“Together with my brother Jos and our spouses, we started a petrol station with a garage business in 1983. The ladies ran the gas station and Jos and I did the garage. At one point, the car scrapyard in the village stopped working, making it harder for us to get parts. I suggested starting a car demolition shop. “If you think we can earn something with that, we'll do that,” said Jos. And that's how it happened that in 1986 we not only had a petrol station and garage, but also a car dismantling company,” says Hans Klein Gunnewiek.
In the early years, they and the car dismantling company were located in an old brick factory, which was around 10,000 m². “At the time, there was also a lot of demand for used parts in the area.” Although Jos had trained as a car mechanic and I myself had been working as a plumber for seven years, we immediately hired an employee, Siegfried Krabbenborg, who still works here. You can say that Siegfried set up our car dismantling company. In a small caravan on site, he received our customers and was able to relax with a cup of coffee when he had a break. At that time, customers, mostly private individuals in the area, still removed the parts from the car wrecks themselves. Since this caused more damage than it caused, we quickly stopped doing it.”
Since 1987, the brothers have completely changed things. “At the end of the eighties, we only bought up wrecks from German brands.” Although the concept really caught on in 1987, the owner of the brick factory where the Klein Gunnewiek brothers rent the site quickly threw a spanner in the works. “Another company was located next to our company and from the building you looked out at the damaged cars. The cancellation was probably due to the fact that when he received visitors, people were just looking out the window at the activity on our site,” says Hans with a laugh. “We then moved to a much smaller site, of 600 m², where customers were also no longer able to dismantle themselves. Doing that yourself turned out to be a golden future!”
At car dismantling company Klein Gunnewiek, everything that comes in and out is kept in the software system. Not only the specification of the parts in stock, but also data such as the demand for specific parts. “We know exactly what demand there is for a ten-year-old car of a specific model. For example, every two years, we sell three left front doors of an Opel Astra. We have stored that two-year inventory in our warehouse. Our prices are also tailored to supply and demand. If you can sell up to ten front doors but only have three in stock, you are too cheap. And vice versa. Keeping track of your inventory and adjusting your prices accordingly is only possible if you automate everything. To do this, we have been working with Autonet software for twenty-five years and have now set up our own software system. It has now been fully adapted to our needs and requirements and we can use it to read and write.” We now process as many damaged cars as possible of the latest types of all car brands common in the Netherlands with all types of drives and options. All Klein Gunnewiek parts are also placed on sales platforms such as www.onderdelenlijn.nl, totalparts.nl, B-parts, etc.
