Netherlands: Die Grenze is the fastest growing retail chain
- DRC Discount Retail Consulting GmbH
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
Discount Retail Chain Die Grenze will open its first branch in Amsterdam this week. With 50 new branches in five years, Actionkiller Die Grenze is the fastest growing retail chain in the Netherlands and the pride of Twente. "I can't eat all that money on my own. I'd rather put it in the business," says founder Bert Hesselink.
The branch in Amsterdam is the eightieth of the Twente bargain chain, one of the few bright spots in the gloomy shopping landscape. With 50 new branches in five years, Actionkiller Die Grenze is the fastest growing retail chain in the Netherlands and the pride of Twente.
Hesselink, a former market vendor ('I thought it was a bit boring'), started his chain as Medikamente Die Grenze in 2007 in Denekamp, right on the German border. Medikamente (German for medicines) because over-the-counter pills are a lot cheaper in the Netherlands. Steadily, more cases followed in the border region. "But it was full at one point. Then I went inland," says Hesselink. And the gas went on.
More department store than drugstore
On paper, Die Grenze is a discount drugstore, but Hesselink sees his chain mainly as a department store. It is no longer a one-man business, although purchasing is still exclusively in the hands of Hesselink, who is called all the time with offers of new stocklots. "I always do everything by feeling. I have already sold mattresses. If someone offers a thousand ladders for a tenner a piece, I make it five euros and sell them for twenty. This year, Easter eggs were in the shops in June. All left. Isn't that chocolate?"
"There is so much going around. This week there are still remnants of the old Blokker; Airfryers, mixers, coffee makers, you name it. Yesterday trucks full of Halloween candy. After Halloween, that's cheap. I will soon sell them for one euro per two bags. Such a child does not say: 'Mom: I don't like that, because it's Halloween.' I sell most gingerbread dolls after Sinterklaas."
On the border of at least sustainable
Die Grenze also offers a lot of food, often close to the sell-by date, sometimes over it. Neatly indicated. "That often overshoots and then they knock on our door. We regularly have stuff from Albert Heijn or Plus. It used to be destroyed, but that is not so 'sustainable' in their annual report. Then they produce too much, or misjudge it. Last year, everyone wanted those noodles because Asia was so popular with the youth. Then they think it will stay that way forever and now they are lying with me, four for a euro. There is only two weeks of shelf life left."
"People are far too difficult about that. If it's a week late, you're not going to throw it away, are you? Chocolate that is a month or so past the sell-by date, I still dare to eat. At most, it has turned white. According to the label, this bottle of water is good until 2027. If I drink it in 2028, it will still be wet. I once took over lice shampoo from the Food Bank. They didn't want to, because they were too old. The lice don't notice that at all, they don't have an agenda."
"Yesterday 15,000 bags of cocktail nuts from Duyvis with an expiry date until January 3, 2026. Costs 2.99 euros at AH. I pay 55 cents per bag for twelve pallets. I sell them for one euro per bag. They will sell during the holidays." According to Hesselink, soft drinks are in short supply. "Those cans of energy drink. Every time it has to be slightly different and then the old stuff remains."
No weird thoughts
Die Grenze also collects returnable bottles and cans, because it has to. But with a vending machine on which he himself is depicted life-size. "They throw those bottles in through my mouth. Idea from my cousin. They weren't so happy with it at Statiegeld Nederland. If it had been an image of a woman with her mouth open, they wouldn't have done it. But no one gets strange thoughts with me anymore," says the 61-year-old Hesselink, who has already sat in a bathtub full of rubber ducks for praise, without embarrassment.
Advertising slogans also regularly come from his sleeve. Like with a leftover batch of mini vibrators: 'cheap vibration is what the ladies want'. Or with condoms with an 87 percent discount: 'ten times for one euro'. Last year, leftover gingerbread cookies went on Christmas sales as rentier köttels. "The Germans really liked it. They sometimes ask: 'Do you still have those rentierköttels?'"
Good for people without money
The clientele of Die Grenze is manageable. "People who can't feed their children when they buy at the regular supermarket really need us. Then you have a group that cares about nature and thinks it's a shame that stuff is thrown away. In addition, there are the people who can afford the best but who are frugal; the rest of the Netherlands. Together we can make a pretty good living from that."
The fact that the competition is literally around the corner doesn't bother him much. "I have deep respect for Action, is a world company." Although the respect doesn't go very deep either; he has snatched the manager for his Amsterdam store from the neighbour.
The difference with competitors such as Action or Kruidvat? "The price. And the surprise. They have to buy in bulk, because the same thing is true in all businesses. They have already determined what the offer is at Easter. At Die Grenze you never know, but you will always find something you need. There, everything has to go through the head office or the owner in Hong Kong. What I buy on Wednesday is in the shops the next Monday."
Drugstore does not attract customers
Amsterdammers have to get used to the German connotations of the name. "That works in Twente. Everyone says: who must go to Die Grenze. It also has charisma; We are already talking about it together. I can call it Drugstore Hesselink, but no one comes to that."
Hesselink does not want another fifty more cases in five years. "You also have to be able to handle it. Next year we will do between five and ten. But it can also be thirteen or three, as it suits you. It's not opening stores for the sake of opening stores, I'm not the Kruidvat drug store."
"If I don't have a good feeling about it, I don't do it. I could have stopped at ten branches. But yes, you are an entrepreneur. A footballer also plays football to score as many goals as possible. I can't eat all that money on my own. I'd rather put it in the business."
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