History

Royal Pride Holland has its origin in the 1960's, when André van den Ende founded the company with the first greenhouse of 4000 square metres in Den Hoorn. After moving the company in 1972, the greenhouse surface expanded in that decade to 2.1 hectares. Back then, tomatoes and cucumbers were produced.

      

Management expansion
At the end of the 1980's André bought five hectares of land close to Made in the province of Noord Brabant, and built a new greenhouse. Frank van Kleef, the operations manager, moved to Brabant and took charge of the new facilities. In 1993, André and Frank joined efforts and Frank became co-owner. In 1997 and 1998, Bart and Koert van den Ende joined the company ownership. In the years to follow the company grew to 20 hectares in 2003. During this time the facilities at Schipluiden were sold.

Change to truss tomatoes
There were also changes in the production during this early years. After years of producing tomatoes, in 1994 the company decided to change to truss tomatoes (also known as tomatoes on-the-vine). This type of tomato is harvested on a mature stage, thus it stays more time on the plant improving the taste and the customer acceptability. In 2004, Royal Pride Holland started the production of cocktail and cherry tomatoes, cultivars selected due to its excellent taste. This cultivars are exclusively produced by Royal Pride Holland.

Wieringermeer
In order to respond to the need of expansion, in 2004 Royal Pride Holland bought 115 hectares of land in Wieringermeer. The company worked closely with Agriport A7 for the development of the greenhouse industry in this region. Together with the local authorities and in cooperation with the community, all necessary procedures and permits were obtained allowing the company to establish its facilities rapidly. In June 2006 the construction of the first 30 hectares started and in November the first tomato plants were planted. In November 2007 the company site in Made was sold, and that same year in June the following 15 hectares started to be built in Middenmeer.

With 45 hectares of state of the art greenhouses, and the possibility to expand to 100 hectares, Royal Pride Holland is confident about the future. A future where sustainability, food safety and social responsibility are our values.