“To transform every workplace in Indonesia into a welcoming, sustainable, and inspiring environment”
is the vision followed by AVIP (previously known as AVIP Interiors). Over 25 years have passed and AVIP continues to provide office design and build experience focussing on contemporary design, sustainable builds, and the latest technology for better workspace functionality.
Frans Spanjaart founded this family-owned business. He has led and trail blazed the company to where it is today. Unfortunately, sad news came to the Spanjaart family when Frans lost his battle against cancer. This tragedy led Frans’ son, Tim Spanjaart, to take over his father’s position as the CEO of AVIP.
“It has been about 2.5 years since his passing and it hasn’t been an easy time. I have learned a lot from him and he was a great businessman for sure,” explained Tim.
As the new CEO, Tim was still overseeing the day-to-day operations at the factory. He had to find a suitable replacement before he could move to AVIP and take on the new role there. The search for a replacement turned out to be quite a challenge, taking him almost one year.
First starting as COO at AVIP in October 2019, he took responsibility for the projects and the financial side. He didn’t want to step up as the CEO right away; he spent around one and half year preparing himself because he believes “every company needs a leader and it is a big responsibility.”
Now Tim feels as ready as he’ll ever be to take lead and show that he got what it takes to elevate AVIP to the next level. “My focus as CEO will be on providing leadership for our amazing team, maintaining motivation and engagement, and ensuring AVIP keeps on innovating and remains a key player in the interior design and build the business,” he pointed out.
Tim realises that having no prior experience as CEO is a personal big challenge. “But I am a firm believer that you learn most by doing. I am fully committed to giving my best and keeping the reputation of AVIP high, knowing that my father is proud of me for following in his footsteps – this will drive me to make it happen,” he explained.
The pandemic has brought difficult times to the company, like many other businesses. AVIP’s main focus has always mostly been on commercial office fit-outs and this had been very challenging the past year, especially because most offices have been forced to start working from home – possibly working out quite well for a lot of business – and this results in less need for office space.
Many existing clients have approached the company in need of reinstating parts of their current offices. AVIP believes this trend will continue. According to Tim, people, especially in Jakarta, are fed up with facing the horrible traffic jams which have significantly reduced during this pandemic. Although it seems to be slowly getting back to normal lately.
“Companies need to rethink the purpose of the office space and make it attractive for their employees to come to. We have been fortunate to have been working with quite a few of the big tech start-up companies who had this strategy already in mind, like Dana, Tokopedia, and OVO,” said Tim.
Head Office Tokopedia Care
Hotel JS Luwansa
Factory
Head office Dana
Employees at those companies, as suggested by Indonesia’s demographics, are towards a younger population, consisting of mostly generations Y and Z, who have different demands for office spaces than the older generations. How can the return to offices be ensured? The new office spaces contain the following characteristics: comfortable, professional, modern, creative, and playful. AVIP understand this and have turned these characteristics into exciting workspace designs. This doesn’t mean every company is the same, however.
Lots of exciting new ideas are underway. AVIP is focussing on innovative developments as well as exploring and expanding the business into other business segments besides commercial office space, like food and beverage. The diverse team of experienced and creative designers will lead this, together with the amazing project team. “We did our first design and build project for the JS Luwansa hotel last year. A big part of the hotel’s lobby was renovated. I believe we did a great job there. This shows we’re more than capable of doing more than commercial office spaces,” he mentioned.
Exploring partnerships with other design and/or project management firms to strengthen AVIP’s position in the market, as well as looking at options to fully utilise AVIP’s available office space to possibly be a design co-working space are on the agenda, too. As Tim pointed out, “if this sounds interesting to you, let’s connect on LinkedIn and discuss the possibilities!”
In past years, Tim lived in the Netherlands and studied IT. He realised he didn’t want to stay there and therefore decided to join AVIP almost nine years ago. Although he had no prior experience in the interior build and design business, he held several positions ranging from quality assurance to site manager before settling in the production side of the business.
“We started with a small workshop beside my father’s house of about 400 to 500m2. Soon, we got so busy that the neighbourhood started to complain and forced us to look for another location. After quite the search, we ended up in Tangerang and found a location with 5,500m2,” explained Tim.
Moving there, a production facility with new, German-made woodworking machinery was set up and ready to operate from in early 2016. “I have been in charge there ever since,” said Tim. In late 2019, Tim joined AVIP to support the operational side.
“That has led me to where we are today,” he said.
Lately, Tim’s days are mostly busy with work. Regardless, he makes sure to spend enough quality time with his wife and daughters. Whenever there’s a chance, they enjoy exploring Indonesia with all the beautiful places out there. As someone who spends his free time taking care of himself through regular exercises, Tim jogs 6km every morning, goes to the gym three times a week and goes cycling on the weekend whenever the time is in his favour. He enjoys reading books and take courses to expand his knowledge as well.
“AVIP has been around in Indonesia for well over 25 years and we have a proven track record of many transformed interiors. People spend most of their lives in a working environment and to be able to have an impact on that is what drives us at AVIP,” as Tim delivers his message.
“We strive to deliver an interior fit-out that is perfectly in line with the needs and wishes of our clients, which stimulates the performance of their employees. We always aim to deliver the highest quality possible with the available budget of our clients.”