Our history

This graceful Renaissance building, which was built from blue-gray limestone, was situated on Dam Square, in the heart of the city. The weigh house had a double staircase at the front leading to the upper floor, with permanent canopies lining the other three sides. These permitted access to seven scales that were suspended from sturdy beams. Inside was a smaller scale, where the most valuable products were weighed. Carriers, who were often united in storehouses such as the Blaauwhoedenveem, transported goods to and from the weigh house. Based on the weight and quality of the goods, the weighmaster decided how much weighage was owed. The building remained in use for over two centuries. Collection Royal Vopak.

However, the year in which the storehouse started is unkown. Storehouses were simple partnerships between lumpers in the Amsterdam port who barely kept records, let alone founding documents. The year 1616 is used because it is in that year that the city of Amsterdam issued a statute that mentioned storehouses for the first time.

The first mention of the Blaauwhoedenveem followed a year later. In 1617, the Amsterdam poet and playwright Gerbrand Adriaensz. Bredero published his comedy The Spanish Brabander, in which he portrayed two storehouses: the blue hats and the tricornes. Assuming that in 1617, Bredero portrayed storehouses that were known to a broad public, it is likely that the Blaauwhoedenveem (literally: storehouse of the blue hats) had already existed for some time. Taking 1616 as the founding year is therefore a seemingly conservative estimate. We will probably never be able to find the exact year, but the chances are that the history of Vopak goes back to the sixteenth century.

Since the Chinese did not allow foreign merchants into their ports, the trade took place through Chinese middlemen on the island of Java (in present-day Indonesia). Tea was nicknamed the “jewel of herbs” and doctors even prescribed it as a remedy for various ailments. Drinking tea became a respectable ritual, and wealthy families had special tearooms in their homes. By the end of the century, tea became more affordable and tearooms were opened where ordinary citizens could enjoy a cup of tea.

Tea became one of the most important and profitable products for the VOC. However, it was still a very delicate product. The taste and smell of tea could be affected if it came into contact with other (aromatic) goods. It was therefore very important to separate the fragile tea as much as possible. But a ship with only tea as its cargo was not heavy enough to be stable. The solution was to transport tea in combination with porcelain, which provided sufficient weight and did not give off any odor or taste.

In 1825, Philipp Franz von Siebold, tea expert of the Netherlands Trading Society (Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij or NHM), was the first person to succeed in growing Chinese tea on Java. The real breakthrough of tea outside China followed the discovery of Assam Tea by the British in 1835. This tea was found to better suit European tastes, and from 1873 it was also grown by the Dutch on Java. In the following decades, this so-called Java tea supplanted the China tea on the Dutch market.

Until about 1717, they regularly used the storehouses in busy times, but from then onwards the organization was so well established that storehouses were no longer needed. From that point on, two warehouse keepers, four accountants, and two head clerks supervised the warehouses, where 50 to 150 day laborers and garbuleurs (processors of dry goods) worked. The warehouse keepers were in charge, dealing with the administration of all incoming and outgoing goods.

Josua van Eik, who would establish “Pakhuismeesteren van de Thee” a century later, also began his career as a VOC warehouse keeper. When starting his own company he drew extensively on the knowledge and reputation of the VOC.

This also applied to the carrier guild, which included the storehouses. That guild only lost its influence when weighing rights lapsed in 1816, yet the storehouses continued to exist. Twenty-two storehouses survived the French period: the Blue, Red, Green, White, Yellow-, Black-, Purple, Gray-, Fur and Straw Hats, the Tricornes, the Leiden Storehouse, English Storehouse, Vriesse Storehouse, Zeeland Storehouse, Texel Storehouse, Scottish Storehouse, Medemblik Storehouse, Haarlem Storehouse Wateras Storehouse, Zwartas Storehouse, and Zijde Storehouse.

The Cooperative of the Workers was established as a kind of successor to the carrier guild. However, the usually quirky storehouses had little need for a new umbrella organization and took more and more liberties. They started looking after their own financial and staff policies, resulting in them becoming better organized facilitating growth.

Because of this family connection there were very close ties between the tea and coffee storage companies. Unlike “Pakhuismeesteren van de Thee,” “Pakhuismeesteren van de Koffij” did not last very long. The company was overly dependent on one particular customer, the Netherlands Trading Society (NHM), established and funded in part by King William I of the Netherlands. When the NHM later opted for “Rijks Entrepotdok” – another company in which the king was financially involved – to store its coffee, it meant the end of “Pakhuismeesteren van de Koffij.”

