Retail chain Action has been around for 30 years. A billion-dollar company with almost 80,000 employees. It all started in 1993 with a shop on the Dijk in Enkhuizen, with Gezina van der Blonk behind the cash register as the very first employee. “Co-founder Gerard Deen always said he wanted to have 1,000 stores. Of course I didn’t believe him.”
The first Action in the Netherlands in Enkhuizen: left 1993, right 2023 – Photo: Action and NH/Maarten Edelenbosch
Back to the beginning. Gerard Deen ran an antiques business in the early 1990s, until he and Rob Wagemaker bought large quantities of items and sold them again. The first Action store was born in July 1993 at Dijk 12 in Enkhuizen.
That first store was in a beautiful historic building on the harbor. Diagonally opposite the former defense tower and now eye-catcher, the Drommedaris. Gerard and his wife lived upstairs, the shop was downstairs. Not much later, brother Boris Deen also joined.
“Can you start tomorrow?”
The store has only just opened when Gezina van der Blonk, 20 years old, steps foot over the threshold, looking for a job. “It was a nice little shop. Gerard Deen was behind the cash register. I asked if he was still looking for staff. So he asked: ‘What can you do?’ I told him that I had worked at a supermarket. He would think about it and then When I came back later, he said, ‘Can you start tomorrow?’ And then I was accepted.”
The store is an immediate success. “New things came in every day. Sometimes we really had to arrange things so that everything fit in the store,” says Gezina, now 50.
“We sold all kinds of things. Then we suddenly had tableware, for example. And when it was gone, it was gone. It was a pleasant place on the harbor. People came to buy bargains, it was always busy.”
Text continues below the photo.
The first Action in the Netherlands was on the Dijk in Enkhuizen – Photo: NH/Maarten Edelenbosch
Gezina enjoys the atmosphere, but the store on the Dijk soon becomes too small. The first Action branch moved to a larger building in Westerstraat in 1995. And in the meantime, another seven stores have been added.
“It was always very pleasant. Gerard did not feel like my employer, but more like a friend. Rob was more involved in the trade and occasionally came with new things.”
Dreaming of 1,000 Action stores
Even though business was going well, Gezina could not have imagined how big Action would become. Although the founders were always ambitious. “Gerard always said: ‘We want to set it up big and have more than 1,000 stores’. Of course I didn’t believe him at the time. But it’s bizarre how big Action ultimately became.”
In Westerstraat, more people came to work in the store, where Gezina was in charge. She still remembers a day when she came to deposit money in the safe with that day’s cash at the bank. “Normally you get it back empty. But then I got a full one back. But I gave it back honestly.”
After she had children she stopped working at the store. She now has her own company, De Gouwe Stable, which organizes children’s parties with ponies. “And I have also been working in disability care for sixteen years,” she says.
Cannot be found on the internet
In the meantime, the brothers Deen and Rob Wagemaker continue to grow the company almost silently. In 2011 they sold Action for 500 million euros to the British investment company 3i. They become multi-millionaires overnight, but they certainly don’t sell themselves with a success story.
Several requests for an interview to reflect on the success are ignored or rejected. An employee of Rob Wagemaker – the founder now invests in various companies such as restaurant chain Loetje – says when we call: “They have never given interviews before, and are not going to do so now.” Photos of the three cannot be found on the internet and they are not on social media.
Text continues below the infographic.
Even after the sale, the store chain remains incredibly popular. In 2021, when stores the doors have to close Due to corona, Action turns out to be the one we are miss the most. There are now 2,500 stores in eleven countries. Last year Action 1.2 billion euros in profit. And that seems to be increasing again this year. In the first half of 2023, turnover amounted to 5.2 billion, no less than 22 percent more than the year before.
worth 28 billion euros
It is now the largest retail chain ever and one of the largest companies in the Netherlands. With an estimated value of 28 billion euros more than, for example, ABN Amro or Philips, and almost as much as Ahold Delhaize, the parent company of Albert Heijn, among others. These are staggering figures, according to Gezina, the first employee of that small shop in Enkhuizen.
She no longer has contact with the Deen family. “I first moved to Bovenkarspel and now live in Oostwoud. I don’t come to Enkhuizen often either. But if I met them, I would have a chat with them again.”
She still follows Action. “You always have a feeling about it. Very funny how it all turned out. When I worked there, everything was still in its infancy. Now it is much more professional.”
Below, watch a report that NH made this year about the success of the Action:
video-caption">Thunderous annual figures for the Action – NH
This is a message from the joint West Frisian newsroom
More news from West Friesland?
💬 Stay informed via our Facebook group News from West Friesland. Respond, discuss and share your news
📧 Send us your tips to [email protected]
✏️ Seen a typo? Let us know via [email protected]
2023-12-30 16:03:00
#cashier #billiondollar #company #Action #professional
