We are the Laudermarke Group
The Laudermarke Group is an Ecommerce business based in Ter Apel, The Netherlands. With years of experience in the field of LED lighting in the agricultural sector, the Laudermarke Group holds six companies, selling LED lighting for agricultural- and forestry vehicles, stables, and workshops. With customers in 25 countries around the world, the company has sparked a global movement within the agricultural LED Lighting industry, to make energy efficient and cost effective working a standard, not the exception.
The Laudermarke Group is led by its founders, Rob and Dominique Haarhuis, who formed the fast-growing company in 2016, with the aim of creating new high quality LED lighting products, to ensure better visibility when working in the dark, while keeping OEM quality standards.
At Laudermarke one is encouraged to think big and not be afraid of being different. Most importantly, every employee can contribute to ensuring a well thought through customer experience. Extraordinary customer service, high quality products and a fair price management ratio is what the Laudermarke Group stands for.
Where it all started
It all started around the kitchen table in 2015 for Founders; Rob and Dominique Haarhuis. As the oldest offspring in the family, Rob has already worked in the family business for many years. Most of his farm work took place in the stables and outside in the pastures and fields. For farmers, there is no such thing as the usual 8-hour day. Especially not at harvest time. In agriculture, the time of the year, the weather, the degree of ripeness of the harvest and many other things often dictate the working hours. For Rob, there was always something to be done on the farm, so it was likely to also do some work at night. He quickly realized that to ensure efficient farming, proper lighting is an important point to consider.
In 2015 he bought the first LED working light for his John Deere 6520. After a short period of time, he knew exactly which lighting is required in order to be able to work efficiently and safely. Rob was impressed by the power and advantages of LED lights. This did not go unnoticed in his personal circle, such as family, friends, and neighbors. Soon, the excitement and demand for LED lighting was enormous, so that Rob and Dominique started reselling LED lighting on Marktplaats and Facebook. From this, the idea for Ledhandel24.nl, their first web shop for selling LED lighting for agricultural- and forestry vehicles, stables, and workshops was born.
The first webshop
Within the course of a year and with the help of their first two employees, who were family friends at the time, the firm, Ledhandel24.nl was established in July 2016. A web shop was set up accordingly and the whole family was recruited to pack, prepare, and send incoming orders. At this time, Dominique was still working as a teacher and Rob worked as a salesman in the agricultural sector. Needless to say, that it all happened next to running the dairy farm and looking after a family of 6. Long nights were spent on the kitchen table, creating invoices in excel, packing orders and creating handwritten labels for each package.
The products they resold were good, and yet, not perfect. From the beginning, they knew that whatever they sold had to be efficient, high quality but still affordable, and pleasantly so people would make it part of their daily routine, and collectively have a much bigger positive impact in the agricultural sector. Rob and Dominique quickly realized that this was not fully possible by only reselling LED lighting and still working fulltime in their day-to-day jobs.
From farm to e-commerce company
In 2018, a decision had to be made, dairy farm vs LED lighting. It was a risk to take, however, they were not afraid to give up the good to go for the great. Both chose to pursue their mission of making energy efficient and cost effective working a standard in the agriculture sector and eventually started creating their own products.
From farmer to farmer, what better way to know exactly which lighting is required to be able to work efficiently and safely than being a consumer himself. Resulting from this, in summer 2018, Crawer, their own LED lighting brand was developed. With the decision of pursuing the LED lightning business, the dairy farm was closed so that the former farm became the headquarters of the Laudermarke Group.
Going international
After 3 years of doing business in the Netherlands, their team of then nine people realized ‘What works in the Netherlands might most likely also work in Germany’. With this thought in mind and big trust in their team, in 2019, Rob and Dominique expanded their business operations to Germany. A second firm, AgrarLED.de was established.
In Germany as well as in the Netherlands, the business did very well and the demand for new, high quality LED lighting products steadily increased. In 2020, the Laudermarke Group already employed 20 employees, all contributing to extraordinary customer service, high quality products and a fair price management ratio for AgrarLED.de and Ledhandel24.nl.
Further expansion
Not only was the head office expanded by building a new office, canteen, and warehouse, but also the Laudermarke Group further expanded their business operations. Rob and Dominique knew that without advancement, businesses can lose their competitive edge and fail to live up to customer expectations. To overcome this, they constantly find new opportunities to prosper. One of which was the establishment of two new firms in 2020. Agriled.no and Agroled.dk, were established to serve the Norwegian and Danish market.
In 2021, the Laudermarke Group was pushed even further. After 5 years of doing business in the Netherlands and 2 years of doing business in Germany, both, Ledhandel24.nl and AgrarLED.de are considered market leaders in the agricultural LED Lighting industry. Further business expansions to France and Poland are planned. By establishing two new firms, Agriproled.fr and Agraled.pl, the French and Polish market is conquered. This year, the team grew to almost 30 employees.
What’s the secret?
What’s the secret behind this rapid development you ask? Rob and Dominique never ran away from risks. They got out of their own way to ensure that great new ideas get proposed by and realized with the whole team. With the use of imagination, questioning the status quo, and a sense of entrepreneurship they build the Laudermarke Group. It all started with a questioning dairy farm owner and exploded into a global business that’s making energy efficient and cost effective working a standard, not the exception.