ELHA Cosmetics: ‘Fair’s fair; our transport always goes well with Van Duuren’

“Our partnership with Van Duuren has existed for 36 years, and in 99 of the 100 cases everything goes perfectly,” says a satisfied Leo Hertz, managing director of Elha Cosmetics. Van Duuren collects perfumes and cosmetics for Elha from France, Italy and Switzerland. “Twice a week, and on time, the trusty lorry stands at my door. And sometimes more often, as we regularly need express shipments.”

Elha is the distributor of more than thirty cosmetic and perfume brands. One of the few in Benelux, according to Hertz. “Many large cosmetics manufacturers have their own distributors. We represent the independent brands. Fortunately there are still quite a lot of them, so we are able to spread our commercial risks quite well.” The collaboration with the Van Duuren family goes back to 1981. “Van Duuren has dealt with our transport since the beginning of my company,” recalls Hertz.

Special measures
Since 2004 Van Duuren has been responsible for the imports from France, Italy and Switzerland to Elha’s warehouse in Burgerveen. Although this transport has in the meantime been taken up into the Van Duuren daily routine, this is dealt with great care, emphasizes Stef Blommaart. “We are talking about expensive goods, of course. A retail value of 70 million euros is not uncommon, but more importantly, the consignments fall under the legal category of hazardous goods. A bottle of perfume is not particularly dangerous, but a whole trailer load is.” This means that Van Duuren has to take special measures. “Our drivers are trained to be permitted to transport these materials, and have a licence that they have to show when loading,” adds Jeroen van Duuren. “The drivers also have special equipment on board, and it goes without saying that they drive box trucks that meet all the requirements for this type of transport.”

Arrange things extra quickly
Also taken into account in the planning is the fact that not all routes can be taken when carrying these loads. Blommaart gives an example: “We have to use a certain pass when leaving Italy. That is sometimes quite time consuming. Tunnels are much quicker, but we cannot use them for the consignments for Elha.” Nevertheless, the goods always arrive in Burgerveen on time. No mean feat, according to Hertz. “Especially since my clients in other countries often do not tell us until the last moment that the goods are ready for collection. Then the planners in Vianen have to arrange things extra quickly. When I see the Van Duuren truck come around the corner on Tuesdays and Thursdays I’m really pleased with our collaboration. We have built up our relationship over the course of the years, and we know that we can always rely on one another.”