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By: Jurriaan Nolles (Article 'The Entrepreneur', Monday, September 22, 2025)
https://www.deondernemer.nl/actueel/eric-kooistra-opkoper-blokker-big-bazar-bmw-china~b1f5604
But who is still interested in them when the world's biggest sporting event has long since ended? Who would be crazy enough to store thousands of these obsolete mascots in a shed in Leeuwarden, hoping someone will come and buy them one day?
So Eric Kooistra, owner of one of the largest buyout companies in the Netherlands. Since he bought 202 sea containers from the then bankrupt Blokker, he became the country's best-known buyer.
Unintentionally, his fame grew a little more when it emerged that his cousin Heerke Kooistra had bought the Big Bazar bargain chain and gone bankrupt with it. Eric had it writ large on his website that 'this Kooistra does pay his bills'. ''You are easily confused if you have the same surname and are from Friesland, but we just do our job properly,'' Eric explains.
Who is this buyer from Friesland, who caused dozens of Franchisees' Blokker shops could remain open? The guy who buys up all the jackets at C&A from last year's winter collection? Who sees bread in 250 written-off BMWs that will never run?
On a Thursday morning, he walks into his premises. It is an office, bar and showroom all in one, and that on a drab industrial estate in Leeuwarden, with a gigantic shed full of stuff behind it.
He is wearing white Nikes, jeans and a dark blue jacket over a T-shirt. His phone rings constantly. It is still early, but he already has 49 unread emails, and 10 apps he needs to respond to. "Often we have to be quick. We bought those hugs within ten minutes.''
And at the right price, of course. He cannot tell exactly how much they cost him, but you can assume 50 cents to a euro each. ''You have to look at it this way: in our industry, people usually pay between zero and 20 per cent of the normal value. So if something normally costs one euro, we pay about 10 cents.''
For Blokker's 202 sea containers, Kooistra paid "a few million". It was 10,000 items, 1,600 different items
For Blokker's 202 shipping containers, he paid "a couple of million", he says. It was 10,000 items, 1,600 different items. All the typical Blokker stuff is among them: plaids, batter bowls, scales and sandwich boxes, in an endless row of cardboard boxes. "The factory in China was facing a problem when Blokker was no longer there but the stuff had already been ordered. Some was already in port, some was still at sea. It was only going to cost them money.''
And then there is Kooistra: ''We pay quickly, and the Chinese had to get rid of it.'' The deal, closed by his associate Tjitse Lawerman within a few days, was really only the beginning of the work. Because where do you get the space to store 202 sea containers of stuff? And who is going to get all that stuff out?
''We were soon in media coverage, so people knew there was work here. And we are Frisians: they don't mind working.'' Through some business friends, five large sheds were rented in addition, staff holidays were withdrawn: ''Then we'll pay them a double holiday,'' they reasoned.
,,Sometimes we just put two containers next to each other, team here, team there - and then we go. Whoever empties first wins. Sweat on the forehead, a bit of pounding, a bit of fun, and at the end a meatball and a beer. Yes, then it's actually quite nice work.''
It is as if Kooistra lives in an almost old-fashioned world, where trading is done on the basis of trust. ,,The Chinese wanted 140,000 euros for five trailer suitcase sets, but we wanted to pay 100,000. Then you end up with 120,000. Then everyone can move on.''
He has a hundred stories, for example about C&A's batch of a hundred thousand winter coats, models from previous winters, that could no longer be sold in shops. ,,What do you think a Romanian woman will think of that? Who will say: 'Great coat, nice and warm'.
His company buys those coats for about 5 euros each and then resells them for 6 euros to contacts in countries like Poland or Romania. For example, he has a customer in Poland with 20 small shops, who can put up to 250 of them in each location. "That man says: Dobre, we do. And if you have a few such contacts, you sell a hundred thousand coats in no time. That's why I'd rather have a hundred thousand than a thousand. We do have the customers.''
Look, if you want the latest of the latest, it's not going to work. But we buy everything after the trendEric Kooistra
He sells "everything", he says. Over 90 per cent of his range costs less than 2 euros. ''From shoelaces to applesauce, and from Christmas baubles to figure candles. But we also have furniture and cars.''
