Spako: From Price List and Notepad
to Just One Product Configurator
How a Dutch food machinery manufacturer empowered an international dealer network with Elfsquad.
1954
Founded
Dutch food processing equipment manufacturer based in Asten
1M
Configurations
Distinct possible configurations across the Spako range
9
Countries
Dealer network with full quoting autonomy
How Spako Put Its Dealers in Control
Spako, a Dutch food machinery manufacturer founded in 1954, went from handwritten quotes to a configurator that empowers an international dealer network and fundamentally changed how they sell. Since going live with Elfsquad in 2023, quotes that once took hours are now done in just minutes. Always complete. Always correct. The international dealer network can now configure and price independently, without calling Spako first.
"We want this product configurator and we're going to make it work, let's go."
Thomas Waals, Director and co-owner, Spako
Founded in 1954 and based in Asten, the Netherlands, Spako builds processing equipment for the food service industry, hospital catering, and the butchery trade. Their machines handle cooking, mixing, cooling, heating, and smoking, equipment that operates in one of the most demanding industries in the world, where food safety standards are strict and errors have real consequences.
Spako's product range is well-defined, but within that range, the complexity of every individual configuration is significant. Add up all possible combinations and you're looking at close to a million distinct configurations. The quoting process, however, was built for simplicity, not scale. As Spako expanded its sales team and dealer network, the cracks became impossible to ignore. "We want this product configurator and we're going to make it work, let's go," says Thomas Waals, Director and co-owner at Spako. Something had to change. That something was Elfsquad.
"Elfsquad brought us so much in terms of how our product portfolio should look. It's given us a solid foundation to grow from."
Thomas Waals
Director and co-owner, Spako
Price list under the arm, drawings on the spot, hours of work back at the office. Error-prone, 100%.
Always complete. Always correct. Built on the spot, on screen, while the customer watches.
Why Complex Food Processing Equipment and Manual Quotes Don't Mix
Spako's product range is well-defined, but within that range, the complexity of every individual configuration is significant. A soup installation, a sauce line, a kettle for puree or ready meals, every customer configuration uses different pumps, a different mixer, a different capacity than the next. Add up all possible combinations and you're looking at close to a million distinct configurations. Getting a quote right required knowledge that had previously lived only in people's heads, not in any system.
The quoting process at Spako was built for simplicity, not scale. The sales team would visit a customer with a price list under their arm, making a few drawings on the spot. Back at the office, a formal quote got typed up and sent. If something was off, another round of back-and-forth followed. Hours of work, and still no guarantee the result was right. Time-sensitive and error-prone? Thomas Waals, Director and co-owner at Spako, put it plainly: "Error-prone, 100%."
That process had its limits from the start. With more salespeople, more dealers, and more countries came more interpretations of what a standard machine looked like, and the cracks became impossible to ignore. The answer to this problem came from a fellow manufacturer running Elfsquad in his own operation.
"We send the quote while we're still at the customer. The feedback is consistent: everything is in there, it's a complete and correct quote."
Sales Team
Spako
Minutes
per quote
Down from hours of manual back-and-forth
4
weeks to go-live
From decision to a fully loaded configurator
9
countries
Dealers configuring and quoting on their own
Why Spako Chose Elfsquad as Their CPQ Platform
Thomas Waals heard about Elfsquad over coffee with the team at Kumatech, a fellow manufacturer already running it in their own operation. He went to see it in action and the decision was made directly. "We want this product configurator and we're going to make it work, let's go." No lengthy evaluation process. No shortlist of ten platforms.
Thomas had seen Elfsquad in action at Kumatech firsthand: full control over product logic and pricing, without consultant dependency. What mattered was a platform Spako could own themselves, without depending on developers or external specialists every time something changed. Elfsquad delivered on all of it. The product convinced him, the people confirmed it. "We just have the same philosophy: don't make it complicated. Put your foot down and go," says Thomas.
Four Weeks to Go-Live: How Preparation Made It Possible
With the decision made, Spako moved fast. Before sitting down with Elfsquad's onboarding team, they had already done some thinking: which machines are standard, which options to include, how pricing should be structured. Working closely with Elfsquad's team, Commercial Manager Bram Seelen translated that groundwork into a fully loaded configurator in just four weeks. Not built as a technical spec sheet, but as what Thomas calls a "car configurator": accessible, intuitive, and built for the person talking with the customer, not for the production floor. A foundation that is still live today, continuously updated by Spako's own team, no external help needed.
