Strengthening the Purchasing Team at Keune Hair Cosmetics</span><span id="test" class="kool-class" style="color: #f90;" fs-test-element="test">.</span>

Strengthening the Purchasing Team at Keune Hair Cosmetics

Koninklijke Keune Hair Cosmetics: Family Pride and Growth in Hair Cosmetics

Koninklijke Keune Hair Cosmetics in Soest is a true familybusiness, run by the 93-year old George Keune Sr. and his son Eelco. There arearound 450 employees, 300 in the Netherlands and others in sales offices in theUnited States, Croatia, Belgium, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Keuneproduces everything in the field of hair cosmetics - masks, gels, oils,shampoos, conditioners and hair dyes - and sells these products to salons. Thecompany also exports its products to 77 countries. "As a family business,we are not focused on profit maximization. We want to be the best, not thebiggest," said Gert van der Heijden, COO at Keune Hair Cosmetics.Nevertheless, the growth targets are ambitious. "By 2030, we want to bethree times as big as we are today by growing 15% annually."

Sustainability assessment

Another important objective is sustainability; within this, Keune's ambition includes becoming a B Corp, which means that all business units are qualified for sustainability. For procurement, Keune wanted to carry out an assessment of its main suppliers, which account for 85% of its spend. To strengthen the procurement team in that field, Van der Heijden called on Kloepfel Benelux’s service in the form of an interim consultant, Bram Buurman. "He took care of those assessments with us and scored companies using the tool Ecovadis. That was a very broad assessment, which included looking at what raw materials suppliers use, how they produce, and what emissions that involved. That gives us an overview of suppliers that match our sustainability goals,” said Van der Heijden.

Comparable alternatives

Bram also supported the procurement team on a tactical level in raw material procurement. "In the recent period, we were not dealing so much with a scarcity of raw materials, but more with significant price increases. That was a reason for us to look for suitable qualitatively comparable and price-beneficial alternatives from other suppliers, thus broadening our supplier base," outlined Van der Heijden, who has found Bram's proactive attitude to be particularly positive over the past six months. "’Half a word’ was enough for him to get things done and he did more than asked, which was definitely a plus in his case." Van der Heijden characterized the bi-monthly progress meetings with Kloepfel Benelux management as "neat and structured."

Van der Heijden was satisfied with the first encounter with Kloepfel Benelux. "Definitely worth repeating. However, our purchasing team has expanded to seven employees. Thus, the team is now complete. With that being said, I would absolutely recommend them!"

No items found.