The history of Kruitbosch

The family already had a bicycle wholesale business in Zutphen, but the official start of the Kruitbosch family business in Zwolle was in 1955. That year Egbert Jan opened a wholesale business in bike and bike parts in Zwolle together with his sons Wim and Herman.

The premises on Nieuwstraat 10 became too small for Kruitbosch, and the company moved from the city centre to just outside the centre of Zwolle. The old steel-construction company at Vondelkade 70 was converted into a warehouse for Kruitbosch. The first generation handed over to the second around this period, as Wim and Gerrit took over the reins.

As a third generation of Kruitbosch entered the business, Wim and Gerrit opened a second branch in Hoogeveen.

The premises at Vondelkade became too small and Kruitbosch moved to Marslanden, where we built our own premises. Together with our employees we devised and detailed the plans for the optimum layout. Wilco became co-owner of Kruitbosch Zwolle. Kruitbosch Hoogeveen became independent under the leadership of Egbert Kruitbosch.

Kruitbosch Hoogeveen ended up being too small, and the business moved to Parmentierstraat, which was also built under our own management.

The first Bike Event became a reality, and Kruitbosch managed to surprise and inspire its clients. Such an event, organised by a wholesaler, had never been seen before in the bike sector.

Start of the relaunch of the children’s bike make Alpina. Kruitbosch takes children seriously and produced a complete line of lifestyle children’s bikes. Alpina became market leader in just a few years.

Following the licence to manufacture K3 bikes, Kruitbosch gained a large number of clients in a short period of time. This Belgian girl group was extremely popular and the pink children's bikes and corresponding accessories sold like hot cakes.

Start of the production of Cortina bikes. During the first year, a total of 4,000 bikes were manufactured.

Merger between Kruitbosch Zwolle and Kruitbosch Hoogeveen New premises were built in the industrial estate Hessenpoort in Zwolle. The family business no longer had a regional focus, as the sales market comprised the Netherlands, Benelux and Germany. Egbert had different ambitions and the cousins set up a completely new company structure, where Chris was appointed Managing Director. Wilco and Martin became co-owners.

The launch of the Cortina Ecomo. For the first time, there is a trendy and stylish e-bike in the market.

Kruitbosch opened its own YouTube channel and posted the first video on the 19th of October. The theme - bikes are fashion. The catwalk hosted an exclusive fashion show where dozens of bikes took the lead. This unusual event was presented by Anouk Smulders.

Cortina's growth was explosive, and more than a 100,000 bikes were produced in the 2013 season.

On the 18th of August, Kruitbosch was voted the most valued bicycle wholesaler following a survey of 10 wholesalers in the bike sector. Kruitbosch scored high on the elements range, logistics, information, price and service.

On the 6th of June, the employees enjoyed a ride through history. During the ride from Zwolle to Zutphen they called on a number of important Kruitbosch sites.

For the coming years, Kruitbosch will be the exclusive supplier of the Yepp trailer, an innovative and modern bike trailer for children, in the Benelux.

Cortina worked hard on the Dutch e-bike market. A Marketdata.nl marketing report about bicycle retail in 2017 demonstrated that Cortina was one of the two biggest climbers in the sector. The report also demonstrated that Cortina scored extremely well on social media and was the most searched bicycle brand on Google.

Kruitbosch and e-bike-to-go, the largest supplier of ‘shared e-bikes’ to companies in the Netherlands, joined forces. Besides the Kruitbosch’ share in e-bike-to-go, the companies developed a joint proposition where organisations are unburdened completely in relation to everything to do with ‘bike management’.

The Cortina Common has been named "Bicycle of the Year 2019" by the RAI association. The Cortina Common is not just a bicycle, but a total concept. All Cortina Common models are equipped with the unique AtranVelo System (AVS).

In October Kruitbosch organizes the first edition of the event "Thuis bij Kruitbosch", the follow-up event of the "Kruitbosch Bike Event". "Thuis bij Kruitbosch" literally means "at home with Kruitbosch" and the new event will be all about this motto. Kruitbosch welcomes its customers in-house on Ravenburgstraat in Zwolle, and in a unique location, right next to the building.

Kruitbosch has taken an interest in Hellorider, the independent bicycle leasing platform that focuses on the wholesale business of lease bicycles and was split off from the International Bike Group (IBG) in early April 2020. Hellorider is the only independent platform in the corporate leasing segment where employers, car leasing companies, bicycle brands and bicycle dealers come together.