Van Raam bicycles conquer the world - interview with ABN AMRO

In an interview with the ABN AMRO (a Dutch bank), Marjolein Boezel, Van Raam's finance and HRM director, explains that Van Raam has now become the world market leader in special needs bikes. To meet the growing demand for special needs bikes, Van Raam had built a completely new factory in 2018, largely financed by ABN AMRO. Read more here.

Van Raam bicycles conquer the world interview with ABN AMRO

World market leader Van Raam

Piet Boezel took over Van Raam in the 1980s. At the time, Van Raam only made bicycle frames. Under his leadership, Van Raam specialised in the design and production of special needs bikes for people with disabilities. This after a friend suffered a stroke and could no longer cycle on a regular bicycle. In 2001, Marjolein, Jan-Willem and Ronald took over the company from their father (in law). Since then, the Van Raam bicycles have travelled all over the world.

Marjolein tells ABN AMRO: "At first, we sold 75 per cent of our bicycles in our own country and the rest abroad. But that's changed a lot in recent years. The distribution is now 60 per cent abroad and 40 per cent in the Netherlands."

"If you build new, you do it as sustainably as possible, that is obvious. But above all we wanted to make a place where our people feel comfortable."

Sustainable bicycle factory

To meet the demand for special needs bikes, Van Raam built a completely new factory in Varsseveld in 2018. In early 2019, Van Raam opened the energy-neutral bicycle factory with a sustainable climate system of 18,000m2. Here the special needs bikes are designed and almost completely produced. In this sustainable bicycle factory are among other things 25 closed ground wells, heat pumps, triple A glass, solar panels etc. Marjolein Boezel says: "If you build new, you do it as sustainably as possible, that is obvious. But above all we wanted to make a place where our people feel comfortable. After all, you spend more time at work than at home. That's why there's a lot of glass in the factory, for example. People don't want to look at a wall, they need daylight."

"Als de vraag groot genoeg is, openen we in de toekomst misschien wel een fabriek in Amerika."
3D printing at Van Raam

Innovation and the future

Van Raam is working a lot with innovative techniques, such as 3D printing and 3D scanning. Marjolein Boezel says: "You can print smaller numbers and adjust things very quickly. That saves time and money." Two new locations have also been added since the bicycle factory opened in 2019: an assembly factory in Poland and a new hall at the bicycle factory in Varsseveld. The factory in Poland is not the last factory abroad, according to Marjolein Boezel. She says: "If the demand is big enough, we might even open a factory in America in the future."

Collaboration with ABN AMRO

Van Raam's factory was largely financed by ABN AMRO. AMBN AMRO Groenbank provided part of the funding for the new building in the form of a loan, with ABN AMRO taking care of the application for green certificates. Marjolein Boezel says: "We've been working closely with ABN AMRO relationship manager Evert van Rootselaar for years. Because he understands the context, we can act quickly. When we applied for financing for the new building in Varsseveld, for example, ABN AMRO came on board very quickly. They worked out all the possible scenarios for us first, which gave us a lot of peace of mind and confidence."

Want to read more about Van Raam?

Would you like to read more about the history of Van Raam, our factory, our mission and vision, etc.? Then visit the page 'About Van Raam'.

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