Raven; explosive growth in angling
Fishing rods and other fishing gear have not been available since the outbreak of corona. Raven Hengelsport is therefore experiencing an explosive growth in the number of orders.
Raven Hengelsport
Raven Hengelsport is a real family business. The company was founded in 1974 in a small barn of father Sjoerd Raven in Dronten. Birds, seeds and pet supplies were sold. When the shed became too small, father Sjoerd opened his first shop; a pet boutique. After a second and third pet boutique, it was decided in 1988 to split angling from the pet boutique. Raven Hengelsport (then Raven Fishing) was born and is run by Sjoerd’s sons; Dion and Ivan.
Now, many years later, Raven Hengelsport has four branches in the Netherlands; Lelystad, Steenwijk, Almelo and Rijen. In addition, there are also two foreign branches; Brno (Czech Republic) and Warsaw (Poland). In 2010 our own distribution center was built and opened. All webshop orders are sent from here and the branches are stocked.
In 2020 Raven Hengelsport is one of the largest providers of fishing in Europe with (new) webshops in the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic and Poland!
Raven and WICS
The growth and automation landscape of Raven Hengelsport were not synchronized. Where the webshop and the stores continued to grow between 2010 and 2015, the systems lagged behind. It was time to look for systems and partners with which we could move into the future and grow further. The marriage between Raven Hengelsport and WICS was a fact.
Despite the fact that we had opted for change, it was sometimes difficult to change. After all, we were so used to our old system. In addition to implementing the software and education, WICS also held a lamp against our processes. With the many years of experience of WICS, it turned out that we could organize some processes better, so that we could work more efficiently and the error rate was reduced. We are well guided in this by WICS.
We can now say that we have a system that we are very happy with.
COVID-19
And then suddenly there was the coronavirus COVID-19. Like the rest of the Netherlands, we did not know what to expect when the Netherlands suddenly closed in March 2020. The uncertainty was great; were people going to save money on angling or fish more? After all, what else could be done?
There was explosive growth. Fishing passes flew over the counter and fishing rods didn’t seem to drag. People who hadn’t fished for a while decided to take the rod out of the shed and many new fishermen were born.
Where ‘normal’ the high season starts at the end of April, it has already started in mid-March in 2020. The numbers speak for themselves!
50% more order lines
45% more orders
17% more man hours
Together with WICS we have further optimized the system and the processes and we can work even more efficiently. The nice thing about working with WICS is that there is always room to present an idea, get feedback or think about things that could be improved.
- 50% more order lines
- 45% more orders
- 17% more man hours
Together with WICS we have further optimized the system and the processes and we can work even more efficiently. The nice thing about working with WICS is that there is always room to present an idea, get feedback or think about things that could be improved.
The future
With 2020 creeping towards its end and the madness over, it’s time to think about the future. After such a bizarre year, there is room to evaluate and analyse. What can we expect from 2021? Will the growth continue and can we make even more people happy with beautiful fishing gear?
In any case, we hope that 2021 will look different from 2020 in many ways for everyone! After the fishing then 😉
