Redactie Xafax
Xafax has been around for 40 years. A number of loyal customers have already spoken about the collaboration with and development of Xafax on a business and personal level. Now it is the turn of the management of Xafax, consisting of the brothers Roland (commercial director) and Bart (operational director) Vet and general manager Fokko Duijzer. They take us into the story behind 40 years of Xafax.
We'll start at the beginning. “Xafax was founded in 1983 as a sole proprietorship by Cor de Kimpe,” says Fokko . “He was an account manager at Veenman, a supplier of multifunctional printing equipment, and increasingly encountered the question of how schools could charge students for making a copy. He found that interesting and wanted to come up with something for that. He eventually joined forces with a German company that made payment terminals that could be linked to multifunctionals. For example, Xafax started as a supplier of boxes and paper cards for paid printing for students, especially at schools and universities.”
“I started in 1994 as a technical specialist. At that time, there were already about fifteen people working at Xafax . We were then in Warmerhuizen on the top floor of the farmhouse where Cor lived with his wife and children. We eventually moved to this building in Alkmaar in 1995. ”
Xafax is now known as a family business. There are currently three farmers employed. How did that actually come about? “For this we have to make a small leap in time,” says Roland. “My father joined the company in 2001. He was actually already retired at the time, but discovered that sitting at home was not for him. Cor de Kimpe was then at an age where he wanted to get rid of his business. So my father came in 2001. Not with the idea of turning Xafax into a family business, but that is how it turned out because he became ill.”
“In 2009, a position became available at Xafax and I thought it would be great fun. I still thought 'if I don't like it, then I'm young enough to take another step'. But it's been 14 years now, so I seem to like it. I started with sales support and eventually progressed through account manager to commercial director. Ultimately, our four sons took over the shares in the company. We are now a second-generation family business.”
Roland adds that before he officially joined the company, he had already worked as a holiday worker at Xafax for a number of summers. The same applies to his younger brother Bart. “For me it also started with holiday work. I then worked in the maps department, which was a large part of our services at the time. In my time, these were no longer magnetic cards, but plastic PVC cards that actually became student passes. These were printed here, formatted and sent directly to the students,” he says.
“The card business was a very large part of our turnover at the time,” adds Fokko. “ Eventually, larger players entered the market that did card printing. As a small company, Xafax could not compete well with that. Moreover, the payment landscape started to change more and more, partly due to the rise of rechargeable cards. The card business has now become a very modest part of our total turnover.”
Partly due to the rapid developments in technology, Xafax was forced to change its business model. “We made a conscious choice about this around 2006. We had developed our solutions around a large software platform from a supplier in Northern Ireland, but that company was not running well. Then we made the choice to develop our own software. That was really a turning point for us,” says Fokko.
“In the past, we actually just bought hardware and then sold it again. We are now a real development company, with our own software and development department.” This transition has done Xafax no harm. “Because we started providing services for managing the printing environment of schools with our software, we have managed to retain a large share in education,” Roland explains.
In addition, Xafax has made several acquisitions over the years. “The first was from a company in Haarlem that provided payment solutions for libraries. This resulted in our second product line, EasyAccount+. To this day, that remains a very important part of our overall business,” says Fokko. The services within the library sector were later further expanded with the acquisition of a partner with whom Xafax had been working for several years to offer the 'smart workplace'.
These acquisitions are part of the 'buy & build' strategy that Xafax has been using for years. “This way we can offer our customers an even more complete service,” says Roland. “Moreover, it is a good way to assert our entrepreneurship and spread risk. For example, in 2019 we started looking for an ICT party so that we could sell office automation here in the area. We then removed our printer branch from Xafax Netherlands and merged with our partner Infra24. That became Xafax ICT and that is how we started providing SMEs with ICT services. We are still growing in that direction.”
The most recent acquisition was that of Infoworks, a company that provides digital solutions and presentation tools, mainly in education. “ That was a really good click for us, because we are of course well known within education. Xafax Visuals was created from that takeover. Infoworks also had an office automation branch. We transferred this to Xafax ICT. Everyone has their own specialty and we try to achieve cross-pollination with our companies in order to continue to grow,” Roland explains.
However, Xafax has not always prospered. “A company does not have only good moments for 40 years. Xafax has also had a bad period. That certainly didn't always look nice. Then you all have to pull the strings you have to get the ship sailing in the right direction again. I am very happy and proud that we have all achieved this. I see that as a highlight of the past 40 years,” says Roland.
Bart agrees. “ And there are many more highlights,” he adds . “From wonderful customers and assignments we have received to large projects that we have completed internally. And I don't rule out that there are still some great highlights to come. We are very ambitious and certainly not ready yet.”
What characterizes Xafax? The gentlemen quickly agree on this. “We are a human company. We think it is very important that when customers call, they actually get someone on the phone and they can have a conversation with someone. Not that they are connected to a service desk somewhere far away or have to create a ticket online. We don't believe in that at all. Accessibility is in Xafax's DNA and we try to maintain that. I am also very happy to hear that customers feel this way, because that is exactly what we want,” says Fokko.
“What also makes our company successful is the mutual relationships between all colleagues. The turnover within Xafax is incredibly low. Ninety-five percent of our workforce has been here for fifteen years or more. That says something about the working atmosphere we have created together. Everyone has a good time and there is plenty of challenge for everyone. That is very important and I think that also characterizes our company,” Roland adds.
“We also hope to create such a beautiful infrastructure for our colleagues that they feel comfortable with and in which they feel free to think creatively, make their own choices and thus more or less do business themselves. The three of us are not Xafax, but all of us. We as management cannot do anything without input from our colleagues. A human approach is therefore very important to us. I think and hope that our customers also experience this and benefit from it.”
The story behind 40 years of Xafax is one full of challenges and exciting developments. How does the management trio view the next forty years? “If I have learned anything in recent years, it is not to make plans for five years in this very fast world, let alone forty years,” Roland laughs. “ We are having a great time at the moment and we will continue to do so in the coming years. We look very closely at what the world brings us. The landscape is always changing and I think that we must remain flexible enough to keep up with it.”
“We also want to continue to respond to the needs that exist,” says Bart. “ Where there is a need for more than just paying with a telephone or debit card, we want to find our way there. And we will also continue to look at new markets that we can serve.”
“Paying is one thing, but Xafax is all about all the exceptions for which you do not have to pay. Exceptions, discount structures and rights structures can easily be incorporated into a platform such as the one we offer. All of this is not possible with a bank card. There is a lot of demand for this in communities and that is why we believe that we still have a lot of right to exist. We are still trying to explore those niches,” his brother adds.
Fokko adds that Xafax has different ideas, goals and strategies for each entity it touches. “For example, we want to remain the number one service provider in the field of the public environment within the library sector. We already are, but we want to continue to grow in that area and perhaps expand towards Belgium and perhaps even Germany.”
“At Xafax ICT everything revolves around the transition to the Cloud. This has been going on for some time, but it is only now really becoming active within SMEs. They are now really switching from an environment with their own server and management department to a model where everything can be done remotely by Xafax ICT in the Cloud. This is a very important transition within Xafax ICT that we are in the middle of. So plenty to look forward to!”
