Robert van der Hout
Individual Family Business Case Study –
Alpha Uitzendbureau & Intercedent Uitzendbureau –
Family owned business by Leo Van Der Hout
By Robert Van Der Hout
Robert van der Hout
Introduction –
Alpha B.V. employment agency specialises in providing staff in the agricultural sector for the regions
of Rotterdam, Rijnmond, Westland and Leiden. We have 30 years’ experience in placing flexible hardworking employees for tasks such as sorting and packing fruit, vegetables and flowers.
For more than 30 years, Alpha B.V. employment agency has been placing flexible workers at
companies for the sorting and packing of fruit, vegetables and flowers. We supply skilled hard-working
employees and have a reputation as a reliable partner.
Alpha B.V. is still primarily active in the field where we started – the agricultural sector. We are active
in six regions, including Rotterdam Rijnmond, Westland, Haarlemmermeer, Aalsmeer and the
‘Bollenstreek’.
Introduction Operations in the port are both wide-ranging and irregular as they depend on the arrival and
departure of ships. Despite the automation of various tasks and activities, operations at the port still
require a large number of ‘hands’.
Intercedent B.V. employment agency addresses this need effectively by being able to deploy qualified
Dutch-speaking personnel on a 24/7 basis.
For more than 25 years, Intercedent B.V. employment agency has been supplying motivated
personnel for a variety of tasks at the port. You can depend on Intercedent B.V. to provide you with
the right people for container, lashing, RORO and docking work. We also have have 25,000m2
storage area and a 15,000m2 freezing house for the storage and safe keeping of cooled products.
Containers Freight transport is carried out increasingly using containers. Personnel working with container ships
must have specific knowledge to carry out loading and unloading activities. Intercedent B.V. supplies
experienced personnel who can be put to work immediately.
Lashing Everything required for placing containers and general cargo in and on ships, sawing, stacking,
stowing and battening down goods. Professionalism and speed are key to successful lashing, as is a
thorough understanding of the art of loading cargo.
RORO RORO shipping (roll-on/roll-off) is a special type of transport. With RORO, cargo is driven on and off
the ship. RORO is a particularly favourable option for large heavy vehicles. The advantage of RORO
shipping is that cargo can be loaded and unloaded quickly with low risk of damage. The battening
down of these types of cargo is a special skill and needs to be done with care. Intercedent B.V.
employment agency specialises in supplying motivated personnel who are well able to perform this
work.
Case Study Leo Van Der Hout finished school when he was fourteen years of age and got straight to work with
different jobs within the manual labour sector, at the age of 20 he started working in a greenhouse
picking tomatoes, he discovered that the owner of this green house had trouble getting a steady
group of workers who were willing to work such hours (start at 5am) and stay in the job due to it being
tough work. The owner was constantly having retrain new tomato pickers and hire new people. Leo
approached the owner and told him he could supply people for all of his greenhouses as long as he
got a cut of the fee. Soon my farther had a reliable group of workers under him and he started
approaching other greenhouse owners to offer his services. As his clientele base grew he decided to
set up Alpha Uitzenbureau in 1983 and open an office in Hoek Van Holland. He broadened his
Robert van der Hout
services and started supplying people to the large flower auction houses, he soon hired planners,
group supervisors and admin people to control and plan his growing workforce.
5 years after starting Alpha he saw that money was to be made in the giant container port of
Rotterdam which still remains the largest in the world. It was a tough market to enter however he soon
set up Intercedent Uitzendbureau in 1987 and started supplying people in the port for heavy duty work
of unloading/loading of containers. This industry was a far larger money maker due to the high prices
that are charged compared to in the flower and vegetable picking sector in which Alpha was situated.
Due to this he closed his office in Hoek Van Holland in 1992 and relocated to the Hieplat which is
located within the harbour of Rotterdam. He had to hire more planners and supervisors and the team
now consists of 15 full time workers in his office and around 150 workers within the port and
agriculture sector daily (fluctuates due to demand). Since 1983 up until 2013 Alpha and Intercedent
have put 18,000 people to work within the Netherlands.
