Grow in a healthy way and take advantage of opportunities that others miss. That is the course that Robert Pieter Gardenier is taking with Captain Cruise, the cruise specialist that celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. “I don’t have to be the biggest, but I do want to be the best,” says Gardenier. Together with Gitte Tilro, appointed as Business Development Manager earlier this year, Gardenier talks about Captain Cruise’s past and future in the recently published TravMagazine #49. It’s been five years since Gardenier (37) took over Captain Cruise from founders Bob and Michel Kuijs. For Gardenier, formerly financial manager at Zeetours, it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. Gardenier has been infected with the cruise virus since he was eleven years old. His parents then moved from Spijkenisse (near Rotterdam) to Hoek van Holland, precisely because of the proximity of shipping. ‘I inherited a bit of that entrepreneurial spirit from my father. He didn’t have his own business, but he was really entrepreneurial. I had that from an early age.’ With the acquisition of Captain Cruise, Gardenier had the opportunity to combine his talent for financial matters with his love of cruises and his entrepreneurship. That was in 2018. ‘I should have done it much earlier, but that’s always in hindsight.’ What bumps did you encounter in the beginning?
Gardenier: ‘It’s better to ask: which ones don’t? You’re starting a business for the first time, so you’re starting all over again. You have to deal with the Tax and Customs Administration, the Chamber of Commerce. And you have to have a starting capital. I didn’t want to borrow money, but luckily I was able to finance everything with my own money. Still, today, I don’t have any outside investors. I have been the only captain, so to speak, from the beginning until now. And we would like to keep it that way. We want to be a Dutch company. Actually, we are also a family business, because my wife works here, my sister works here and my parents are our greatest ambassadors.’ Gardenier now has two daughters, Jill (6) and Tess (2) who have also been infected with the cruise virus.
‘Maybe our two children will become future employees of our family business.’ Captain Cruise has weathered the corona crisis well. He did not have to use the temporary loan that Gardenier had in reserve as a reserve. So he’s still not in debt. However, Gardenier admits that he initially assessed the situation too optimistically. ‘I thought corona would last a month or two months. I also just paid the shipping companies. And after two years of investment, we were finally going to pop. We had moved to a new building in Naaldwijk, had invested in a new search engine and had become a tour operator, including SGR membership. In addition, we invested a lot in brand awareness and participated in trade fairs. After all the investments, 2020 was supposed to be our first positive year. And in February, the corona blow came.’ After a few months, the realization came that corona would last longer. Nevertheless, Gardenier decided to continue investing so that Captain Cruise would be at the front of the line once corona was over. So a new website was created. ‘I knew that corona would be over one day and I wanted to be done by then. I was sure cruises would come back, because cruises have been a hype for years. And that’s only going to increase.’ The discount label Cruiseoutlet.nl, which Gardenier operated together with Rick Dekkers for six months before corona and which was discontinued during corona, has been relaunched. The website contains special deals, for example from shipping companies that want to get rid of a certain type of cabin quickly or for special groups. ‘But the website also contains deals that you can’t find anywhere else, such as a trip to Antarctica for a competitive price. The goal is to offer unique sailings, because I don’t want to copy what Cruiseoutlet’s direct competitors are doing. You can compete on price, but not on unique sailings.’ What about your move into retail?
‘I’ve always been interested in working with retail, but I wanted to have a foundation first. And then in June 2021 came the opportunity, let’s call it that. We then suddenly got a lot of calls from the retail sector asking if they could book Captain Cruise. I said, ‘That’s fine, but I don’t have a system yet.’ You couldn’t even log in online to make a booking, we didn’t have a commission structure, nothing. We just started and then one phone call after another came. The phone was ringing off the hook.’ In the three months that followed, Gardenier invested a lot to set up a good B2B system. ‘We now have a login for the travel agent, with their own quotation tool. A travel agent can get a complete quote for a cruise with just a few clicks. And he can put his own logo above it. So you won’t see anything of Captain Cruise, but you can use your own look and feel. We take care of the photos, the text, the description of the cabins. All the agent has to do is fill in the customer name. And maybe add some extra margin. We’ll take care of the rest.’ Captain Cruise now works with almost all chains. ‘This includes the new D-reizen and I am quite proud of that. And it’s growing fast. I estimate that about 85 percent of the industry books with us. We have really acquired a serious share in retail.’ Photo: Gitte Tilro and Robert Pieter Gardenier. Read the complete interview with Gitte Tilro and Robert Pieter Gardenier in the recently published TravMagazine #49. ‘Discount label Cruiseoutlet.nl back on the market’