What made the situation even more painful was that the processing of coffee in the Entrepotdok ended up in the hands of a consortium of storehouses that was led by the Blaauwhoedenveem. This was the first time that storehouses, from a much more humble background than the Pakhuismeesteren, manifested themselves as serious competitors. The “Pakhuismeesteren van de Koffij” had regularly used the Blue Hats to help out in the preceding years. They had inadvertently helped their competitor into the saddle.

Amsterdam was leading as it was the larger company. In January 1850, they surprised their colleagues in Rotterdam with their intention to establish a new company: “Pakhuismeesteren van de Rijst” (Rice Warehouse Keepers). The Amsterdam warehouse keepers thought it very important to keep their name as a tea specialist pure, so they preferred to store other goods under a different name – just as they had done with coffee.

In Rotterdam, where much less tea was traded compared to Amsterdam, the warehouse keepers had also sometimes used their warehouses to store other goods for several years. They must have been pleased with this, for they had plans to make this expansion official. The Amsterdam plans for the rice business worked as a catalyst for this Rotterdam initiative. The very day they heard about the Amsterdam plans, they circulated a statement about their intention to establish "such an establishment for rice and other goods.”

”Pakhuismeesteren van de Rijst” never materialized in Amsterdam but the Rotterdam company stuck to its plans. Officially, they established a second company besides “Pakhuismeesteren van de Thee” that stored all other goods, but in practice they did not distinguish between the two. After 1850 they slowly came to be known as simply Pakhuismeesteren.

Apparently the Blue Hats had their records in order and were a reliable party, since the Dutch Central Bank accredited their receipts in 1856. It was an extremely important step in the maturation of the storehouse.

A year later the Blue Hats replaced their cooperative structure with a general partnership. Led by directors B. Lusink, H.J. Klyn, and C.H.L. Klyn, the storehouse was called “Blaauwhoedenveem in partnership with Lusink, Klyn & Co.” from January 1, 1857. A year later, Blaauwhoedenveem, as the leading party in a consortium with other storehouses, signed a contract with the Netherlands Trading Society (NHM) for the storage of coffee, which was previously done by “Pakhuismeesteren van de Koffij”. The storehouse thus confirmed its new status as a serious storage company. In the wake of Blaauwhoedenveem, Vriesseveem, which became a general partnership in 1861, went through a similar development. Along with Blaauwhoedenveem, they would provide direction to the development of the storehouses for decades.

The properties and hazards of this new product were not well known, since the first modern oil drilling had taken place in Canada and America only a few years earlier. That is why Pakhuismeesteren stored the barrels without further ado in the East India House, a 150-year-old warehouse on the busy Boompjeskade, in the city center. Shortly after the first oil shipments, ominous stories cropped up about explosions in America caused by the combustible material. In consultation with the city council, Pakhuismeesteren built a warehouse outside the city, to the south of the river Maas. The first sheds, designed specifically for the storage of oil, were erected here in 1865 and they would develop into Vopak’s core business in the next 150 years.

When sailing ships went through a revival in the 1850s, it prompted Philippus van Ommeren to become a shipowner. In 1855, he put his first ship into service: a brig named Minerva. In order not to bear the entire risk alone, he looked for, in accordance with the part-shipowner principle, various financiers to participate in the ship – looking among family and friends as much as possible. Philippus acted as the bookkeeper. Led by his half-brother George Theodoor, the Minerva sailed to destinations in Europe and North and South America. Although trade was uncertain due to fluctuating prices, Philippus nevertheless managed to extend his bookkeeping to four more ships in subsequent years.

Yet the shipping company was not successful. Van Ommeren\'s somewhat conservative choice for sailing ships was punished by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. This led to the final breakthrough of steamships, and thus the end of the era of sailing ships. Philippus van Ommeren did not venture into steamships. He sold the fleet between 1872 and 1874 and withdrew from the shipping company.

J.C.A. Hol was given the responsibility for the daily management of Blaauwhoedenveem’s Rotterdam branch. He was the first executive in the company to be appointed to such a position not on the basis of his number of years in service but because of his administrative and leadership qualities. Within a few years, he turned the Rotterdam company into a success.

Hol was at the right place at the right time, since the port of Rotterdam was developing fast. After centuries of domination by the Amsterdam port, it was now clear that the future belonged to Rotterdam. Through the direct connection to the sea via the newly opened New Waterway and the liberal, entrepreneurial urban elite, led by men like Marten Mees and Lodewijk Pincoffs, the city experienced unprecedented growth. In the seventies, eighties, and nineties of the 19th century, new port developments were realized in a high tempo. The growth was mainly based on the port’s function as a transit port for mass goods for the industrializing German hinterland. Coal, ore, and oil, along with grain, were shipped in large quantities through Rotterdam. Although the Amsterdam storehouses were not familiar with these products, they could still make an impact in Rotterdam. By 1883 Blaauwhoedenveem had already moved to larger premises at Feyenoord.

