The Van Beest Group is now Royal. During a festive ceremony with the company’s employees in attendance, the King’s Commissioner Jaap Smit awarded the Royal title to CEO Hendrik Kok on 1 July.
It is Van Beest Group’s 100th anniversary this year. What began as a small smithy founded by Dirk van Beest in 1922 in the home port of the Dutch dredging industry in Sliedrecht, near to the Rotterdam harbours, has grown into a leading global manufacturer of lifting, lashing, and mooring fittings that operates in 90 countries and employs 180 people. Kok: “We are extremely proud that we have been given the Royal title. This is a real milestone that four generations of the Van Beest family, who are still involved in the company up to today, have worked hard towards achieving. We are a real family business in which revenue is not the only thing that counts; social involvement and care for our employees and the environment are also important to us.”
The Royal title is not granted lightly
“The Royal title is not granted lightly,” explains Kok. “We submitted an application in May 2021 in connection with our upcoming 100th anniversary. You then enter into a process in which the Royal House investigates the date of establishment, the company’s financial soundness, safety standards, social involvement, innovativeness, labour conditions and sustainability. The directors during all these years were also investigated and the mayor of Sliedrecht’s advice on the application was requested. We are very pleased and proud that this has resulted in our company receiving the Royal title. However, this is not for eternity. After a period of 25 years, you have to submit a new application and go through the process again.”
Investing in innovation
The Van Beest Group is changing its name to the Royal Van Beest Group. As a consequence of this distinction, the company will also be given a new Royal logo. Kok: “We bear the Royal title with pride, also because this shows customers that we are a reliable and solid company, with the necessary ambition to continue to grow. We aren’t sitting on our laurels and we are increasingly working together with parties that are facilitating the energy transition. We are developing specific products for these companies. In addition, we are working on increasing the sustainability of our production process as much as possible, with heat from the forge that we reuse in the manufacturing process, but also with solar panels on the roofs of our buildings. This is how we continue to invest in innovation, and we have been doing so for one hundred years now.”
