Sitting at the table are Ellen, Thomas and Sarah. Mother/wife, son and daughter behind Jan de Kraker. Thomas and Sarah talk about their future roles and Ellen about the role(s) she has had at the company until recently. Thomas (27) has been a sales manager at Smart Trailer Solutions in the Benelux region since 2024 and is responsible for rental and leasing. He works closely with his father.
How it all started for Thomas at Kraker Trailers
The relationship between Thomas and Kraker Trailers goes way back. ‘I was sixteen and wanted to earn some money, so I asked my father if he had any work for me here. My interest in trailers and the company gradually started to grow. Slowly, I started to think about the future. I now work here full-time - selling, renting and leasing our K-Force trailers across the Benelux, solving problems and working with customers to find solutions. In short, I’ve found where I’m comfortable. I do this with my father, at Smart Trailer Solutions, a still fledgling company. Smart Trailer Solutions has taken on all the sales and rental activities of Kraker Trailers.’
Sarah strengthens employee skills
Sarah is currently in the third year of her applied psychology studies, specialising in the role of ‘performance coach’. In a nutshell, applied psychology is the use of psychological methods and techniques to guide people in their careers and to help with conflicts, problems and other issues they may encounter. Sarah offers people mental support - essentially, everything they need to optimise their performance and well-being in their careers.
‘I would prefer to build something myself as a performance coach first and then maybe make the move to Kraker Trailers,’ explains Sarah.
Sarah has spent the past year shadowing different departments at Kraker Trailers, including Finance, HR and Marketing, to become more acquainted with the company. As mentioned above, Thomas already has a longer relationship with Kraker, while Sarah is still at the starting line.
While Thomas is busy ensuring that STS has a leading role in the Benelux and Sarah is looking to join the company in the future, Ellen is bidding farewell.
It’s a pleasantly unusual situation - the core values of family businesses are often lost when the company is sold, but the de Kraker family was unanimous in its decision to keep the business in the family. Things will change of course, but at its core, Kraker will remain the family business of past decades.
After more than 20 years, Ellen is stepping back from Kraker Trailers
Ellen has many qualities that have come in useful to the company. ‘A fun anecdote,’ says Ellen, laughing, ‘is that one of Jan’s conditions was that no family, friends or acquaintances would come to work for the company. That lasted for about six months and he soon realised that there was definitely a role for me. I trained as an interpreter/translator in Scandinavian languages, English and French, which came in handy in international contacts. Over the past more than 20 years I have worked here, my responsibilities have gradually expanded - I can be a real “fixer”. It’s hard to believe, but the tasks I used to do on my own are now done by a team of about five people. Though, it’s not really a fair comparison, as the company has seen exceptional growth in recent years and those tasks can’t really be done by one person alone now.’
Kraker Trailers is a thread running through the lives of Jan, Ellen, Thomas and Sarah, which makes perfect sense. Running a company like this would be impossible without a solid home base.
The future role of Sarah and Thomas
Thomas starts talking about the company his father started and what his sister and he will eventually take over. ‘As I said before, when I was sixteen, I wanted to earn some extra money so started working at Kraker, although back then, it was never with the intention of taking over. I honestly didn’t know what I wanted. That only came after the coronavirus pandemic. I heard my father talking about the future of the company and thought “Sarah and I can do that too.” I called Sarah to discuss our options.’
Sarah interjects, ‘He called me regularly to ask if I would be interested in taking over as well.’
‘I had made the decision myself, but with the idea that Sarah would join me,’ adds Thomas.
Sarah continues, ‘Initially, I didn’t see any opportunities for me personally, a technical firm is not really something I had considered. I saw my future in psychology and primarily in supporting sportspeople. Then, I realised how broad my education is and what I could do with it. A company like Kraker Trailers also needs good employee support. I often hear from others that Kraker is such a great company and after talking to sports psychologists and Thomas, I realised that this is a unique opportunity.’
‘At first, I didn’t care too much about the company being sold, but as I got older, I realised how very different a company it would be if someone else were to take it over. My parents have built a great company and it would be a shame if that were to take on a wholly different character, that the core values that make Kraker what it is were to disappear.’
Ellen interjects, ‘It was a bit of a shift for Jan and me, because we had grown used to the idea of selling the company. But yes, when your children then say “we see the possibilities and want to take over and continue your life's work,” the situation changes.’
Thomas continues, ‘The step of Sarah and me taking over the company became less daunting when Alain Hiel and Stephan Willemstein became co-CEOs last year. Sarah and I realised that we no longer needed to know everything about business as the company has plenty of people with appropriate knowledge already there. Alain and Stephan focus on production excellence, which means that Sarah and I can focus on sales excellence.’
‘We will continue the business in our father’s style’
Thomas indicates how important it is to him for them to continue the business in their father’s style. ‘I see it around me a lot, like at Bosman.
‘I think that in the situation as it is now, in the Benelux, my father will still be doing a lot of selling in the coming years. At the same time, we’re also seeing a shift in people calling me for advice, purchase and rental. I expect that will only grow as time goes by. It makes sense really, because more and more people are getting to know me,’ explains Thomas.
Kraker Trailers still has lots of plans
Now that K-Force is well on its way, it's time for the next step. Thomas is quite pragmatic about it, ‘I look at that in the same way as when we started building K-Force, when opinions were initially very divided. And now? Now we build and sell a significant number each year. Selling has two sides to it - selling to a customer, and selling your ideas internally.’
Sarah adds, ‘Change is usually a little challenging at first, but once you get through it, good things are usually waiting on the other side.’
‘Definitely,’ agrees Ellen. ‘Look at the crises that we've already survived - economic crisis, the ongoing war in Ukraine, coronavirus... and Kraker Trailers is still standing proud.’
A privileged opportunity
Thomas and Sarah realise that they are privileged to have this opportunity. ‘But,’ Thomas adds, ‘we intend to earn it.’ It's a sentiment that characterises the upbringing of these two young, hard-working people.
Ellen adds ‘they know they have to work to accomplish something. They see from their father, and hopefully from me too, that hard work really does pay off. They know they aren’t taking the easy way out, that the business continues at the weekends too, that there are social obligations. This is what they want, it’s something they chose themselves. There’s no greater way to make Jan happier. He did find it difficult to hand everything he has built over to someone who isn’t otherwise close to it.’
A clear vision for the future
‘There are still plenty of countries around us where we can still find a market. How great would it be if we become the market leader in Europe and maybe even worldwide?’ ponders Thomas.
Thomas and Sarah plan to continue where their parents left off, and that’s a great good.