'In terms of cleanliness and surface finish, the bar is getting higher and higher'

The ball is in the church. Topfinish in Mijdrecht has a new director/owner. Or to be more precise: owner. Because founder Cor Verhoef has transferred the shares to his daughter Marjet who earned her spurs as an independent entrepreneur in the marketing sector. Topfinish thus remains a family business pur sang and because Cor remains active as advisor for the time being and all familiar employees remain in service, the quality and continuity of Topfinish are guaranteed. As the new director and major shareholder (DGA), Marjet is determined to continue the steady growth of the company, for which the necessary plans are already in place.

Topfinish started about 35 years ago in Cor Verhoef's garage: "While restoring a car, I wanted to polish some parts using the so-called Rotofinish technique. This is a vibration technique that includes ceramic and plastic deburring and polishing agents. I dove into that and through an expert I learned the technology. After my decision to pursue this, the first orders soon rolled in. This is how Topfinish was born. Soon we had to move to larger premises. Which we also found in Mijdrecht, after which we took over a machine supplier. This allowed us to offer a nice combination of both performing cleaning, deburring and polishing facilities as a subcontractor and selling both new and used machines. If required, we install them on site, in addition to performing maintenance and service. But time goes fast, so I started looking for my successor in good time. I first put that question to my children, with the most enterprising of the bunch picking up the gauntlet."

Digitization

Marjet Verhoef, who already had side jobs in the company during the vacations as a child and thus knows this world very well, is giving the company an extra boost as its new DGA, especially in the marketing and IT fields. "In addition to a lot of process knowledge, my father knows a lot about the machines and process equipment we sell," Marjet emphasizes. "My expertise now mainly focuses on the business itself, marketing and the smart use of digital technology. For example, we now have a state-of-the-art ERP system with which we have optimized the workflow. The professional knowledge is mainly in the heads of my father and our professionals, but because we are capturing that knowledge and experience in an interactive digital format, we will be able to generate quotations based on a number of parameters more and more quickly and accurately and soon almost automatically."  

Process optimization

'Staff shortages are forcing manufacturing companies to mechanize/automate,' she continues. 'Interestingly, more and more construction companies are bringing in cleaning, deburring and polishing machines to relieve their own staff and thus create more capacity. They used to do the deburring and polishing themselves with manual grinding and sanding tools. Now this is done mechanically and, if possible, fully automatically. We have the solutions for that. Because we have all kinds of machines here, we can perform specific practical tests with parts that (potential) customers bring in themselves. This allows us to develop the optimum process for them, so that machines can be used optimally immediately after installation and investments are recouped more quickly.'

Recognized learning company

'It's a very beautiful and interesting world,' she stresses. 'We are therefore proud that we have now acquired the status of 'Recognized Training Company'. From our relationship network we have already had several trainees visit our premises and now we are in the process of writing to technical schools that we offer internships and (BBL) apprenticeships.'

High-tech requirements

'Especially because of the high-tech industry, the bar is getting higher and higher within our world,' Marjet concludes. 'In terms of cleanliness but also in terms of surface finish, products are nowadays tested in clean rooms under electron microscopes before they are applied. In addition, concepts such as sustainability and reusability are current topics. By first deburring or polishing used parts/products and then cleaning them properly, you can give them a second or third life. That saves raw materials. In short, we have a good mission and with a healthy ambition we are going to give it further shape in the coming years.'