Piet Tuijnman (1931-2009) founded the publishing house De Hobbit BV in 1981. In addition to De Hobbit, Piet Tuijnman had already been publishing youth magazines for several years within the publishing house Holco Publications BV. Penny, the horse magazine for the young horse enthusiast, is still successfully published by the publishing house De Jonge Lezer.

Within De Hobbit, the team made school diaries in the first ten years that ended up in bookstores exclusively via distributor Aldipress. A few years later, on behalf of the head office of Bruna and Ako, many years of school diaries also found their way to their stores.

In addition to producing agendas for Ako, Bruna and Vroom and Dreesmann, De Hobbit made a strategic choice in 1991.

With a group of young designers, De Hobbit decided to create agendas in-house. Instead of working with one or two distributors, a group of young, enthusiastic representatives went out on the road to do business directly with Dutch bookstores.

And with success….

Since 2000, in addition to the familiar school diaries in the spring, The Hobbit has released its very first autumn collection of annual diaries and calendars.

The assortment grew in quality, beautiful designs, more variation and new target groups. Since 2010, De Hobbit has increasingly focused on family products, including family planners.

In 2015, Mark Tuijnman bought De Hobbit BV from his family.

In the years that followed, turnover grew strongly due to focus, beautiful products and an enthusiastic Hobbit team. Very important is also the intensive collaboration with the now 1400 points of sale, including bookstores, Primera stores, Bruna stores and Read Shops.

The growth also brought new developments in the field of logistics. After a pleasant collaboration with TTC, De Hobbit decided to set up its own order picking company in 2019 under the name Strak Plan.

In early 2020, The Hobbit started weekly replenishment, which helps the retailer restock its sold-out items based on sales.

In April 2020, the Hobbit will get its own 'concept store' at the Ritsevoort in Alkmaar. The entire spring/autumn range will be available in the store alternately.

The direct contact with the customer is inspiring. With their tips, any new ideas or comments, the Hobbit team is happy to get to work!

Plenty of action this new year. Our own store will open in the spring in our fully renovated building at Ritsevoort 15 in Alkmaar. At the end of October, the Hobbit and Strak Plan team will move to the new office building and distribution center at Nijverheidsplein 1A in Heerhugowaard. There is also plenty planned for this year!