Founded in 1900 by the Dutch Doeleman family and still headquartered in Zierikzee (The Netherlands), Zeelandia has become a global player in the bakery ingredients business. Today, 3,200 employees worldwide are dedicated to develop products tailored to local tastes and needs – with operations in over 30 countries and sales in about 100 countries.
Zeelandia
Royal Zeelandia Group b.v. is an independent international producer of ingredients for bread and pastry shops. The head office is in Zierikzee, where approximately 430 employees work. In total (internationally) Zeelandia employs more than 3,000 people.
History
In 1900, Herman Johan Doeleman (1884-1948) laid the foundation for the company with the product “rusk jelly”, an aid for baking airy, brittle rusk. The recipe was bought for a small amount from a baker in Maassluis. HJD, youngest son of a Zierikzee baker, started manufacturing in his mother’s kitchen. He was a passionate merchant who paid full attention to the needs of the bakery from the start. The sales and advertising methods he applied were revolutionary for that time. He immediately started writing letters to all bakers known to him to promote his goods and in 1925 he started publishing his own magazine for the bakery called “De Klok”, a publication that is still published twice a year today. appears under the same name.
The range was soon expanded with products for bread improvement and in the 1930s the first ‘modern’ bread improver appeared on the market: Zea, a fat emulsion based on new techniques. The product Carlo followed in 1935, a water in oil emulsion, developed for greasing baking trays and moulds. To this day, Carlo forms the backbone of the release agents product group and is exported to more than 50 countries.
The Second World War and the 1953 flood caused serious setbacks in development. Yet soon after the flood disaster (1965), the first building on the industrial estate in the Zuidhoek was put into use. Zeelandia now uses a site of approximately 8 hectares there with a built-up area of approximately 35,000 square meters.
Export was also taken up, with the first appointment of an importer in Belgium in 1923. Immediately after the war, export activities followed to several other European countries. In the 1970s, exports became much more systematic, resulting in rapid growth abroad.
Zeelandia across the border
