Business Model Design Case Study

Case study to understand the business model design

During the rest of the course we shall be using the real-life business of a very successful business, Looije Tomaten, a Dutch tomato production company.

It is a for-profit business in existence for more than 70 years now. Let’s have a look at the history and understand this business so that we can review the business model design.

Looije is a family company in the Netherlands that was set up in 1946 by J.M. Looije, the father of the present-day director Jos Looije.

The company started out growing a range of vegetables.

The oldest son, Jos Looije, joined the company in the 1970s, which is when the company started to specialise in growing tomatoes.

In 1992 they started their interest to grow cherry tomatoes and in 2000 they added vine cherry tomatoes to their product range.

Up until 2003 they had sold their produce through auction houses, but after they started selling direct.

It was in 2005 that they decided to launch a specialised brand of tomatoes called Honingtomaten®.

After looking at the commoditisation of the tomato chain and increased price pressure from retail businesses, Looije and his team have decided to create a differentiated value proposition for their tomato products.