In 1891 this led to the founding of the Maatschappij Stoomschip Dordrecht (Steamship Dordrecht Company Inc.), in which he placed one ship based on the English model, which was unique in the Netherlands. He sold the shares to relatives and acquaintances in Rotterdam, whom he paid dividends of around 10 percent in the first years. The successes encouraged Van Ommeren to establish two more single ship companies, in which he placed the Sliedrecht and Barendrecht.

After a few years, Van Ommeren concluded that it was inefficient to accommodate each ship in a separate company. In 1898 he asked and received permission from his shareholders to convert the Steamship Dordrecht Company into Stoomvaart Maatschappij De Maas (Steamship Company The Meuse). This was the real start of Van Ommeren as a shipowner.

Partly through his friendship with Philippus van Ommeren, he gained permission to build two tanks and a distillery in Rotterdam. The transport of gas to and from Germany was contracted to Van Ommeren, which became the first company to transport gasoline over the Rhine. The 744-tonne inland tanker Rhenania, completed in 1903, was the first vessel in Van Ommeren's fleet.

The merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell into the Royal Dutch Shell Group in 1907 produced a lot more work for Philippus van Ommeren. He saw there was a shortage of storage tanks in Rotterdam. He felt that the company should play a larger role in this, but co-partner Hermanus de Jongh had many reservations. Philippus van Ommeren therefore decided to invest in tank storage outside of the company. In 1910, he founded tank storage company Matex. His friendship with Henri Deterding was indirectly not just at the base of Van Ommeren’s inland shipping business, but also of the tank storage business.

On April 20, 1916 Katoenveem (Cotton Storehouse) was founded by Blaauwhoedenveem, Handelsveem, Hollandsveem, Leydsche Veem, the Dutch Storehouse, Vriesseveem, and Pakhuismeesteren. In order to prevent fires, insurers charged high premiums to pressure the storehouses to store cotton in separate warehouses. This made it so expensive that the storehouses saw no other option but to join forces.

Although the marriage was not born out of love, several storehouses seemed to like the cooperation. A year after the establishment of Katoenveem, Blaauwhoedenveem and Vriesseveem announced a merger.

His co-partner Hermanus de Jongh was not interested in this foreign activity, so Van Ommeren founded tank storage company Matex with private funds. After several difficult years Matex became a successful company, thanks to good contacts within the growing Royal Dutch Shell.

In 1929, Philippus sold Matex to the Batavian Oil Company (Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij or BPM), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. One of the conditions of the sale was that he could start a new tank storage company. He founded New Matex on December 16 of the same year. New Matex initially stored vegetable oils and fats, since BPM had insisted that this new company could not store petroleum or any of its derivatives until 1957. In 1942, when Van Ommeren was eighty years old, he sold his tank storage company to Van Ommeren's Scheepvaartbedrijf (Van Ommeren Shipping).

Starting from late September 1944, the German occupying forces detonated a vast quantity of bombs in the Rotterdam port and burned down many buildings. Major damage was caused to quays, cranes, docks, shipyards, warehouses, and oil tanks. On October 1, Pakhuismeesteren had only three undamaged tanks left. Warehouse “de Eersteling” was also severely affected. On October 2, the installations of Shell and Matex underwent the same fate.

Matex installations in Amsterdam, the Amatex, endured the German destructiveness thanks to a clever move made by the manager. He had the tanks filled with water so the Germans would not touch them as water was vital to their own supplies. Collection of Royal Vopak.

Partly due to this, Blaauwhoedenveem-Vriesseveem faced low occupancy levels in the Amsterdam warehouses in the early 1950s.

Instead of selling a few warehouses, as was previously common when faced with lower trading volumes, the board decided to remodel several warehouses and hire them out to small industries as business premises. It was a radically new approach, which also needed substantial investment, but nevertheless the commissioners agreed to the plan.

This change of course proved a success. The investment costs of 150,000 guilders were recovered within a short time. In 1958 alone, the lease of the properties yielded 195,000 guilders. Following the widening of activities, Blaauwhoedenveem-Vriesseveem changed its name in 1954. The new name, Blaauwhoed, was not only considerably shorter, but the word “veem” (storehouse) had also disappeared. After all, from now on the company focused on more than just storage.

While the Amsterdam company widened its activities to real estate, the Rotterdam company focused on business expansion in the rapidly growing Rotterdam port. The companies became increasingly more opposed, partly because the Amsterdam company regarded itself as the parent company to which the Rotterdam company had to listen to.

