Earlier this year PartyWorldwide.net hopped on a plane to find out more about Folat, the Amsterdam-based costume and party goods company which is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2018.
Launching from a small residential garage, founders Alex Adrichem and Marc Mulckhuyse formed the company in 1993, initially creating a business plan as part of a college project. The company’s name, Folat, indicated its founders’ plans to sell foil and latex balloons to local stores to make a few gelders and have some fun.
After some moderate success, the first big opportunity came when the company launched Balloonpost, a new balloon-and-card concept, which scored the company some valuable press coverage.
The business continued to grow, with export trade taking hold in 2008. Over the following six years, rapid expansion saw the company offering fulfilment for other major partyware firms and taking on a more corporate structure, with a complete management team and huge new warehouses.
Picking PWW up from Schipol airport, Greg de Jong, the company’s sales and marketing director (and chairman of the management team) outlines the scale of the current operation. “We specifically positioned the operation to capitalise on Amsterdam’s waterways. We have containers coming in from the Far East, docking at the major port, with product then heading down the canals into Velsen-Noord where DistriParty is based.”
“DistriPart is exactly what it sounds likes – the distribution of party product,” continued Greg. “And not just Folat’s – we are also set up to provide fulfilment for other companies. This is an option for anyone who wants a European hub with the ability to handle everything from multiple containers down to individual products.”
After a full tour, including a view of the robots (yes, robots!) hard at work, it’s easy to see why Greg is so confident in the operation – it is exacting yet calm, with each team member happy to say hello and talk about their role.
Folat’s corporate headquarters are next on the tour, and the combination of the impressive warehouse operation and sleek air-conditioned offices reflects the size and scale of Folat’s business model. Over lunch, we discuss exactly what Folat offers the party world, in numbers!
“Around 24,000 straws per year is a good start,” says Greg. “But really, it’s huge. We have over 12,000 products across all product sectors in the party market and we introduce 800 new products each year. We aren’t just balloons, or even just costumes – we are the whole party and everything in-between. As we say, ‘one garland does not make a party’!”
The Dutch party gurus are clearly well set up to supply product, so how does that tie-in with the retail distribution network?
“It’s a significant operation,” says Greg. “We export to 38 countries and this is just scratching the surface of what we can achieve and what we are actually set up to do. It’s more than that, too. We also work with major retailers domestically here in Europe and have the ability to work with any major retailer worldwide – in fact we can offer own label with order on demand, there is no getting stuck with stock you don’t need to, yet every single product we have is always in stock. It’s a perfect science.”
Read the full interview in the latest issue of Progressive Party Europe.
