The company originally started in Westerhoven but is now located in Bergeijk, in a beautiful historic building designed by Gerrit Rietveld. They have about 120 employees who all work from the Bergeijk location.
Bram Rombouts, financial controller at Bruns explains, “We are active worldwide in the furnishing of museums, science centers, visitor and information centers, and branded exhibitions, among other things. Actually, we produce what is conceived by the designers. But its realization is ultimately a joint process between museum, designers and us as builders.”
Bruns' client portfolio is very diverse. For example, they have done work for the LEGO® House in Billund, the NEMO Science Museum and the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam and Technopolis in Mechelen.
The focus area is mostly Northwestern Europe. Scandinavia, the Benelux countries and Germany have always been important markets. Before the Brexit, the UK was also part of that. But because the cultural sector is having quite a hard time at the moment, they are also increasingly looking at opportunities further afield.
For example, several years ago in corona time, contact was made with the Science Museum in Hong Kong through a Dutch intermediary. At that time an area in the museum had already been realized by Bruns. Now another new request came from Hong Kong. It concerned a completely new zone in the same museum, “The Future is now.” The zone Bruns is going to develop is about the future of transportation and how technology is going to help with this. The concepts developed are aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 15, and the entire museum is about five times the size of NEMO.
Bruns from Bergeijk operates worldwide in the interior design of museums, science centers, visitor and information centers and branded exhibitions, among others. They produce what is envisioned by the designers. But its realization is ultimately a joint process between museum, designers and us as builders.
Bram: “With this new tender for Hong Kong, it quickly became clear that this project would be financially difficult. That first time we were given some leeway with the bank, but even then Rabobank advised us to talk to Atradius Dutch State Business. So a while ago we talked to Oscar Boot (Business Development) about another transaction in Lithuania, but this transaction to Hong Kong is the first to be realized with a bank guarantee from Atradius Dutch State Business.”
For this project, Bruns is the main contractor, but they are working with a local party. The local party takes care of the walls and all generic work and all specialist knowledge comes from the Netherlands. Bruns therefore has virtually all disciplines available in-house to realize this. And the technical people who realize the concepts then go with them to Hong Kong to build the exhibition. The planning for this kind of project is pretty tight. All the designs have now been approved and from the end of February the designs will be drawn out in detail. Then the exhibition parts will be produced and subsequently shipped by container (which takes 7 weeks). The opening is scheduled for October 2025.
Bram: “Because we work a lot for governments, the risks are often limited. We are currently working on several large tenders, including in Germany, Austria and Denmark. But we also see more and more opportunities in the US. And we expect to use your products more often to keep our working capital free.”
