1953

Independent grower

‘Working hard is fine, but it has to be for myself’. This could have been his thought when he became an independent grower in 1953. He and his wife eventually had five sons and they all worked in the store, before and after school.

1972

Greengrocer Rotterdamse Pijnackerstraat

The wholesale was set and it was time for something extra. Leen bought a shop and now he was selling in the Pijnackerstraat in Rotterdam. His son Wim ran the shop and this shop also became a success. His son Gerrit, who helped his father since he was fourteen, became a worker in the shop.

1975

Second store at the Pieter de Hoochstraat in Ridderkerk

A second store was bought at the Pieter de Hoochstraat in Ridderkerk. Gerrit became the supervisor and he had one girl working for him in the store. It should be known by now that this was a huge success and his brother Jan joined him in the same year. This store quickly became even more of a success when Ridderkerk started building the local shopping mall around the store.

1985

Kiosk in the center of Ridderkerk

Fitting the eighties, the next challenge was a kiosk in the center of Ridderkerk. This quickly became too small and most of the products were displayed outside of the kiosk.

1991

The Versmarkt was born

It was time for a change and there were new plans for the center of Ridderkerk. In this modernization process there was no place for the kiosk anymore. This meant it was also time for a new challenge for L. van Gelder, the Versmarkt idea was born. A lot of local greengrocers were approached and vegetables and fruit specialist L. van Gelder talked with them. This was the start of the Versmarkt.

1992

Production and wholesale company

Even more new ideas. The beginnings of the production company and wholesale were made and the store at the Koopliedenweg in Barendrecht functioned as a temporary storage location and production company. This store also took care of purchasing all products for the customers./font>

2002

Modern production company Veren Ambacht

This store also grew quickly: the store at the Koopliedenweg became too small. L. van Gelder started his own modern production company with ten business units, meant for rental, at the Veren Ambacht business park. The production company was used by Van Gelder. The doors opened in 2002. A lot of money had been invested in modern production techniques.

2008

Logistics center

Results from the past are of course no guarantee for future successes, but very early on a lot of extra land next to the building at Handelsweg 70 was bought nonetheless. This eventually paid off, as the new logistics center has been built on the 3500 square meters of land in 2008. The buildings were connected with each other. Number 70 is the production company, whereas 60 is the logistics company. This included nine docks for arriving and leaving products.

2011

Acquisitions for national coverage

Van Gelder ensured national coverage by buying Verhaaren Tilburg and Venlo and by having a majority ownership of Stavasius in Groningen. Van Gelder is ready for the future and to grow even more with buildings in Ridderkerk and Groningen and a strong position in the industry.

2016

New construction plans

Van Gelder, led by Leen van Gelder’s sons, grew a lot lately and the growth has not stopped yet! We are moving to a new location to ensure that all our activities are being done as good as possible. Our new building will be the entrance to new business park Nieuw-Reijerwaard, which is the most sustainable business park of Europe. We are building our new building at the location where growers used to work in the past (Leen van Gelder also grew his sprouts there).

2017

Slaan eerste paal

Door de directie (Leen, Gerrit, Jan en Anton van Gelder) en burgemeesters van Ridderkerk (Anny Attema) en Barendrecht (Jan van Belzen) werd tijdens een feestelijke bijeenkomst op 9 oktober 2017 de eerste paal van het hypermoderne nieuwe pand geslagen. Dankzij de aftermovie is het mogelijk om nog eens te genieten van deze heugelijke gebeurtenis.

2018

Van Gelder bouwt

Van Gelder heeft grote ambities met het nieuwe pand. Naast twee grote halen voor het verpakken, bewerken, bewaren en transporteren van groenten en fruit wordt eraan de voorkant een heus Experience Center gerealiseerd. Om alle stakeholders bij het proces en plannen te betrekken wordt de gehele bouw in beeld gebracht via de online serie Van Gelder bouwt.

2019

Eerste levering vanuit gemechaniseerd magazijn

Van Gelder heeft de handen ineen geslagen met Vanderlande om het magazijn volledig te mechaniseren. Een unieke oplossing binnen de foodservice. Met meer dan 2 kilometer aan transportbanden, 92 shuttles en robots kan Van Gelder de hoogste omloopsnelheid in de markt garanderen. Na vele maanden van testen worden in 2019 de eerste klanten vanuit het nieuwe magazijn geleverd.

2020

Van Gelder wint Shopping Award in de categorie B2B

Van Gelder groente & fruit heeft de felbegeerde prijs voor ‘beste B2B webshop van Nederland’ gewonnen. Het bedrijf uit Ridderkerk is uit de laatste drie genomineerde bedrijven verkozen tot winnaar in de categorie B2B. De award werd tijdens een besloten uitreiking in Huis ter Duin in Noordwijk aan Zee in ontvangst genomen door bedrijfsmanager Demis van Kouwen.