also been very rewarding.” With a team in place – many from the original VanMoof – the next step was to re-engage with suppliers. “The majority of our partners or suppliers have been willing
to help us out. Not all of them. But I think the majority which made it easier for us to restart,” says Wertheimer. de Haas continues: “The first thing was to check ‘what are we missing?’
“What are the parts that our riders desperately need to
keep riding? We immediately placed an order with our team in Taiwan who went to suppliers to see if they could replenish that. And the first containers of spare parts have arrived already so that we can keep the replenishment going.” The restarted company has also been able to use previous
inventory to plug shortfalls where possible. On paper, restarting production of parts may seem quite a straightforward process, but Wertheimer insists it took a lot of effort to regain the trust of suppliers.
“Obviously a lot of those partners lost a lot of money, lost faith in some of the mission,” he explains. “A lot of them are the reason why we managed to actually reactivate the supply chain. “It was really encouraging to us because you could see them [suppliers] believing again in the mission. “We had to pitch a new business model, we had to explain why the second time was different and we had to make sure that our biggest critics would believe us.”
Gaining partners Under the new leadership, VanMoof is also revamping its retail and service strategy. Instead of providing servicing directly to its riders, the brand will shift to a more sustainable maintenance model, equipping local workshops with the tools, knowledge and parts they need, and outsourcing maintenance and retail to them. “We’re going for an approach that hopefully works for everyone,” explains de Haas. “We’re trying to create this ‘win-win-win’ for the riders, for the partners and for VanMoof, to scale up the network as soon as possible.
www.bikebiz.com May 2024 | 27
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