A century and a half of history saw more than 1,300 guests descend on Van Rijn in the Netherlands for a spectacular birthday celebration.
The fruit, vegetable and potato supplier invited customers and partners from all around the world to help mark its 150th anniversary.
The company, founded by the Van Rijn family in 1855, started out growing and selling potatoes, however over the first 50 years it branched out into fruit and vegetables, all from its base in the ABC Westland area of the Netherlands.
Aad van der Windt, managing director, said: “The company started to become international at the beginning of the 20th century, and it began importing produce from South America for onward export throughout Europe.”
The company also started to specialise in seed potatoes and is now a leading player in that field, he added. “We’re exporting our products world-wide and are developing new varieties all the time from our breeding stations.”
He said one particular success has been the Santana variety, which is now the main variety used by fast-food giant McDonalds.
“It has very good frying qualities and the right kind of length for them too. The quality and colour of the potato is exactly what they need, so it’s a good potato for them.”
Van der Windt said the combination of the potato business with its fruit and veg operations marks the company as unique. “There are very few companies in Europe that do everything like ourselves. There are some potato companies that do a little bit of fruit and veg, but they don’t offer everything, and certainly not on the same scale as we do.”
As well as celebrating its 150th year of business, the company was also keen to show off its new premises on the ABC Westland at Poeldijk.
The facility features an 8,000sqm packing station, a 3,000sqm cooling facility, with the ability to operate different temperature regimes and 18 loading bays.
A further 1,800sqm is dedicated to office space for the admin, management and sales teams.
Van der Windt, who said the new building cost “a lot of money”, added: “We’ve catered for the present and for the future, and the facility is fully compliant with BRC and HACCP requirements.”
Looking towards the future, van der Windt said the company would be focusing a lot of its energy on the big multiple retailer business.
“The supermarkets are taking over and we see the wholesale markets becoming less and less viable. We will still continue to supply that sector, giving it what it wants, providing it with the right quality at the right time, but we will be focusing more and more on the big retailers, world-wide.”
The celebration to mark the company’s history saw Van Rijn turn its new packing station into an impressive auditorium. Guests during the day were entertained with music, presentations and the history of the company.
Van der Windt said: “We had a really good feeling about the whole celebration. We wanted to show the company’s history, but also to show to people what our business is about and what we can do. I think we achieved that 100 per cent.”
The celebration also saw the official retirement of two board members, Jos Lazaroms and Jan Flikweert, who had served 27 years and 50 years respectively and Van der Windt paid tribute to the men for their contribution to Van Rijn’s success.
Meanwhile, he said the company is determined to retain its independence: “We’re looking to grow step by step and we try to do that on our own.”
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