Polish doors and fencing from Wiśniowski on the Dutch market

Recognizable? The architect has put a brilliant plan on paper. All that is left for you as a contractor is to buy the doors. Only to hear from the supplier that what you have in mind is not possible. His double-thick catalog contains many beautiful products, but just not the product you were looking for. Wouter van Kerkvoorde thought there had to be another way. When he and his partner Dennis Geerdes started the company AW Nederland, customization was one of the starting points. And they succeeded! “The sky is the limit,” Van Kerkvoorde and Geerdes say in chorus. “We just say to customers: just sign it, we deliver it!” 

An example of a Wiśniowski application. 

Flexibility is the magic word
The brand that AW Netherlands carries is Wiśniowski, the largest manufacturer of doors and fencing in Central Europe. As the name suggests, this is a Polish company. “And that can still raise eyebrows sometimes,” Van Kerkvoorde knows from experience.
“A German brand immediately evokes a sense of solidity, a Polish brand has to prove itself first. But when customers see Wiśniowski's products with their own eyes - in our showroom, for example - they are immediately convinced!” 

Wiśniowski is a large company that produces more than 85,000 garage doors a year and exports them to dozens of countries in Europe. Yet it does not behave like a multinational. “Wiśniowski, despite its growth since its founding in 1989, has remained a typical family business,” Van Kerkvoorde says. What's the advantage of that for customers? Flexibility! “We never have to sell no,” he explains. “Whatever the customer comes up with, we can deliver. Doors with vertical glass, for example. Very common in a country like Poland, unique here in the Netherlands. We can always adapt the product to the construction project - not the other way around! - without us charging a surcharge for it.” 

To make sure that everything fits, Van Kerkvoorde always comes to the construction site for a follow-up inspection. “It could happen to you that your brand-new overhead door turns out to be just a centimeter too short upon delivery. Prevention is better than cure. This is why we always maintain close contact with the customer, so that we are always informed if a project unexpectedly runs late. We then adjust the delivery and assembly of the doors accordingly.” 

Dennis Geerdes (left) and Wouter van Kerkvoorde of AW Netherlands. 

The right translation
Adapting also has another dimension, by the way, because Polish products can by no means be simply adopted one-to-one on the Dutch market. “Just think about the use of a garage,” Van Kerkvoorde explains. “In Poland it is meant to house a car, but in the Netherlands it is much more often used as storage space for gardening equipment and bicycles, for example. Such a different use of the space also requires a different kind of door.” 

As an experienced party, AW Nederland always knows how to make the right translation to the local market. In addition, Van Kerkvoorde and Geerdes want to guard Wiśniowski's small-scale character in the Netherlands as well. “Thus, when you call us, you immediately get one of the two of us on the line,” Van Kerkvoorde said. “AW Netherlands does not employ a telephone operator.” In fact, the partners perform all the work for their company themselves. So the phone may be ringing at the very moment Van Kerkvoorde is just unloading a load at a customer's site. These short lines in combination with the down-to-earth approach of the entrepreneurs from Overijssel have proved to be a successful formula for years. 

Want to know what AW Netherlands and Wiśniowski have to offer you? Go to www.wisniowski.nl or send an e-mail to info@wisniowski.nl.

AW Netherlands
Iron Road 8
8111 CW Heeten
T: 0572-760760
E: info@awnederland.nl
W: www.awnederland.nl

Member of the Royal Metal Union Official partner of Wiśniowski garage doors

Text and image: Wiśniowski
Featured image: The office with showroom of AW Netherlands.