Our cases

HEINEKEN wanted to play into the consumer trends of discovering & enjoying specialty beers and driving sales through a combination of traditional and digital channels and approached SparkOptimus to support them.

ING is a global financial institution with a European base serving customers in over 40 countries. With over 8 million customers ING is the largest consumer bank in the Netherlands. Given the rapid change of customer expectations and the focus of the bank on digital, ING wanted to develop a future-proof design of the omnichannel branch.

IKEA Netherlands has ambitious growth plans for its omnichannel proposition, aiming to provide the consumer with a seamless experience across every channel. IKEA identified optimizing its current delivery fee structure as a key opportunity to grow sales. Realizing the need for a thorough check of its current proposition, IKEA asked SparkOptimus for support to develop an omnichannel delivery fee structure.

Walvis Participaties is a venture capitalist that invests in Dutch internet technology companies. Walvis Fund III focusses on companies in (early) growth stages and with global ambitions. They received a funding request for a minority equity stake in a Dutch online platform that wants to expand their proposition globally. Walvis asked SparkOptimus to conduct a commercial due diligence to evaluate this proposition.

HEINEKEN N.V., the world’s most international brewer, has made a strong entrance into the field of digital by launching a broad set of digital initiatives in an increasing number of markets across the globe. Committed to accelerating growth in a rapidly changing competitive playing field and driven by the ambition to become the clear winner in beer & cider in a digital age, HEINEKEN asked SparkOptimus for its support in co-developing a shared vision, strategy, and execution plan together with HEINEKEN’s key decision makers: the Executive Team and MDs of HEINEKEN’s largest global Operating Companies.

In order to better serve its online B2C and B2B customers, Coop, a supermarket chain with 325 stores, sought our help to improve the quality and cost-efficiency of its ecommerce fulfilment. Coop used a decentralized, in-store fulfilment solution for its online orders, which no longer sufficed in the rapidly growing segment. Therefore, Coop asked SparkOptimus to design and run a pilot with a centralized ecommerce fulfilment system in close collaboration with its online partner Telesuper.

Media Markt is an international retailer for consumer electronics. With 50+ stores they are market leader and a known disruptor of the electronics market in the Netherlands. In recent years, their webshop has also grown rapidly. As online sales are becoming a significant part of the business and customers are expecting an omnichannel experience, the way ‘digital’ is integrated in the organization needed a revision. As a result, Media Markt wanted to future-proof their organization.

PostNL wanted to better understand digital development and - as a result - the changing needs of their customers in order to assess opportunities to serve its customers in new ways.

In the fall of 2017, NS (Dutch Railways) identified an emerging trend of consumers moving towards flexible, sustainable mobility solutions. NS asked SparkOptimus to come up with a strategic response to this trend. As a result, SparkOptimus designed and set-up a new venture offering mobility-as-a-service for consumers, called Hely, by finding the right product-market fit, building the organization, building a scalable technology platform, and installing a way of working that allows for rapid scale-up.

Brunel is a multinational leader in flexible workforce solutions in specialist markets, and is a unique professional community to all its stakeholders. Brunel requested support from SparkOptimus to help formulate a coherent global strategy that could serve as a guideline for regions to develop locally relevant strategies and plans in line with the global strategic themes.

Evi is an online wealth management, savings, and investment proposition backed by Van Lanschot (more than €1 billion in assets under management). Following our digital growth scan, we were asked to assist in the implementation of the organisational and process changes that were identified as the primary growth drivers moving forward.

ANWB Media faced significant challenges due to the impact of the digital revolution in the media industry and therefore needed to understand how to transition current activities, position themselves within the organization, and adjust their cost base to the new playing field.

Keesing Media Group (KMG) is the number one publisher of puzzle magazines in Europe. In 2017, KMG was acquired by Ergon Capital from its mother company (Telegraaf Media Group) to pursue a European buy & build strategy. As KMG management was in full control of the vision & strategy going forward, it asked SparkOptimus to capture the ambition in a solid plan and kick-start the first actions of the strategy.

a.s.r. has been in the insurance business since 1720. It is one of the top three insurance companies in the Netherlands. Through its labels (a.s.r., De Amersfoortse, Ditzo, Ardanta, and Europeesche Verzekeringen), a.s.r. offers insurance, pension, and banking services to consumers & SMEs. a.s.r. is also active as a fiduciary asset manager, particularly in the public sector. Confronted with a rapidly changing market, a.s.r. decided to accelerate innovation. To help guide this acceleration, identify relevant first steps, and create traction throughout the organization, a.s.r. reached out to SparkOptimus.

Brunel Netherlands is part of Brunel, a worldwide service provider in employment and is leading in specific (technical) segments of the local & international labour market. For the Netherlands management had set the strategic direction. But it needed to translate it to concrete change and to drive and track progress & results of the new growth strategy. Hence, it looked for (light & pragmatic) support.

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Ecommerce is a rapidly emerging channel within the coffee industry. JDE sought to analyze this trend and accelerate his existing DTC platform to work in harmony with its other retail and commercial channels.

Bol.com, part of AholdDelhaize, is the largest online retailer in the Netherlands and Belgium. To maintain their leading position and prepare for changes in the market, bol.com transformed their organization to reflect the focus on platform propositions and increase the speed of innovation.

Villebois Wineries is a French winery in the Sancerre region, focusing on mid- and upper-segment Sauvignon Blancs. As digital has started to transform the wine industry and this has been accelerated by COVID-19, Villebois requested SparkOptimus to define a digital channel strategy to leap ahead in the market and grow its brands and sales.

Van Oord is a global leading marine contractor with 150 years of worldwide experience in marine ingenuity. Even though heavy asset industries are yet to be extensively disrupted, Van Oord set the bold ambition to make digital a central value driver for the business, created an internal digital transformation team to do so, and asked us to support this goal.

Albert Heijn is the largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands. They were looking to grow their digital offerings to their customers, both online and in physical stores. Albert Heijn defined what the role of digital should be in their organization and set a bold digital ambition. They asked SparkOptimus to define and flesh out four digital focus areas to accelerate.