“Why are you leaving actually?” asked Marielle. I don’t have a good answer. “Are you sure you’re not going to miss the creative profession?”. Actually, I’m not sure. We’re sitting together in my office at De Stal, a design and communications agency, of which at that time I am the owner. De Stal means The Stable, because it is literally located in the stable of a beautiful farm.

Years ago, my husband Paul and I bought this old farm in Maasland. Near the Westland. With a house, a huge stable, a cheese cottage, a big yard and two hectares of land. I wanted to grow with my own company. A lot had to be done though. We were looking at a renovation that would last eight years. Sometimes it’s better that you don’t always know what you are starting in your enthusiasm.

Bustle
The renovation started first of all in the stable of the farm, so I could work there at least with my two colleagues. Janet as a graphic designer and Cora for accounting. Janet and I had done the same course at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. And she was (and is) really good. Cora was a fellow mom. Our sons were the same age and friends of each other. Cora worked on the administration a few days a week.

As long as the stable was not ready, we had to work in the upstairs room of the old front house. Not ideal, I have to admit. Because I also lived in the front house, along with Paul and our two children. And our tiny little bedroom, where our bed just fit in, was in the same upstairs room. Everything old and noisy. And Paul is a harbor pilot in Rotterdam. A nice job, but with double shifts and irregular hours. So that means trying to sleep during the day, and working evenings or nights. Sleeping is difficult with the bustle of three ladies close by, and it did not took long before Paul had quite enough of the noise. He arranged with the contractor, who was in the meantime working on the stable, to put up a portakabin at the back of the yard. Finally, rest at home.

Built on growth
De Stal was literally built on growth. We had a lovely space and the number of customers also grew steadily. It was the early 90s when my business really started to grow. At that time, the greenhouse sector in the Netherlands was faced with a huge crisis. After the German accusations that the Dutch tomatoes were “Wasserbomben” the most important market for greenhouses in the Netherlands declined. And thus the vegetable auction. For years there was there was mainly driven on quantity and not on quality, on reducing costs and not on creating added value. The growers were dissatisfied, left the auction and sought each other. Producer associations arose and worked on cultivating top quality tomatoes with distinctive flavor. Not one, not two but many different types of tasty tomatoes were grown and marketed, and thus brought along a lot of different designs and names. At De Stal we designed many of these new labels and packaging. Not only for the tomatoes, but also for all those peppers, cucumbers and even lettuce. I was also able to regularly test the products. Really delicious!

De Stal was growing. Within several years we were working with 14 people in the back of our farm. Marielle Broos joined De Stal for her internship. When my traffic manager told me that was going to leave De Stal, I asked Marielle: What do you actually want to do after your studies? She said: “Her job…” And that was exactly what she was going to do.

Always working
Not everything ran smoothly. Things did not always go well between Paul and me. I was working a lot. And even if I was not working, I was still ‘working’. My father was unintentionally playing a major role. He had chosen his son for succession. I had to make a tremendous drive to show him that I could do it too! Paul saw how I fought and learned and grew. But he also had to deal with the fact that I was not really there for him or our two children and I, moreover, defended my father in his choice. Paul was more than done with it. And he went to tell my father personally!

I could not understand it. How can you encourage me to go into the family business, while you disliked the fact that I worked so hard? It took a while, but then the conversation with my father took place. I was forty years old. We could now specify as children whether we were interested in working at Priva. My brother and I said yes. My sister made a different choice.

Away from De Stal
At that time, I already had the desire to start studying Business Administration at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. This desire acquired even more meaning now. My thesis was about the cultural and structural barriers to R&D in family businesses. Of course, I did my research at Priva. After 2.5 years of study and a thesis with thirty in-depth interviews and 270 surveys at Priva, I was awarded my Master’s degree.

Then there was the conversation with Marielle. Business was going great at De Stal. We now had fifteen colleagues. Marielle was already an extraordinary manager, even at her young age. Only the creative part was still a bit tricky. Searching for growth and a way to secure our creativity, the firm Proforma from Rotterdam ‘passed by’. With no exchange of funds, the two companies came together. De Stal moved to Rotterdam. The stable was empty…