TSO Schoonmaak from Almelo takes over Kuiper Schoonmaakbedrijf from Overdinkel

Officially, they only started their TSO Schoonmaak in Almelo on November 1, 2024. And already Steven van den Broek (44) and Marthijn Hoekstra (43) are taking over a renowned name from Overdinkel: Kuiper Schoonmaakbedrijf. "My father started on the bakfiets, about 60 years ago," says van den Broek.

The paint on the walls has only just dried. Van den Broek and Hoekstra are sitting, not for the first time in recent months, opposite Menno Kuiper (54) of Kuiper Schoonmaakbedrijf from Overdinkel, for sixty years a "familiar face" in the border village and its surroundings. "And we want to keep that familiar feeling," Hoekstra emphasizes.

It was he who made the choice last year to start for himself. With TSO Schoonmaak the time has now come. "I have been in the cleaning business for 24 years," he explains. "I worked for large businesses. But at some point I thought: I'm stupid if I don't start for myself. That was always a dream."

On the road with the bakfiets

Together with his husband Steven he embarked on the adventure. Soon the contact with Kuiper Schoonmaakbedrijf was established. Owner Menno took over the business from his father in 1997. "When I was 16, I rolled into the cleaning business," he says. "My father started in 1963 and went to visit customers on his cargo bike. I didn't have much use for school myself, so I soon started working as a window cleaner."

From the age of 16, Kuiper "never did anything else. His focus was fully on the cleaning business. Yet recently the idea began to come to life to change tack. "I do have some ideas about what I want to do, but definitely haven't decided yet. I'm going to think about that in the coming time."

Small-scale and warm

In the search for a takeover candidate, Kuiper, guided by Company Brokers, spoke with several interested parties. "Also with a number of large businesses, but that was not what I had in mind. We want to keep the small-scale and warm character of the business."

And then Van den Broek and Hoekstra came into the picture. "We continue on the same footing," says Van den Broek. "If we see a dirty table at a customer's, or a few cups still on the counter, we clean them up. At larger businesses, they even calculate how long it takes to empty a trash can..."

Kuiper did not make the decision to sell the business overnight. He is convinced that TSO will continue the business in a good way. Hoekstra: "We will also keep the name Kuiper Schoonmaakbedrijf for a while, so that people can get used to us. In time we will continue under the name of TSO."