Roeland Schuurmans literally grew up with Polydak, his parents’ roofing company in Lommel. Before the age of 30, he was handed the keys to the family business. From there, he expanded with Isolatiestock and Dakstock, two successful distribution branches. Two product launches we were proud to support.
The love for his parents’ company was literally instilled in Roeland Schuurmans from an early age. ‘As a child, there was nothing I loved more than heading to the construction site, riding along in the truck, or sitting on the forklift. I also did all my holiday jobs at Polydak. It has always been my home. When the company moved to Overpelt for a few years, our house was even right next to the offices.’
‘At 21, I left the schoolbooks behind and accepted my father’s offer to join him working on the roofs. When I broke my thumb in a sports accident two years later, I ended up in the office and never left. I’ve done everything I could possibly do there: HR, purchasing, estimation, logistics, you name it.’
‘Until seven years ago, when my parents proposed that I take over the company from them. I didn’t hesitate, and I remember my parents letting go very quickly. For example, my father would immediately refer older employees, who always came to him for advice, to me. In the beginning, that felt a bit strange. Even though I had gained years of experience within the company, there were still employees who had seen me running under the meeting tables as a little kid. Our accountant even remembers seeing me in my cradle (laughs).’
For a managing director of three companies, there are still only 24 hours in a day. What about life outside of work hours? ‘That’s actually going quite well (laughs). I even have time left for some side projects. For a few years now, I’ve been buying building plots to construct energy-efficient homes. Soon, I want to focus more and more on property development. Building structures from the ground up and seeing how far you can go each time… I really enjoy that.’
‘But real quality time is for my family. My children, aged 8 and 11, play basketball and box; I follow them everywhere. I also try to head into the mountains with them every year for hiking. Preferably in Austria, in the summer. We are real nature people… but at least as much animal lovers! I love spending time with animals. My grandparents and parents always had livestock. Cows, horses, chickens, roosters, rabbits… Animals have always been a constant in my life, and they always will be.’
Since the 1980s, Polydak has focused on installing, repairing, and renovating flat roofs, both residential and industrial. Aside from their core activity, they increasingly positioned themselves over the years as a reliable distributor of roofing and insulation materials. They wished to house these activities under new, separate business entities.
We put our weight behind the brand launch of Isolatiestock. We provided the brand-new name with a logo, matching color schemes, and a website, followed by a targeted social media campaign to create the necessary awareness among their professional and private target audiences. This yielded such great results that we soon extended the campaign. In a subsequent stage, we were also tasked with managing the brand launch of Dakstock.
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