Chapter 3
Related companies
Around OLTM the family built a group of companies: a rendering plant, a dairy, a business in Morocco and the land itself.
Gekro
The rendering company, 1932 to 1988
Gekro (Gebroeders de Kroes) grew out of the processing of animal blood that Dolf and Rien, sons of Wout de Kroes, began in the 1920s. In 1932 it was founded at the Bovendijk as a subsidiary of OLTM by the brothers and these two sons. The founders had started in the hide trade and saw the problem of disposing of slaughter waste.
Under the Destruction Act Gekro processed fallen livestock and slaughter waste into animal meal and fat. In the 1930s Gekro grew into a large company with a site of about 5 hectares, covering the west of the Netherlands, with a branch in Hansweert, Zeeland, led by Dolf, while Rien led Overschie. The company boomed after the war, worked with NCB in Son and was taken over by Rendac, today part of Darling; production at the Bovendijk ended in 1988.
Melkstal Reinoord
A dairy of Jacob de Kroes
Melkstal Reinoord at the Bovendijk was a dairy run by Jacob de Kroes. In the early 1930s it delivered milk with its own milk carts and sold tuberculosis-free milk at schools in Rotterdam, under the slogan milk is good for everyone. The emphasis on TB-free milk had a personal side: Jacob’s first wife, Adriana Poot, with whom he had settled at Veldlust in 1909, died of tuberculosis in 1918, possibly contracted on her parents’ farm at the Beukelsdijk.
Orgaminer, Morocco
International expansion, 1951
In the early 1950s OLTM and Gekro entered into a partnership with the French company Orgaminer in Agadir, Morocco. Orgaminer processed fish waste and produced, among other things, fish silver: a mother-of-pearl essence extracted from sardine scales, used for artificial pearls and paint. In 1951 Roek de Kroes, son of Jacob, moved there with his wife Edith to help build up the business as a mechanical engineer; after two years the family returned to the Netherlands. The factory stood on the Rue A, in the industrial quarter of Agadir.
Hoog16hoven
From farmland to business park
The family land in polder Zestienhoven was the base of the whole enterprise. After most of it was sold to Rotterdam in 1928, the remaining site at the Bovendijk stayed in use until Gekro closed. The site of about 5 hectares was then redeveloped with business units, let by the family company Kropa. One hall from the Gekro period still stands; the historic main building was demolished, but the two more modern office buildings are let as offices.
From the 1970s entrepreneurs were sought for a business park. Today Hoog16hoven lies between the airport, the HSL railway and the allotment gardens of Veldlust.
The family companies at a glance
| Company | Sector | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Rodenburg family | Land and farming | Land and the agricultural base, from c. 1826 |
| OLTM N.V. | Food processing | Drying of vegetables, Primula soup products, 1907 to the 1930s |
| Gekro | Rendering | Processing of slaughter waste and fallen livestock, 1932 to 1988 |
| Melkstal Reinoord | Dairy | Milk delivery and TB-free school milk, early 1930s |
| Orgaminer | Processing abroad | Mother-of-pearl for artificial pearls and paint, Agadir, from 1951 |
| Hoog16hoven | Real estate | The former site, now a business park |
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