“The very first Inther project was a project management job for Schuitema, at that time the parent company of the C1000 supermarkets. This brought in the first ‘guilders’ and we could start the growth of our organization. Initially we started with just the two of us, and we’ve now grown into an organization of 200 employees “, Martijn Herder says. What’s more, the end of the company’s growth is not yet in sight.

In addition to the head office in the Netherlands, Inther has offices in America, China, Belgium and Germany. Since 2008 there has also been a software development company in Moldova.

Quite often the question is asked where the name Inther comes from. The explanation here is pretty simple. It is a combination of the word integration (an essential element in the execution of projects) and the first 3 matching letters from the surnames Herder and Hermsen.

System Integrator
Inther started as a controls software supplier for intralogistics, but has grown into an independent system integrator, with clients all over the world. Leading companies such as Estée Lauder, Skechers, Stanley Black & Decker and Hema, as well as Alibaba and JD.com are among Inther’s many references. The software that Inther has developed and further improved upon over the past 20 years plays a key role in controlling the processes in all types of automation. Characteristics of Inther’s solutions and methods, in which proven techniques are used, are a short implementation time, flexibility, scalability, reliability and a demonstrable fast payback time. “Thanks to our solutions, our customers achieve large cost reductions, while at the same time increasing capacity, productivity, system utilization, customer service and quality. With Inther, our customers play in the Champions League of logistics”, says Paul Hermsen.

Focus on growth
Inther is not slowing down. At the moment, many expansions are underway, including the construction of their own research and development center (R & D) in which Inther produces its own conveyor system ‘ICE’ (Inther Conveyor Equipment) and where employees are active in developing and building new hardware concepts. Here they design and test high-tech solutions for automating and further mechanizing the order picking and packaging processes within the warehouse. A key element in this is the robotization of many logistics tasks that are becoming more common in the industry. Construction has now been completed and the first projects have already been realized. This ‘Technocenter’ will eventually deliver more than 80 full-time jobs at the company itself and at its suppliers.

At the start of the construction of this research and development center, alderman Jan Loonen (Economic Affairs) described Inther as follows: “Inther is such a company that we, Venray and Limburg, can be proud of. It is a textbook example of the high-quality manufacturing industry that provides the jobs that we would like to have in our municipality.”

“Over the past 20 years, many changes have taken place with the structure of our organization. In the past, the focus was on expanding our scope of delivery (vertical integration), but also on the further internationalization and professionalization of business operations. The focus in the coming years will be on standardization and growth”, Martijn Herder states. “But the developments in robotics will, once again, turn the market upside down and will bring the necessary chaos with which we will feel in our element”, adds Paul Hermsen.