Speaking of which, it has just hit the news that there are 260 unsaleable BMWs in Moerdijk. They come from the Fremantle Highway, the freighter that caught fire in the North Sea in July 2023. BMW will never allow them to go on the road again, but Kooistra still wants them. ,,Then we will saw them in half, and turn them into a garden set. Or else a garden tractor.''
What Kooistra is trying to say: everything can be sold, as long as you haven't paid too much for it yourself. ''You have to dare to buy cheap. Look, if you want the latest of the latest, it's not going to work. But we buy everything after the trend. We buy the baubles when Christmas is over. And when it's been summer, we buy the swimming pools.''
Read also: New Blokker boss is bold and committed: 'If anyone can save Blokker, then Palmer'
It often happens with leftover lots after bankruptcy. Isn't he the vulture waiting for someone else's misery? ,,Look, if Blokker goes bankrupt, we'll turn on, sure. Then we will take action. But it's not like: fine, they're bankrupt, we have a house. We are not like that. Bankruptcy is often a one-off. You put tons of energy into it, and then everyone is gone. Then you lose your customers. I would much rather deal with a company that runs well and changes collections. That will help you in the long run.''
Just walk around the showroom with him. There are thousands of plastic straws and plastic balloons, items that have long been banned in the Netherlands from a sustainability point of view. ''But should we throw them away? Somewhere in the world, someone still wants them, you know.
Then more seriously: "If you pull open the average Dutchman's wardrobe, everything thunders right out. That's how spoilt we are. But there are so many people in the world who are happy with what we throw away. Stand in India or somewhere in Africa with a thousand of those Paris hugs. Within ten minutes you'll lose them. We make sure things don't end up in the incinerator, but with people who need them. And sometimes that also pays off.''
His company now employs 20 people. Its annual turnover is 10 million euros. "There is no swearing here either," he says, pointing to a sign above the canteen door. It says God's name must not be misused.
"We shouldn't. We like to have a little respect for everyone. It's the same in trade: if you don't respect people, you won't be awarded anything. And we don't sell for the highest price, so then that award is very important.''
There we were in old factories sorting, selling and organising stuff. Putting everything in rows, and then people from the village would come byEric Kooistra
He learned the trade from his father, who in turn learned it from his father. ''Grandpa once started with a cargo bike - the dime cart - and rode through the Frisian Woods around Damwoude, with batches of clothes and textiles. He traded a bit, and made his profit from a dime.''
His father too was already in the business, though on a smaller scale. In the 1980s, he drove around East Germany by car. On one of those trips, in 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. ''He thought: what is this? Normally it was bleak and grey there, but now one big party. He then went to Berlin, and just stood there among the people who were tearing down the Wall with pickaxes. He took another piece with him.''
The fall of the Wall proved to be a breakthrough. Initially, his father went to the East to sell Western stuff, but what he found was at least as interesting: huge stocks of products that had been produced for years but never sold.
Read also: How buying up leftover stock led to a successful supermarket formula
"An East German family was given three toothbrushes a year, so to speak, by the communist regime. But there were still millions of toothbrushes just lying around in storage. And also sledges and porcelain, all in sheds. Everything was there, but nobody bought it.''
His father not only bought up stock, but sometimes even whole factories through the Treuhand, the body tasked with selling off communist state-owned enterprises. "That was really a growth spurt. In turnover, in volume, in everything.'' Kooistra was 15, 16 years old at the time.
"We just went along. My friends too. We stood there in old factories sorting, selling and organising stuff. Put everything in rows, and then people from the village would come along.''
With weck pots and army uniforms, the Kooistra's made fortunes, with Blokker and its 202 sea containers the new big breakthrough. When Blokker went bankrupt, there were still 45 independent franchisees left who kept their shops open as usual.
They never ran out of Blokker stuff because Kooistra simply sold it to them. Now the new owner Roland Palmer Blokker has taken over again, Kooistra is just selling his stuff to the new Blokker. He still has half of the trade left.
Yes, looking back, this was the deal of a lifetime, especially given all the media attention. But he likes the 220,000 Paris hugs just as much. "Maybe I'll take the logos off and stitch a new one on.
He is sure, then they will be sold in no time.
If Blokker goes bankrupt and 202 sea containers full of toasters, blenders and drying racks remain, one man will not turn his hand to such a lot: Eric Kooistra from Leeuwarden. He buys everything loose and stuck, and if he has to, within ten minutes. "For something that normally costs 1 euro, we pay 10 cents.
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