Flevo Trade Service anniversary

This year marks a special moment for Flevo Trade Service, as we are celebrating our 20th anniversary. At the same time, it marks owner Dirk Visser’s 10-year anniversary within the organisation. Two milestones that are closely connected. Over the past ten years, Flevo Trade Service has been shaped into what it is today: an established name within the fish industry on Urk and a well-known name with Customs and the NVWA. The story of that growth did not start with a business plan, but with an opportunity.

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From truck to customs

Dirk did not necessarily set out to become an entrepreneur. It grew that way. He started his career as a lorry driver and worked in the transport sector for many years. In 2010, he stopped driving and became a cold store manager in the fishing industry on Urk. There, he came into contact with customs warehousing: storing goods without paying import duties immediately. Practical work, right in the middle of the logistics chain. But clients wanted more than storage. They also wanted to have their goods transported, and for that they needed a customs agent.

In 2014, Dirk decided to take a course himself and start submitting customs declarations. What began as an expansion of services within a transport environment soon started to develop into its own direction. Within three months, the then owner of Flevo Trade Service asked Dirk whether he wanted to take over the company. The timing and the step made sense. Dirk joined the business together with his business partner André.

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The first years

When Dirk started, Flevo Trade Service had a handful of clients. That is why, for the first two years, he did everything himself. Declarations, client contact and administration. A new owner means earning trust all over again. You are a different person, so you have to prove yourself. Growth started through word of mouth. Especially in the fish industry, where trust and reputation carry a lot of weight, this worked well.

The strength lay in being able to explain complex customs rules in a way that remained understandable. No unnecessary jargon, but clarity about what needed to happen and why. When the work could no longer be done alone, the first employee joined. Further expansion followed after that.

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Growing with the market

Over the course of ten years, the market changed significantly. The fish industry on Urk developed from a sector that mainly worked with its own North Sea fish into an international trade chain. Today, fish is imported from all over the world, processed on Urk and then exported again to destinations worldwide. Urk has grown into the fish hub of Europe.

Flevo Trade Service is right in the middle of that movement. As a customs broker, we support the import, processing and export of goods that are subject to increasingly complex regulations. The number of rules has increased, requirements have become stricter, and new legislation is regularly announced and introduced.

Within the team, there is therefore a conscious choice not to wait for changes, but to look ahead. As soon as authorities announce changes, we investigate what this means for clients. Meetings are attended, processes are adjusted and, where necessary, bottlenecks are raised through industry organisations. This proactive approach has helped the company become recognised as a specialist within the industry today.

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Working smarter

In recent years, Dirk and his team have deliberately focused on organising processes within Flevo Trade Service more smartly. Not only to grow, but above all to maintain control over quality and risks. A concrete example of this is the development of their own software for authorisation administration. Where a large Excel file previously had to be filled in manually for Customs every month, the team saw that this had to be possible in a different way. It was prone to errors, time-consuming and dependent on manual work. From that practical frustration came the idea to build a system that could generate this administration automatically. Not a standard external solution, but something fully aligned with the way Flevo works.

Today, that authorisation administration is generated at the push of a button. It provides overview, reduces the risk of errors and ensures that immediate insight can be provided during audits. For Dirk, this is typical of how he wants to develop the company: not staying stuck in the way things have always been done, but improving processes as soon as they create friction in practice. For him, growth does not only mean more clients, but also working in a more professional and manageable way.

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Looking ahead

Dirk’s ambition for the next ten years is clear: to continue growing within the Dutch fish industry and become twice the size the company is today. But one thing must not change. The accessibility, personal contact and short lines of communication that clients are used to.