Business View Caribbean, July/August 2018

54 55 AQUARIUS CARIBBEAN PREFERRED VENDOR n Kooyman www.kooymanbv.com Find it all at our Megastores on Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and St. Maarten. Whether you’re looking for wood, hardware, cement, tools, light- ing, modern kitchens, doors, bathrooms, garden utensils, or window and door frames: the Kooyman Megastores bring it all conveniently within your reach under one roof. on the island. Today, everything is available here but things like toilets, faucets, kitchen applianc- es, tiles are more expensive. People usually buy them in Europe and send them over.However,we are seeing that market changing too, and prices starting to come down on supplies in Curaçao. “Smart home technology has been developing here for a year or two. Before that, it was just a standard alarm systemwe put in.Now, people are looking for ‘green’materials and more technology in the home, because they want to see what’s hap- pening with the house when they rent it out and go back to Europe for several months.” BVC: What are your future plans for Aquarius Caribbean? van Lieshout: “Keeping quality at an A+ level will always be a top priority. Our goal is not to be the biggest construction company on the island–we want to be the best.We want to de- velop more of our own projects. There is a lot of property available on the west side of Curaçao. It’s quieter and the lots are bigger than on the east side.Also, there are more opportunities for timeshares; especially for people into nature,who want to go diving and hiking.We always think about what’s next but, at this time,we want to fine tune what we have and educate our employees more.They are now taking pride in what they’re doing and that, to me, is a bigger step than your revenue going from $2 million to $7million. “We are a family company–I work with my husband,my father, and mymother, and we stick together through thick and thin.When clients come to our office, I tell them they are actually sitting at our dining table with our family. They get a comfortable feeling knowing we do our best because everybody is depending on this company. That is the most important thing, that we really bond.”