Alumio secures a strategic investment from Lexar Partners to drive growth and innovation
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Founded in 1980 by Koos van Haaster and his childhood friend, De Bosrand Tuincentrum began as a modest plant nursery in Wassenaar. With a passion for all things green, the family quickly expanded their operations, first into wholesale and later into a full garden center. Over the course of 40 years, De Bosrand has grown into a leading family business in the Dutch garden retail industry, operating five garden centers across the Netherlands and soon to open a sixth in Noordwijk in 2025. The company also runs two wholesale locations, a distribution center, and an outlet in Alphen a/d Rijn.
De Bosrand’s strong family values are reflected in its tight-knit, hands-on management, with all six siblings actively involved in its daily operations. As the business celebrates its 45th anniversary, De Bosrand continues to evolve, now offering an expanded product range and a complete shopping experience that combines expert advice and inspiration for home, garden, and animal care.
Facing the challenges of an outdated monolithic Retail ERP system after over 20 years of use, De Bosrand needed to modernize its IT infrastructure to support continued growth and digital transformation. The old system created barriers to integrating new applications and lacked real-time data visibility across channels, making it difficult to manage inventory, sales, and product data seamlessly. After exploring various options, De Bosrand selected Alumio’s integration platform for its flexibility, ease of use, and powerful data transformation capabilities. Alumio’s ability to seamlessly connect disparate systems and enable real-time data synchronization made it the ideal solution for De Bosrand's evolving business needs.
Alumio served as the central integration hub, allowing De Bosrand to connect a wide range of best-of-breed applications, including Anchr as a retail POS , Microsoft Business Central for ERP, Tasklet and Picqer for warehouse management, Magento for e-commerce, PIMCore for product information management, and Florisoft for specialized plant and flower purchasing.
By integrating these systems through Alumio’s platform, De Bosrand achieved real-time synchronization of critical data, such as product information, inventory levels, and pricing, across all channels—physical stores, online platforms, and warehouses. This integration improved operational efficiency, reduced manual data entry, and ensured that De Bosrand could provide a consistent experience for customers, no matter where they shopped.
To ensure the smooth implementation of the complex integration project, De Bosrand worked with the integration partner, Happy Horizon. Alumio’s visual mapping feature played a crucial role in simplifying the integration process, allowing De Bosrand to map out the various data flows between systems quickly and efficiently. The platform’s ability to handle complex data transformations and break down large data sets into smaller batches allowed De Bosrand to streamline operations and reduce the strain on its core systems. By managing data more effectively, De Bosrand was able to improve inventory management, pricing updates, and product data synchronization, ensuring that all systems communicated seamlessly.
The integration also helped De Bosrand handle complex product bundles, such as nested pottery sets, with accurate pricing and inventory management. Alumio’s flexibility enabled the company to optimize its workflows without overloading its applications, ensuring the smooth flow of information across all platforms.
Since implementing Alumio, De Bosrand has seen significant improvements in operational efficiency, flexibility, and ease of maintenance. Key integration flows that previously took 10 days to complete now take only 6.5 days, thanks to the platform’s ability to simplify and streamline the process. Additionally, the new system has allowed De Bosrand to reduce the need for customizations to their core applications, providing cost savings and minimizing the complexity of their IT landscape.
The integration has positioned De Bosrand for future growth, enabling omnichannel retail capabilities, real-time inventory visibility, and improved operational efficiency across all locations. With a modern, scalable IT infrastructure, De Bosrand is now better equipped to meet the demands of an increasingly digital and data-driven retail environment.
De Bosrand’s successful transformation was made possible by Alumio’s integration platform. By moving from a legacy system to a best-of-breed architecture, De Bosrand is now poised for continued success. Alumio’s flexibility, ease of use, and powerful integration capabilities have reduced complexity, improved efficiency, and provided the foundation for future growth. The partnership with Alumio has been integral in enabling De Bosrand to navigate the complexities of modern retail, ensuring they can continue to provide a superior customer experience while expanding into new markets.
