A Global Niche Player in Interior Design with Its Own Signature
“We give everyone the space to play by their own rules and have fun.” This sentence appears on the website of the interior design brand POLSPOTTEN and serves as the opening of the conversation with Victor van Nieuwenhuizen – CEO of POLSPOTTEN and Juliette van der Eerden – COO/CFO of POLSPOTTEN. We talk about the brand, the people, the ambitions, and of course, the design products.
Victor van Nieuwenhuizen - CEO POLSPOTTEN explains: “POLSPOTTEN is an interior design brand with its own signature. We are intuitive, and our style is quite untraceable. This is a huge strength, and we place great value on it. Thanks to this positioning, we have now earned our unique place in the design world globally. We don’t focus on mass production but instead on people who want to create spaces with care.”
Intuitive and Playful Character
POLSPOTTEN originates from the mid-1980s when a progressive man, Erik Pol, started the brand with a colorful worldview. Although he has since left the company, his free, creative spirit still lingers within the business.
Victor: “We have a playful character and are resistant to conventions; this is deeply ingrained in our DNA. You can see it in our products, in our people, and in our processes. If you stand in front of our office building, you’ll see a logistics box. When the sliding doors of our office open, you enter another world. In our only store on KNSM Island in Amsterdam, we create the same feeling. There’s humor in it, we use a lot of color, and we employ surprising shapes and materials.”
Everything we create speaks to people's emotions. It’s colorful, artistic to look at, obviously decorative design, and above all, we dare to be surprisingly different. We either enlarge things or do the exact opposite. Think of supersized lamps, vases in various shapes, sofas 8 meters wide, or oval rugs. Our creatives in the studio are leading in innovation and show their qualitative creative strength. That happens intuitively. When people then see these designs in real life, the wow effect occurs. They look around in wonder, and it makes them think.”
Own Identity
Victor: “From conversations with the founder, we know that our store has always been a place where people with a great love for art, design, and culture came together. They didn’t just buy products; they found the feeling of our brand there and engaged in conversation with each other. This was and still is deeply embedded in our DNA.
In recent years, with much time spent at home due to remote working, we have seen significant growth in people spending more attention and money on creating their own identity at home. They opt for playful, unique design products that make them feel more at home and express who they are. POLSPOTTEN says: ‘We add play to space,’ and that’s what we work for.
We are also continually surprised by the final result when we see photos from consumers or our business-to-business clients. We deliver worldwide and are proud of the high-end companies we count as our customers, including De Bijenkorf, Selfridges, Farfetch, Soho House, Louisa Via Roma, and Merci. It’s also special that many well-known and distinguished design lovers shop with us. For example, a POLSPOTTEN vase recently traveled with Queen Máxima’s luggage during a state visit to India, and POLSPOTTEN design can also be found at the French Palais de l'Élysée. We are seen as a very distinctive and explicit design brand that is daring and quality-driven.”
Commitment to Growth and a Strong Foundation
Juliette: “In addition to focusing on revenue growth, we are building the foundation. We are building a solid structure of processes that facilitate this healthy and sustainable growth. This means building the bridge while walking across it. We are doing this quickly while preserving our DNA. This involves paying attention to recruiting new employees, setting up new IT systems, and optimizing the logistics process. Since customer needs are changing, we want to be able to respond quickly.”
Collaboration with Karmijn Kapitaal
Juliette: “Karmijn Kapitaal is an investor, and like other investors, they look at how we can run a healthy and sustainable business. What makes Karmijn unique is that they are also people-focused. The people at Karmijn pay a lot of attention to team dynamics and, like us, believe that a diverse team performs better. The collaboration with Karmijn Kapitaal is very pleasant. We have monthly discussions about strategic issues, teams, and people. Critical questions and sometimes tough discussions keep us sharp. We can also make use of their expertise and extensive network. This allows us to learn a lot from each other within Karmijn’s portfolio, and partners can be brought forward to help. But we remain in the lead. We complement each other beautifully and share the same goals.”
What about Diversity and Sustainability at POLSPOTTEN?
Victor: “Diversity is not an issue at POLSPOTTEN; it’s in our DNA. The progressive character and free spirit naturally encourage diversity. Male-female, various nationalities, ages, sexual orientations – we have a very diverse team of around 30 people. We mainly look for employees who complement our team, who are fans of the brand, bring energy, and truly contribute to POLSPOTTEN. What skills and characters fit with the current team, and what do we want to focus on? We use tools like DISC and Insight to see where each person’s strengths and qualities lie and where the development points are.
We want to innovate in our own sustainable way. Creating this way is only possible when you are completely allowed to be yourself. It’s not a trick or concept; it’s a quality-driven story based on art, culture, and design. This story is not comparable to others and not for the mass market. We want to be in places where we are given the space to tell that story. Read: high-end department stores, concept stores, or design platforms. You either find our products beautiful or not; it’s a matter of taste and feeling.”
Juliette: “Sustainability aspects are already woven into our products, the production process, and how we handle working conditions, but we want to strengthen this. Recently, we brought someone on board to help us create a Sustainability Plan from a scan. We already do a lot intuitively in terms of sustainability, but now we want to make this intrinsically measurable and structured.”