Talking To: Folat
25 Years Of
FOLAT
There’s one stand that always attracts a lot of attention during Spielwarenmesse Toy Fair, helped in part by the oversized wheel of fortune which offers customers a fun way to secure a great deal on any orders and the resulting cheers that go up following a ‘good’ spin. Folat‘s colourful stand is a core destination for any party buyer – so PPE hopped on a plane to find out more.
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here’s always an air of prosperity on The Netherlands, at least in our opinion. It’s a notably friendly country where smiling at strangers is not out of the question and anything seems possible, despite the inherent realism of the Dutch. And so it stands to reason that one of Europe’s biggest party product companies would be born here – with a backbone built on fun and optimism. Folat was a college project that got out of hand. Founders Alex Adrichem and Marc Mulckhuyse formed the company in 1993, having been tasked to create a business plan as part of an academic project. Citing the potential as huge, dreams soon turned into reality and the business was launched from a small residential garage. The company’s name, Folat, indicated its plans to sell foil and latex balloons to local stores with nothing more than a moderate ambition to make a few guilders and have some fun. The pair attended local shows such as Horse and Hound and even went back to basics with some door-to-door sales. After some success, the first big opportunity came when the company launched Balloonpost. The idea was that consumers could go
Right: (l to r) Folat’s founders Marc Mulckhuyse and Alex Adrichem.
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into their local post office and fill out a card for a friend or relative, which would then arrive at the recipient’s address along with a bright balloon. The new concept scored the company some valuable press coverage and from there things started to heat up. The first big retail order came in 1998 from a kitchen and homewares retailer which today has more than 800 stores. From there, the business continued to
Above: Robots, actual robots! Left: Always making noise at Spielwarenmesse - the Folat stand is not one you can easily miss.
grow within the Benelux region, with export trade taking hold in 2008. Over the following six years, rapid expansion saw the company beginning to offer fulfilment for other major partyware firms, which saw Folat taking on a more corporate structure, with a complete management team and huge new warehouses – yet still with the positive energy and fun ethic that formed the company’s roots. As Greg de Jong, the company’s sales and marketing director (and chairman of the management team) drives PPE from Schiphol airport towards the warehouse, he prepares us for the scale of the operation, saying: “We specifically positioned the operation to capitalise on Amsterdam’s waterways. We have containers coming in from the Far East, docking at the major port, with product then heading down the canals into VelsenNoord where DistriParty is based.” “DistriParty is exactly what it sounds likes – the distribution of party product,” continues Greg. “And not just Folat’s – we are also set up to provide fulfilment for other companies. This
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