The beginning
Did you know that RunningXpert.com is a family owned company?
Loebeshop.dk (which is the Danish version of the company) has existed for over 14 years– but the story goes even further back than 2005, where the website, Loebeshop.dk, saw the light for the first time. We have to go all the way back to 1996, where Ruben Andersen ran the sports-shop, US Sport, on the shopping-street in the city of Hadsten, Denmark. All of Ruben’s three kids and his wife have through time worked and helped along in the shop.
Co-founder and present CEO of Loebeshop.dk, Jonas Mørkøre Andersen, whom back in 2005 worked as a salesman in US Sport, saw the rising business opportunity of selling running shoes on the internet. Ruben, Jonas and Sarah (who is Rubens daughter) agreed to take a chance on online shopping.
In the summer of 2005 Loebeshop.dk aired, and Jonas started to sell running shoes online from the backroom of the US Sport shop. It turned out to be a success and all of a sudden, business was booming.
Garmin quickly became a part of the product range, which meant that the website started to sell both running shoes and watches made for running.
Peter from customer service and Jesper our running expert and content creator
The expansion and becoming international
Loebeshop.dk experienced big growth and in 2007 Ruben’s eldest son, Rolf Mørkøre Andersen, decided to quit his former job and take a chance on the family-business. It turned out to be a great decision and shortly the internet part of the company moved to independent buildings, while the physical shop remained on the shopping-street in Hadsten. Ruben stayed in the physical shop, where his daughter Sarah and wife Judith also stayed to help out.
The internet part of the company moved to a 120 m2 building on Bavne Alle in Hadsten. In this building Loebeshop.dk shared the space with another company, but within a year they took over all of the 300 m2 on the address.
Once again it was decided to expand the business, which meant the start of the webshop fitnessshop.dk – a webshop with fitness focused hardware products. Fitnessshop.dk operated as an independent website that was linked to Loebeshop.dk.
As time passed, the two websites were merged together to one big sports webshop. Biking gear quickly became a big part of the business, which meant that the website now had four main categories – running, fitness, biking and triathlon.
Loepeshop.no, the Norwegian version of Loebeshop.dk, were born in 2009 and in 2012 the Swedish version, Loparshop.se, saw the light.
After approximately 3-4 years on Bavne Alle it was once again time to move to a bigger place – a 600 m2 newly constructed office and warehouse on Brogaardsvej in Hadsten. The year after moving in, another 250 m2 building was constructed.
On Brogaardsvej a 370 m2 warehouse and a 200 m2 office was created for the administrative work. At this point at time Sarah and Judith worked respectively in customerservice and in the warehouse, while Ruben was in the physical shop. Jonas and Rolf still had full focus on the online part.
Another year flew by and the business was still growing rapidly, which is why the related villa house was taken into use as office space.
The marketing team having a morning meeting
Testing products and creating content
Finding our true purpose
A couple of years ago it was decided to close down the fitness, biking and triathlon part of the company. This is a decision that we are extremely happy about today – Loebeshop.dk had to go back to its core and roots!
You always have to do the things you’re passionate about and love doing, right? – the team behind Loebeshop.dk quickly agreed upon the fact that we are experts in running and this is what we are passionate about! The main focus of the company was cut to the bone and should now entirely be based un running again.
Today we can confidently say that is was the right decision.
Once again, the business was growing, and online orders were ticking in. The need for more staff got bigger and bigger and a lot of new faces were welcomed to the company.
For a third time the working space got too small and in February 2019 Loebeshop.dk moved to an even bigger building.
This time the choice fell upon the old wheel factory on approximately 7.000 m2 on Gammel Sellingvej 1 in Hadsten. This is also where we are located to this date.
The front of our office- and warehouse on Gammel Sellingvej 1 in Hadsten, Denmark
The lounge area of our office- and warehouse on Gammel Sellingvej 1 in Hadsten, Denmark
The birth of RunningXpert.com and the current situation of the company
Loebeshop.dk, which remain owned and driven by the Andersen family, is a company in constant development with both a Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and now an English website to its name. Ruben still has part in the company and the same goes with all of his three children. His wife Judith was a part of the warehouse staff until only five years ago.
Today, we are 40 skilled and compatible employees with even more people on the way. The plans for the future of Loebeshop.dk and the old wheel factory that is housing us are very big.
For a long time, an expansion beyond Scandinavia has been on the drawing board. The team behind Loebeshop.dk are confident, that we possess the knowhow and the expertise to be competitive on several European markets.
This is why we have planted a new seed, which we are beyond excited to see what brings – the newest part of the family, www.runningxpert.com. We hope that you will come along with us on this journey and be a part of the next chapter of the company.
In the building on Gammel Sellingvej we have great plans of creating a shared office together with other internet-companies. Furthermore, we are working our butts off to finish a 200+ m2 showroom and runningclinic, which according to plans are up and running in the nearest future.
A fun little extra note: the physical sports-shop in Hadsten lived all the way up until last year, where it was closed down.
Jesper our running expert and content creator, Rolf who is head of marketing and Mark our Field Account Manager on our traditional thursday morningrun.
There is always time for a little game of table-football in the lunchbreak Also meet Ludvig the office dog
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