Frank's story

We are Frank. We saw the light in 2004. We were founded in an unusual place: a student house in calm, down-to-earth Groningen. Young and with an inexhaustible curiosity, we asked ourselves an endless amount of questions. Why do you actually have to go to the store to buy something? Why are there so few choices at the store? And why do you have to travel far and wide to find a truly unique gift?

Determined and ambitious

We took our first baby steps near the Martini tower in Groningen, although it already felt like we had the whole world at our feet. Literally. The floor of our dorm room was covered with antique world maps, even though we barely had any room between our textbooks and laundry. A collection of globes was piled up in the corner, patiently waiting to be purchased by customers. Once in awhile we received an order. For every single order, we took the world in our hands, placed it in a box, and hopped on a train to deliver it in person to the customer.

Raised in the Netherlands

Our idea was solid and we grew quickly. Since we kept growing, most of our childhood years were spent moving into bigger spaces. In 2006, we moved into our first office at the Donderslaan. We turned the accessible restroom into a mini-warehouse for our mini-globes. We had (and still have!) a keen eye for other special products. With brand new binoculars, we kept our eye on tomorrow, while we aimed our telescopes towards the more distant future. We weren't just staring into the distance, though: an eye for detail was just as important to us. The newly arrived microscopes suited this perfectly. But we kept growing, and at one point our office was just too small. So, we left the Donderslaan.

Keeping one eye on the opportunities, the other one on the details

Luckily, the Ulgersmaweg offered us plenty of open space. We filled our new headquarter with stuff to put in and around the house: coat racks, mailboxes, and clocks. People from all over the country managed to find us. We loved the Netherlands and the Netherlands loved us back, but we were hungry for more. We rode our bikes (our newest addition at the time) to the border to take a peek through the fence at our Belgian neighbours. Once there, we received a warm welcome from our neighbours.

Grown up, ready to explore the world

We have already left our teenage years behind and Belgium became a second home for us. All the shops we start in the Netherlands, we launch in Belgium as well. On top of that, we cautiously got to know the rest of Europe. As young adults, we weren't quite done growing: we've barely finished moving somewhere new, and we'd already have to start looking elsewhere.

Nothing's changed, we still have the world at our feet

We're slowly becoming full-fledged adults, but we still have a long way to go. And there's no reason for that to happen too soon, anyway. The most important thing is, that we always stay that curious, attentive child at heart. Down-to-earth and realistic (since we're from Groningen,) but still with an open-minded view of the world around us. We don’t believe in boundaries, and only see opportunities. That's what's gotten us to where we are today. And what about the world we had at our feet in 2004? It's still there, it's just that our feet have gotten bigger.