Exactly today 5 years ago!
Five years ago the idea arose to develop an anti-slip staircase tape. This tape had to have the quality of a strip and be easily applied by anyone, as well as be suitable for most stairs in social housing.
So what's new about that? You might ask. Indeed, there are already many ways to make stair treads slip-resistant and safe. Nevertheless, we regularly received questions from customers and website visitors about an anti-slip strip that you can stick yourself. So there was a real demand.
Stay a moment, I'll explain.
In 2004, I started a trading company in stair components for the stair and carpentry industry. My days consisted of visiting stair factories and carpenters to get them excited about eco-friendly laminated wood stair railings.
Traditionally, these stair railings were made of tropical hardwood. The idea now was to offer an environmentally friendly handrail that was at least the same quality. All things considered, there would be a big market for it with an expected growth of 65,000 homes per year.
Now what does that have to do with anti-slip? Let me explain!
The first few years went well, but then came the crisis. Sales of stair railings were struggling. At dinner, we often discussed different topics, much to the annoyance of my 18-year-old daughter. That evening it was about the Internet and its influence on retailers and businesses like mine.
My daughter was convinced that this was going to be the future. She suggested creating an online store. I thought she was joking, but she was dead serious. She could take pictures and write text so we could focus more on consumers instead of the business market.
She was right. The Internet was exploding and the business market in construction was collapsing. We switched just in time, thanks to the Internet and my daughter ;-)
And here it comes!
A visit by a lady in our store was the deciding factor. She came with her arm in a cast, after a fall of 12 steps. She had searched the Internet for solutions to her slippery staircase, but found nothing that sufficed. Because of her rental house, she wasn't allowed grooves for strips, and other solutions she found ugly or impractical.
We sold her a piece of railing to mount at the top of the stairs. A week later, she called us to say it worked perfectly. Her visit inspired us to find a good solution for rental properties: a strong, non-abrasive strip that you can apply yourself.
Developing a product
Developing an anti-slip rubber tape was not easy, but with the help of students in Delft and the manufacturer Tesa, we succeeded. Now for five years we have been producing an anti-slip tape with the quality of a strip, suitable for do-it-yourselfers.
After six months, I called the lady to tell her that we had developed a tape. She bought a roll and we opened a special Web store: anti-sliprubbertape.com. Since then, we have made more than 14,000 stairs safer.
How it began in 2014
We started from our office packing the anti-slip rubber strips in green envelopes. Sales grew steadily.
Five years on, now in 2019
The volume of packages has now grown considerably. Since the beginning of this year, we have been working with PostNL. They pack and ship the rolls of stairway tape the same day. This guarantees fast delivery to the customer. Our product lends itself perfectly to packing with their robotic order processing system.
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September 24, 2019
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