The History of STOX

My name is Berthel and I’ve been the owner of STOX Kitchens & Flooring since February 2015. Now you might be wondering how a 42 year old, single mother ended up owning this company? Let me start at the beginning.

In 1998 my husband Robin Keller, who was only 22 years old at the time, started selling various goods on the market in Beverwijk. Glass, clips, lighting, paint and many more products. It got busy quite fast and it didn’t take long for him to request the help of some young lads from his hometown (Zandvoort). The product range kept on expanding and Robin kept purchasing more goods to fill up the hall where he was stationed on the market.

In the year 2001, the idea was formed with his father and brother to finally start ‘a real store’.

The first idea was to set up an outlet-store, filled with various products that were left over from wholesalers. The remaining space would be filled up by us with various types of flooring. This idea got worked out and the men found beautiful business premises in Amsterdam, on the Haarlemmerweg 325, which happens to be the location that we are still established at today. The premises is an impressive 2500 square meters!

The closing months of 2001 is when I first met Robin, and got to experience the start-up phase of the company. Robins’ brother was also on board and was a major part of the company. It wasn’t long after the year 2002 had started before STOX opened the first STOX Factory Outlet in Amsterdam.

The following years were hard work. In 2004 the second premises that was purchased got officially transformed to the STOX Kitchen Factory Outlet. Besides just flooring we expanded our product range to kitchens and flooring. This combination was very successful from the moment we started it!

Robins vision had always been a STOX-chain, so in the following years we opened a STOX establishment in a place called Cappele a/d IJssel, and another one in Cruquius. At one point we even opened a wholesale plus a warehouse filled with flooring imported from China.

The crisis in 2008-2009 were trying times for STOX, but we got through it in decent condition. This did unfortunately mean that the wholesale and the establishment in Capelle had to be closed down.

Fast forward a couple of years to 2012, when Robins brother decided to pursue a different adventure. Robin continued the process of expanding his company by himself. In 2014 disaster struck, when Robin was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. He battled and fought this disease for a year, like a true gladiator. Eventually on Valentine’s Day 2015 Robin took his last breath. In that moment STOX lost her “Creator, inspirator and motivator”, as Robin used to call himself.

Before Robin passed we decided together that I would be the one who would take up the mantle, and continue operating STOX. It was definitely not easy without Robin, but with the help of the skilled and kind people around me we didn’t just carry on, but we’ve grown in to the company that we are today:

A beautiful, strong company with great perspectives for the future!

A company that respects their clients wishes, and treats them right.

We allow our clients to take their time and make the right decision.

So visit our store and make the judgement yourself; not like all the other kitchens and flooring businesses right?

We’ll make sure the coffee is ready for you!

Kind regards,

Berthel Keller