It starts with looking at things differently

Even before that, the two men amazed both customers and colleagues with creative ingenuity, whether or not in response to specific requests. After years of inventions, the duo really deserved an official label. And that became: Research & Development. Holbox gives Van Aarsen and Savelkoul every opportunity and freedom to develop new displays or add new functions to existing ones. At the same time, they remain down-to-earth. R&D manager Van Aarsen: “It’s not a game… in the end we need to sell more and even better displays.” This is an interview with a duo who can talk about displays for hours – joking and quick-witted, yet also thoughtful and serious.

Both Maurice and Richard have an impressive track record within Holbox. With a short break in between, the former has been working at Holbox for about 25 years, and in terms of service Richard can also look back on quite a number of years with this employer. Both have solid training in the creative field. Within the creative team, a natural division of roles and approaches has emerged. Richard is mainly creative and calls himself a designer for 70%. Maurice is creative as well, but he has a strong interest in technology and in how you technically produce displays in terms of function, shape and load-bearing capacity. Their interest in technology also extends to how a display is used in the store by the customer. “A display has to be put together in such a logical way that people can easily set it up on the shop floor. With competitors’ displays, you still often see that they are constructed so complicatedly that they end up in the dumpster. That’s a waste of money.”

Environment

Over the years, the duo has come up with quite a number of technical and design innovations. Examples include the 2 Second Display® series and the so-called Hang-In Display. The latter was designed purely for environmental reasons, but it offers several other advantages as well. Maurice: “We aimed for a strong display without plastic or wood. That’s how the Hang-In Display was created. You can assemble it quickly and it is extremely strong. You can easily place 150 kilograms of products in it.” And this will certainly not be the last innovation because – shrouded in secrecy – the next invention will not be long in coming.

Fanatics for their craft

Maurice and Richard are in fact real fanatics for their craft. “Even at night I still get ideas. I immediately put them down on paper, otherwise I’ll have forgotten them the next day.” Richard: “A strange example perhaps… but sometimes you walk back and forth to the bathroom and suddenly you get a great idea. It never stops.” Even on private shopping trips, displays do not escape their scrutiny. Maurice: “You then automatically start looking at the displays we didn’t make and how they are put together.”

Often we would have solved the construction in a completely different way and therefore produced it more cheaply. We never choose the easiest route. We want to introduce innovative solutions to the display market. Our customers therefore see us less and less as just a supplier, but as a partner.” Richard: “Sometimes the process starts with a ‘gut feeling’… that you can make the displays for a specific customer even better and optimally functioning. That is greatly appreciated.”

Plagiarism

Holbox’s competitors also show this kind of appreciation, as they are only too happy to plagiarise the duo’s designs. Maurice recalls: “Years ago I was driving through Switzerland with my family and at some point I had to stop for fuel. In the shop at the petrol station I saw a display that we hadn’t made, using a construction that is unique to Holbox. You can let it annoy you or not, but it happens quite often that we are copied. I sometimes joke: ‘Holbox is the copy shop for the display world.’ Designs we created 10 years ago are sometimes launched by our competitors as the latest thing on the market. That’s very different from how we work. Our aim is to develop something that is creative, unique and functional. That’s why customers come to us. It starts with looking at things differently. It ends with an enthusiastic customer. That’s what it’s all about!”