History:

The history of the Verschoor Group starts in 1939 when the two brothers Bas and Leen Verschoor started a trading company in Hay and Straw in the village called Werkendam in the South of the Netherlands.

In the early existence of the company products were transported to the customers with the use of horses and carriages, but in 1947 the company bought a Dodge truck which was the start of a fleet which steadily expanded in the years to come. This also opened the possibility to serve a larger area, meaning that the company also started trading with customers in Belgium, France and West-Germany.

The growth of the business led to space shortages in the old location and therefore the company moved in 1956 to a new premise in Sleeuwijk. In the following decades the company experienced a period of steady growth. The most important changes during this period were the exit of Bas Verschoor in 1969 and the arrival of the three sons of Leen Verschoor in the company in the seventies, namely Ton, Arno and Leo Verschoor.

The new generation also led to new activities of the company, which included the trade in several sorts of forages, including maize, sugar beet pulp, potato pulp and other industrial byproducts.

After the death of Leen Verschoor in 1986, the three brothers took over the management of the business. They started to expand the company into new markets including England, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. In the beginning of the nineties Arno decided to leave the company and Ton and Leo moved on together.

The fall of the Iron curtain opened new markets thus new opportunities to grow for the Verschoor Group. After having traded for several years with a number of East-European countries, it was decided in the second part of the nineties to start baling straw ourselves in East-Germany. To accommodate this, the company started using a large company ground near the village of Egeln.

Furthermore there was decided in the same period to become a dealer in Merlo telescopic handlers, which Verschoor already used for the loading and unloading of lorries.

Due to the further growth of the company the premises in Sleeuwijk was insufficient and therefore it was decided to develop a new companies headquarters at the industrial area ‘de Bruine Kilhaven’ in Werkendam, which was finished and put into use in 1999.

In 2002 the Verschoor Group started a new division namely a phase 1 mushroom composting facility in Wolmirleben, East-Germany. This was a good addition to the company because Verschoor already traded in most of the ingredients of the compost, which also means that it is possible to make a qualitative good and stable product.

In the next years the company remained in a fast growing pace, where especially the baling of straw internationally was a big growth engine although also the trade in both West- and East-Europe was still increasing steadily. To make sure the company could handle the fast growth a new premise in Klein-Oschersleben in East-Germany was put into use from which the operations in the harvest are controlled.

In 2009 Leo Verschoor decided to leave the Verschoor Group to start a new company and took over the dealership in Merlo telescopic handlers with this company. For the Group this meant that Ton Verschoor lead the company by himself from then onwards.

One of the first important decisions which was made by Ton was investing in a new facility in Klein-Oschersleben for the production of big bales of chopped straw, which meant that an important new product could be added to the assortment of Verschoor.

Also the new situation led to a reorganization of the company which led to the decision to bring the focus in the Netherlands back to the biggest strength, namely the trade in Hay, Straw and Forages through Europe, with a central focus on the customers. To do this in the best way possible there was decided to move in 2011 to a new company building at the Industrial are ‘de Rietdijk’ in Giessen.

During the more than sixty years Verschoor exists it always has tried to build strong connections with the suppliers and customers, which is a good explanation of the continuous growth of the company. We therefore assume that this history is the start of a much longer tale in the future.