Around 1960, Thomsen's Havenbedrijf – by far the largest stevedore in Rotterdam – attempted to merge with the Rotterdam Blaauwhoed company on two occasions. Although this was seriously considered, it never materialized. Thomsen’s overture was food for thought for Blaauwhoed. They realized that they would be in a stronger position if they would organize themselves better. Therefore, they conducted a structural change in 1962 in which Blaauwhoed became a holding company. Operating companies Blaauwhoedenveem-Amsterdam and Blaauwhoedenveem-Rotterdam, as the daughter companies in the respective cities were now named, retained their own boards, but they now both answered to the management of the holding company headquartered in Amsterdam.

The outcome proved positive. The local port authorities were interested in cooperation and the island of Pulau Sebarok, south of Singapore, was found to be an available and convenient location. On August 31, 1983 Van Ommeren opened the first independent oil terminal in Singapore, which at that time had a volume of 484,000 cubic meters. It was later extended to more than 1.2 million cubic meters.

Meanwhile, Pakhoed also tried to gain a foothold in Singapore, but they were too late. Although there was no more room for a terminal next to deep water, they came up with a creative solution: they bought a 300,000-tonne supertanker, which they then converted into a floating storage vessel. They anchored the tanker, with separate compartments for gas oil, fuel oil, gasoline, and other products, off the coast of Singapore. While the tanker was in service as a terminal for several years, Pakhoed created an island through sand suppletion and eventually built its own terminal there with a capacity of 500,000 cubic meters.

After the merger of the competitors into Vopak in 1999, the Pakhoed terminal, the smaller of the two, was sold and Vopak retained the original Van Ommeren terminal. Collection of Royal Vopak.

A merger with trade group Ceteco was music to the ears of Van Ommeren’s supervisory board in 1987. That a combination of the two names yielded the abbreviation VOC, a reference to the symbol of the Dutch Golden Age, was an added bonus. The merger was confidently announced later that year.

However, it soon transpired that it was not a happy marriage. Ceteco’s “fast trading guys in nice suits” and Van Ommeren’s “orderly, solemn-faced shipping clerks” understood nothing of each other. The integration of two very different corporate cultures was fraught with difficulty. Poor results in the commercial sector did the rest. The financial world preferred separate, specialized companies than a colossus without focus and pressured change. Van Ommeren sold its trading activities in June 1992. The company continued under its own name and with the familiar core activities such as shipping, inland shipping, and tank storage. Collection of Rotterdam City Archives.

Two years later, Pahoed was also allowed to call itself a “Royal” company. On the occasion of the celebration of its 375th anniversary, Chairman of the Board H.P. Crijns received the official certificate from the hands of Rotterdam Mayor Bram Peper.

Although merger companies are normally not allowed to claim previously granted Royal designations, Vopak was allowed to keep on calling itself “Royal” after 1999.

The acquisition of Univar brought great benefits. Pakhoed developed a different relationship with existing customers, whom it now also served with Univar. As a result, when they dealt with big companies such as Exxon and Shell, they were no longer talking to the sales department but to the company’s management. This also gave new life to the tank storage business.

When Pakhoed and Van Ommeren merged to become Vopak in 1999, they decided to focus on tank storage and divest all other activities. For this reason, they took leave of Univar in 2002, which became independent and is still successful.

They had talks several times in the 1990s and they came particularly close to a merger in 1998. However, because executives Van den Driest and Westdijk could not agree on which terminal they would hive off to meet Brussels’ competition rules, the talks halted. Thus, at least, was the official version. Another factor that played out in the background was that Pakhoed’s harbor men and Van Ommeren’s shipowners especially had an eye for the differences rather than the similarities. Van Ommeren was still sore about the failed trade adventure with Ceteco and was, therefore, skeptical about Pakhoed’s chemical distribution business. Conversely Pakhoed saw little merit in Van Ommeren’s erratic shipping business.

A year later, the merger became reality after all since both camps saw a future in tank storage. Partly at the urging of global customers, Van Ommeren and Pakhoed put aside their differences and joined forces. The result is Royal Vopak, the world\'s leading independent tank storage company.

The terminal was founded by Gasunie and Vopak, who both have a 50 percent stake, and facilitates the storage of liquefied gas. This allows both companies to anticipate both Dutch and European energy policies, which assume that the Netherlands, when its gas fields will be depleted, will become an importer of gas. The construction of the Gate terminal is an essential part of the efforts of the Dutch government to become the gas hub of Europe.

The construction of the terminal on the Maasvlakte started in 2009 and was openend by Queen Beatrix on September 23, 2011. The terminal has a storage capacity of twelve billion cubic meters, spread over three tanks. In the future, a fourth terminal may be added.