In the last few years, we have grown into an organization that always offers the best solution for the rail infrastructure, now and in the future, both nationally and internationally. Our ambition is to offer one location to the railway market worldwide for all railway products and related services. We sat down with our Export Manager Nynke Schaap, who is responsible for our International Sales department since April 2021.
Nynke Schaap is born and raised in the North of the Netherlands. In addition to her Bachelor of Business Administration, she also acquired her Masters in International Business and Management at the University of Groningen: “After I graduated with Bachelor’s, I took a year off to travel and work. I also took the time to figure out which specialization I wanted to add to my field. It didn’t take too long, because I realized I am fascinated by international business. During my Master’s, I learned to analyze certain issues within multinationals in different countries as well as how to understand different institutional surroundings. Within global management, you deal with different countries, institutions, cultures, and of course companies and their strategies.” After college, Nynke moved to the city of Utrecht, which lies in the center of the Netherlands, to start her career. In June, 2019, Nynke began as International Sales Engineer at the International Sales department of voestalpine Track Solutions Netherlands. Together with Dominique Martens (former Export Manager), the department is strengthened to further expand our international ambitions. We have been actively working to further develop the international markets since a few years and managed to already achieve quite some success stories. Since April, 2021, Nynke moved up in the role of Export Manager and is now responsible for the International Sales.
Right now, our international focus lies in Europe. Those countries closest to the Netherlands geographically are for us the most strategic countries. We work closely with Belgium, United Kingdom, and France. Although the focus right now lies in Europe, we are globally oriented. “This is mainly because of our international web shop, which gives us great exposure as a result of intensive marketing and communications activities. Because we are well represented online, we manage to get requests from all over the world.” Our mother company voestalpine is an established name globally, which makes it easier in some cases to do business with a certain country. North America is a perfect example: “Together with our American voestalpine colleagues, we are also active in North America. Our colleagues there know the market and know how the wheels turn. We have a distribution contract with them for the representation of certain products. Because of this collaboration, we can rely on the network of our American colleagues and simultaneously create one face to the customer.”
And of course I enjoy being in contact with different customers and cultures.
As Export Manager, Nynke’s most important focus points are strategy and development, expanding our ever growing product portfolio, and growth in new foreign markets. She is also the main contact person for our international customers. The best thing about her job? “When I start a day, I never know exactly how the day will proceed. From internal logistics processes to customs related matters and from customer contact to contact with suppliers. And of course I enjoy being in contact with different customers and cultures.”
Nynke has been working for our organization for 2.5 years now: “When I first started to work for voestalpine Track Solutions Netherlands, I had no idea what exactly needs to be done in order to get a train from point A to point B. It really was a sneak peek behind the scenes. After a couple of weeks, I quickly realized that this is a very interesting business.”
When we ask Nynke why it’s so much fun to work for our organization, her answer is clear: “My colleagues and the international character of my job. It has the necessary challenges in order to turn an international project into a successful one. The foreign markets have their own way of working and thinking, different set of rules, specifications, and different parties you have to deal with. This requires so much from both the organization and the colleagues. It’s truly wonderful to see how dedicated and helpful all my colleagues are in order to make any project succeed.”
Do you have an international project and would you like to know how we can assist you? Get in touch with Nynke Schaap!
Order products simply and quickly in our international web shop: just one click, and your order is placed.
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