Both of these companies are located under the same roof however work in different sectors. Most of
the employees that he started with still work with him today (5 are still from the very beginning). The
attitude at the workplace is very relaxed and there is a family feel between the employees.
During the financial crisis of 2008 consumer spending fell drastically which in turn meant less
containers were arriving, less people were buying flowers & vegetables, this in turn had an effect on
both companies and was the first time both experienced no growth. Cost cutting was made however
no employees had to leave. Due to the good reputation with clients that he had built up over the 30
years clients stayed loyal to him. Many employment agencies did not survive this crisis which in turn
opened up new clients to Leo. Growth was experienced again in 2011 and has since been on the rise
since. New deals with clients such as Morrison’s supermarkets, P&O ferries, Mearsk containers,
Halluco BV and Eurofrigo have been responsible for this.
Intercedent remains the more profitable of the two however is the hardest to get new clients within this
sector. The future looks promising with strong growth due to the opening of the new Europort in two
years which will mean Mega container ships can now dock here, this will diverge a lot of ships away
from Hamburg and Antwerp Harbour’s which will in turn create more jobs and possibilities in
Rotterdam.
It is a family business and still remains 100% in control of Leo. He plans to hand this over to his son in
the future however he claims he is still too young to do this.
Issues –
1) Ageing population –
Due to the ageing population in the Intercedent and Alpha office in which 5 of the 15 full time
employees have been with the company since the beginning, we need to take into consideration
what effect this could have on the two companies. The average age of the in house workforce is 49
years of age.
Robert van der Hout
Here is an interesting piece of research and theory that was carried out by Dutch researchers on the
issues that surround an ageing workforce in the Netherlands from an employee’s point of view.
Demographic Research: Volume 22, Article 32 Research Article: How do employers cope with an
ageing workforce? Views from employers and employees
Accessed online on 20/03/13 at http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol22/32/22-32.pdf
By Hendrik P. van Dalen Kène Henkens & Joop Schippers
A recent study by van Dalen, Henkens and Schippers (2010) revealed that two dimensions were
found to underlie perceptions of productivity: stereotypes about hard qualities and stereotypes about
soft qualities. Hard qualities refer to qualities such as flexibility, physical and mental capacity, the
willingness to learn and new technology skills. Soft qualities refer to qualities such as commitment to
the organization, reliability and social skills. The comparative advantage of the older worker (50 years
and older) lies primarily in their soft skills, whereas the comparative advantage of younger workers
lies primarily in their hard abilities. However, the weights attached to the hard and soft qualities of
productivity differ substantially. Hard qualities carry a much greater weight in the evaluation of worker
productivity than soft qualities. This is true for the evaluation of the productivity of older and younger
workers, alike.
How much of this is going on at Alpha Uitzendbureau and what can be done to overcome this
problem and enhance productivity? Does Leo’s office workforce (not his out of office workforce)
contain Hard qualities or Soft qualities and if so are these what is needed for growth?
2) Succession planning
Alpha and Intercedent have been set up by Leo and he has been the stakeholder in control of 100%
of the shares and has always been behind the final decision 100% of the time. When it comes to the
time for his son to take over what problems may arise in terms of Leo letting go and handing it over?
•
70% of all family-owned businesses end in first generation and succession can be a major
factor in decision to end.
•
Succession can be a major cause of conflict in a family firm
•
Family owners/CEOs often only think about when in 60sl
•
Where strategic planning is taking place then succession is part of process
•
Issues that arise from letting go of the business include: Reluctance to let go of control and
power, Loss of identity, Bias against planning & Fear of retirement
The 3 circle model of family business - family business system as three independent but overlapping
subsystems: business, ownership, and family. It is very important to
understand this model and the areas within this circle are key to
developing a healthy family business. It can be used as a framework
for the understanding, assessing and developing of characteristics
that in turn result in success.
It would be wise for Leo to use this model and incorporate the
different areas within when looking at how to successfully hand down
the business to his son.