Verkade

{{Short description|Dutch manufacturing company}} {{Infobox company | name = Koninklijke Verkade N.V. | logo = Verkade logo.jpg | logo_size = 150px | logo_caption = Verkade logo, pre-1994 | type = Naamloze vennootschap | genre = | fate = | predecessor = | successor = | foundation = Zaandam (North Holland), Netherlands ({{Start date|1886|05|02|df=y}}) | founder = Ericus Verkade | defunct = | location_city = Zaandam | location_country = Netherlands | location = | locations = | area_served = | key_people = | industry = | products = Chocolate, rusk, cookies | services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owner = Pladis | num_employees = 550 | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = {{url|verkade.nl}} | footnotes = }}

'''Royal Verkade''' (Dutch: '''Koninklijke Verkade''') is a Dutch manufacturing company, owned by a Turkish conglomerate. The company is headquartered in Zaandam and was one of the oldest existing family companies in the Netherlands. In November 2014, the company was acquired by Pladis, a global biscuit, chocolate and confectionery company owned by Yıldız Holding.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.yildizholding.com.tr/tr/medya-merkezi/haberler/haber-detay/yildiz-holding-to-acquire-united-biscuits|title=Yildiz Holding to acquire United Biscuits|date=3 November 2014|work=Yıldız Holding|access-date=4 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141104123141/http://www.yildizholding.com.tr/tr/medya-merkezi/haberler/haber-detay/yildiz-holding-to-acquire-united-biscuits|archive-date=4 November 2014|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> It was founded in 1886 by Ericus Verkade to make mostly bread and rusk,<ref name="co">{{cite news |title='Co' Verkade (102) overleden |url=http://www.evmi.nl/nieuws/mensen-bedrijven/5748/%27co%27-verkade-102-overleden.html |access-date=10 May 2010 |publisher=Elsevier Voedingsmiddelen Industrie |language=nl}}</ref> and expanded to produce cookies, sweets, and, especially, chocolates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.beursduivel.be/nieuws/50542/Telg_Verkade-familie_overleden|title=Telg Verkade-familie overleden|date=26 June 2008|publisher=Beursduivel.be|access-date=10 May 2010|archive-date=6 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706133141/http://www.beursduivel.be/nieuws/50542/Telg_Verkade-familie_overleden|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==History== The company was first named "De Ruyter" for a mill in Zaandam which milled flour—the original "ruiter" ("horse rider") was on the company logo until 1994, when it was removed to make way for a newly designed logo, intended to give the company and its products a more contemporary look. The horseman is still found on Verkade rusk, which currently is made by the competitor, the Bolletje factory in Almelo, using the Verkade recipe.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.trouw.nl/krantenarchief/1994/02/22/2633623/_Paplepeligheid__Verkade_geen_probleem.html|title='Paplepeligheid' Verkade geen probleem|last=Lakerveld|first=Peter van|date=22 February 1994|work=Trouw|language=nl|access-date=11 May 2010}}</ref> The company acquired the right to bear the "royal" mark in their name in 1950, and employs some 450 people in Zaandam.<ref>{{cite web |title=Het Bedrijf Verkade |url=http://www.koninklijkeverkade.nl/#/bedrijf |access-date=10 May 2010 |publisher=Verkade |language=nl}}</ref> The last members of the Verkade family, Ericus's great-grandsons Erik and Arnold, left the company in 1992.<ref name="co"/>

Commercial success came about also through marketing, starting in 1906, when the company began issuing picture cards with its products, which could be collected in albums.<ref name="nijs">{{cite book|last=Nijs|first=Nijs|author2=Eelco Beukers |title=Geschiedenis van Holland|publisher=Verloren|location=Utrecht|date=2003|volume=1|pages=230|isbn=9065506845|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BpS8g_k2Q6cC&pg=PA230|language=nl}}</ref> Co Verkade, a grandson of Ericus, was instrumental in this strategy,<ref name="nrc">{{cite news|url=http://www.nrc.nl/necrologieen/2008/article1933665.ece/Jacobus_Verkade_1906-2008|title= