Kees Smit Tuinmeubelen

Industry Retail

Place Venlo

Customer Kees Smit Tuinmeubelen

Kees Smit Tuinmeubelen opened its third branch in January 2023. After Almelo, the primary branch, and the central A1 location in Amersfoort, the third branch in Venlo is geared towards customers in the South of the Netherlands, parts of Germany and Belgium. Two years after the purchase of a former garden centre, the building has not only undergone drastic renovations but also had a third floor added to it. In close collaboration with Kees Smit’s experts, Van Keulen has implemented the entire furnishing of the building.

Kees Smit Tuinmeubelen in Venlo gets a Van Keulen Interieurbouw makeover

Retail manager Niels Wildenborg is very pleased about the collaboration: “Aside from the sales in the shop we also sell a lot of garden furniture online, yet we think it is important to have a big store where our products are on full display. German customers in particular sometimes drive as long as three hours, not only to buy garden furniture in our shop but to make a daytrip out of it. This means we need a decent-sized in-store restaurant and have to pay special attention to the atmosphere we create in our shop. One of the main advantages of working with Van Keulen is that they could help us with all of this. Not just the new concept of our pillow shelving system and reception area, but the full furnishing of the restaurant area and staff canteen too were in good hands with Van Keulen.”

“Despite the quickly approaching delivery date and last-minute changes were required the solutions were still there.”

Retail manager Niels Wildenborg

Inspirational tower connects all floors

Against the elevator a transparent tower has been constructed filled with garden furniture inspiration whilst providing a glimpse of the second and third floor. At the attractive information desk customers are welcomed by advisors and, if needed, referred to the floor that displays the products these customers are looking for. Niels comments: “This way the enormous store space of around 8000 m² does not feel overwhelming or confusing for customers with specific requirements. We have carefully figured this out with the constructional engineer and Van Keulen as the interior designer. Of course you can also simply have a wander about from one floor to the next.”

Together with Kees Smit’s own store and concept designers, Van Keulen has created a modern trendy look and feel with abundant greenery, light colours and wood textures whilst the atmospheric lighting makes the products stand out. The company also plans to integrate these features in the Amersfoort and Almelo branches.

Detail-oriented, even when the workload gets hectic

“Van Keulen is a household name to us, and this is not our first collaboration with them,”says Niels. “When the pressure builds during projects it’s good to work with someone you know. It was a massive project with many aspects to consider such as store layout, building permit trajectories and interior design, at times making it a challenge to stay on top of things when it came to meeting various deadlines. Despite the quickly approaching delivery date and last-minute changes were required the solutions were still there. During the opening, Joop en Bert van Keulen did a final check and found some issues that required attention, these were immediately sorted out by Van Keulen. They really pull out all the stops for a good collaboration and a perfect end result.”