User:RonVanDenBoom/De Zaan

deZaan is a cocoa processing brand and factory based in Koog aan de Zaan, in the Zaanstreek region of the Netherlands. Founded in 1911 as a chocolate and confectionery manufacturer, the company shifted within its first decade to processing cocoa beans into cocoa butter and cocoa powder, which became its core business. It has operated continuously since, under a series of owners, and today functions as a cocoa ingredients brand of ofi (Olam Food Ingredients), a division of the Singapore-based Olam Group. deZaan manufactures cocoa powder, cocoa butter, and cocoa liquor (cocoa mass) for food and beverage manufacturers, supplying customers from processing sites in the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, and Indonesia.

History

Founding to the Second World War

The company was founded on 3 April 1911 by four members of the trade association “De Onderneming,” most of them merchants, as a limited company (N.V.). Its stated purpose was the manufacture of chocolate and sugar confectionery and related trade. Production began in November 1911, initially of chocolate bars and rum bonbons, with around 15 employees.

Early results fell short of expectations. In 1913 shareholder Jan Huysman, who owned four windmills used to process cocoa waste, proposed that the company acquire presses and manufacture its own cocoa butter. Results improved from late 1914, and the company recorded its first profit in 1915. An attempt to sell the business to Teun Oly & Comp. found no buyer. In 1916 Jac. Oly of the firm Kamphuys & Oly was appointed manager, and Jan Huysman acquired all the shares, becoming director, with his son Willem Huysman as commissioner. Wartime price increases brought further profit, and the company was renamed N.V. Cacao- en Chocoladefabriek “De Zaan” (“Cocoa and Chocolate Factory ‘De Zaan’”).

Willem Huysman became director in 1920. After further loss-making years, the company returned to profit in 1922, purchased new presses, and began selling cocoa butter under the brand name “Astra”; its cocoa powder also sold well. Weekly butter output reached 9 tonnes in 1922 and 20 tonnes in 1923, with about 2,700 tonnes of beans processed that year. Chocolate manufacturing was discontinued in 1924 as the company concentrated on cocoa butter, much of it exported, including to the trading firm Gill & Duffus; butter was shipped in 100 kg bales. The company was renamed again, to N.V. Cacaofabriek “De Zaan” (“Cocoa Factory ‘De Zaan’”). It continued to expand, acquiring the former oil factory “Wilhelmina” in 1928, by which point it employed about 75 people and processed 6,000 tonnes of beans a year, rising to 7,350 tonnes in 1930 and 8,600 tonnes in 1931.

Despite the Depression and competition from Teun Oly & Comp., Kamphuys & Oly, and Van Houten, throughput kept rising: 9,000 tonnes of beans in 1932, 10,000 in 1933, 16,000 in 1934, and 21,000 in 1935, when the workforce reached 150. Processing peaked at 22,800 tonnes in 1936 before declining. During the Second World War, raw-material shortages forced the company to produce substitutes such as coffee substitute, cocoa milk powder, and anise milk powder; cocoa bean stocks were exhausted by 1943.

Postwar growth and diversification (1945–1963)

After the war, the company resumed its trading relationship with Gill & Duffus and acquired the mill “De Zaadzaaier” on the Hemmes peninsula, gradually reinvesting in its factories. It began selling cocoa powder in small consumer packaging and added chocolate sprinkles under the brand name “Zaanhagel.” Employment reached 406 by 1960, and the company processed 28,900 tonnes of beans in 1961.

Anticipating that cocoa-producing countries might begin processing their own beans, and foreseeing the emergence of cocoa butter substitutes, the company diversified outside cocoa. In 1961 it acquired the Amsterdam lemonade and advocaat producer Bruinsma, continuing it as N.V. Drankenindustrie “Raak,” and took over the De Zaanstroom waste-paper complex from Van Vemde. In 1962 it acquired the egg-powder producer NIVE in Nunspeet, renamed Zaan Spray. Its former building “De Haremakerij” was donated to the open-air museum Zaanse Schans.

Corporate ownership: Grace, ADM, Olam (1964–present)

In 1964 the trading relationship with Gill & Duffus ended, and the company was acquired by the American conglomerate W. R. Grace and Co., which had already acquired the rival Zaanstreek cocoa processor Van Houten. Grace consolidated its cocoa interests into a Chocolate and Confectionery division in 1965 and shifted Van Houten's cocoa-bean processing (about 10,000 tonnes/year) from Weesp to De Zaan, which processed 45,000 tonnes with 563 employees by 1966 and 48,000 tonnes in 1968. Raak was relocated to Utrecht for lack of space, and the company began employing foreign guest workers from 1969. Processing reached 50,279 tonnes in 1970, and NIVE was later divested; the consumer-packaging business was discontinued in 1978. Output reached 64,578 tonnes of beans in 1981 (yielding 28,000 tonnes of powder, 26,000 tonnes of butter, and 3,000 tonnes of cocoa mass) and 67,108 tonnes in 1984.

In 1996 W. R. Grace's cocoa business, including De Zaan, was acquired by Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) and operated as ADM Cocoa; at the time it processed about 190,000 tonnes of beans a year, roughly half of total Dutch cocoa-bean processing (355,000 tonnes in 1995).

In October 2015, ADM sold its global cocoa business — including the deZaan brand — to the Singapore-based agribusiness group Olam International, which combined it with its existing cocoa operations to form an integrated global cocoa supply chain. IIn January 2020, Olam announced a reorganisation into three operating groups: ofi (Olam Food Ingredients), covering its cocoa, coffee, edible nuts, spices, and dairy businesses; Olam Agri; and a Remaining Olam Group, later renamed OGH (Olam Global Holdco). Ofi launched its current brand identity in October 2021, and since then “deZaan” has been marketed as ofi's cocoa ingredients brand.

Products and operations

deZaan produces natural and alkalised (“Dutch-processed”) cocoa powders across a range of fat contents, natural and deodorised cocoa butters, and cocoa liquor (cocoa mass), including a line of single-origin cocoa liquors introduced in 2026 sourced from Uganda, Papua New Guinea, and the Dominican Republic. Its products are sold to bakery, confectionery, ice cream, and beverage manufacturers. Processing takes place at five sites: Koog aan de Zaan and Wormer in the Netherlands (the latter opened in 1987), Mannheim in Germany, Singapore, and a site near Jakarta, Indonesia, the last added to serve customers in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and North America.

See also

• Olam Group
• Cacao powder
• Zaanstreek

References

[[Category:Food and drink companies of the Netherlands]]