Supervisory board message
Janus Smalbraak, Chairman of Kramp’s Supervisory Board
A strong foundation for continuing to build a sustainable and relevant future
This was the first year with the new governance structure of a three-strong Board of Directors supported by an Executive Team, rather than the previous six-strong Executive Board. In our view, this new structure has improved clarity, accountability, and the focus on results, and has enhanced the agility of strategic decision-making.
In 2025, the Supervisory Board held five regular meetings with Kramp’s Board of Directors. Each meeting in 2025 included an extra presentation by the Managing Director of one of Kramp’s five clusters. This gave us valuable insights and a better understanding of the organisation’s regional markets, results and strategies.
As the Supervisory Board, our role is threefold: we supervise, advise, and serve as the employers of Kramp’s Board of Directors.”
Investment projects and future strategy
During the meetings, we regularly challenged Kramp’s Board of Directors in our discussions to help them balance the future vision – which revolves around sustainability, innovation and long-term value creation – with shorter-term financial and operational needs. To safeguard financial continuity, we spent considerable time on understanding the risks and opportunities associated with key investment projects including the Masterplan in Varsseveld, the new warehouse project for the Nordics Cluster, and Project Spring. In addition, the Board of Directors involved us in shaping their new five-year plan: Strategy 2030.
Building resilience to future challenges
The future will not be without challenges, of course. The changing climate, extreme weather conditions, geopolitical shifts and macroeconomic fluctuations all have an impact on Kramp’s results. Additionally, as a technology-driven company, Kramp faces heightened IT risks related to cybersecurity. As the Supervisory Board, we will remain in close dialogue with the relevant Kramp executives as well as the independent auditor to mitigate these risks as part of reinforcing Kramp’s resilience and adaptability to deal with the current uncertainty.
Within a family business like Kramp, it is especially important to nurture the healthy company culture and maintain strong relationships among the owners, management and employees. Therefore, another area of attention together with the Board of Directors will be to explore ways to further improve the employee engagement score. Additionally, we see opportunities for further increasing diversity within Kramp and for intensifying the focus on talent development.
Change in the composition of the Supervisory Board
The composition of our Supervisory Board changed in 2025, with one of our four members, Frederik Nieuwenhuys, stepping down after eight years. We would like to express our gratitude for the guidance and support he has provided in the past eight years. He has been replaced by Huub Vermeulen, former COO/CEO of Bol.com. We are very happy to welcome Huub on board, and his e-commerce expertise will be very beneficial in Kramp’s current growth phase.
Acknowledgements
As the Supervisory Board, we are happy to see that Kramp succeeded in achieving further growth and profitability in 2025, despite the challenging circumstances. This would not have been possible without the hard work of everyone involved. Therefore, we would like to express our gratitude and compliments to the Board of Directors and all Kramp colleagues at Group, Cluster, Country and Functional level for their commitment and dedication. Thank you also to all customers, suppliers and other external partners for their loyal support of Kramp.
Strong foundation for growth
We are confident that the Strategy 2030, combined with the successful adoption of a cost-conscious mindset in 2025, provides a strong and resilient foundation on which Kramp can further grow towards a sustainable and relevant future. As the Supervisory Board, we remain committed to supporting Kramp in 2026 and beyond.