Beyond Quoting: Portfolio Clarity
Building the configurator forced a question Spako had never had to answer explicitly: what exactly is standard, and what isn't? What's an option? What should just come with every machine by default?
"Elfsquad brought us so much in terms of how our product portfolio should look. It's given us a solid foundation to grow from," says Thomas.
That clarity now drives everything. Spako operates three commercial paths, three doors. Door one: Elfsquad as the configurator for standard machines, where complexity is handled automatically and quotes are ready in minutes. Door two: custom engineering, where Elfsquad still provides the commercial foundation before the project is built out further. Door three: used machinery, refurbished Spako-brand machines, checked on over 30 quality points, sold with warranty, and a genuine contribution to circularity. The internal discussion about standard versus custom has simply disappeared, because Elfsquad handles the full range, from straightforward standard configurations to the commercial foundation of complex custom projects.
Elfsquad as the Central Sales System
Today, Elfsquad is the heart of Spako's sales operation. Customer data, dealer access, pricing, quotes: all of it runs through Elfsquad. Spako runs it as a standalone sales environment for now, not yet connecting with their ERP, a deliberate choice. Sales needs the freedom to move fast and adjust. Production needs clean, reliable data. Building that bridge takes time and has to be done properly. "As soon as it's in the ERP, our machines are connected to it too. The data has to be right, otherwise we have a serious problem," says Thomas. An ERP integration is on the roadmap for the future, when the time is right.
Quoting at the customer's side
Reps no longer head back to the office to build a quote. They build it on the spot, on screen, while the customer watches. The quote is sent before they leave.
New hires up to speed in weeks
New salespeople don't need years of industry experience to hit the ground running. The configurator guides every one of them to a technically correct quote, automatically.
Dealers no longer waiting on Spako
Dealers across nine countries log in, configure, and generate complete quotes with correct pricing entirely on their own. No more waiting on the manufacturer for every price.
Quotes That Build Confidence
Dealers in New Zealand, Finland, France, Belgium, England, Romania, Estonia, Spain, and the United States can now log in, configure, and generate a complete quote with correct pricing entirely on their own. "Dealers say: wow, that you have this. That we can just log in, create our own prices, and not have to wait on you. And know that those prices are right," says Thomas. In a traditionally conservative industry, dealers have always depended on the manufacturer for every price and every quote. That dependency is gone. For Spako's international network, that is a significant shift.
For the sales team, the change is just as tangible. Reps no longer head back to the office to build a quote after a customer visit. They build it on the spot, on screen, while the customer watches. Every machine has a 3D model in Elfsquad. Show a non-technical buyer the machine in action, and the purchase decision becomes tangible in a way a spec sheet never could. "We send the quote while we're still at the customer. The feedback is consistent: everything is in there, it's a complete and correct quote."
Built to Grow With the Team
Spako's team is growing fast, and new salespeople don't need years of industry experience to hit the ground running. The configurator guides every one of them to a technically correct quote, automatically, so they can focus on the customer conversation rather than memorising price lists and complex configuration rules. Within weeks to a few months, someone new is working independently. "You can't really make a mistake. And there's always a four-eyes check before anything goes to production," says Thomas. That same drive to keep things simple and scalable runs through everything Spako is building next. One person in-house is dedicated entirely to digitalization, optimizing processes and reducing manual work.
Guided selling is the next step: instead of selecting options, a customer simply describes what they need, and the configurator does the rest. "We want to get to a point where a customer says: I want to make a soup, these are my products, and the right machine comes out," says Thomas. With a future ERP integration and new machines on the horizon, the platform will keep growing alongside the business.
Guided selling
Instead of selecting options, a customer simply describes what they need, and the configurator does the rest. The right machine for the right product.
ERP integration on the roadmap
Connecting sales and production has to be done properly. The data has to be right, otherwise we have a serious problem. ERP integration is on the roadmap for when the time is right.
Dedicated to digitalization
One person in-house is dedicated entirely to digitalization, optimizing processes and reducing manual work as Spako's team grows and new machines come on the horizon.
Spako came in looking for a better quote tool. What they built is the commercial operating system for a manufacturer that's moving fast, and has no intention of slowing down. As Thomas puts it: "We just have the same philosophy: don't make it complicated. Put your foot down and go."
For Spako, Elfsquad is the platform behind their entire sales operation, enabling a Dutch food machinery manufacturer with a global dealer network to scale profitably without losing what makes them unique.
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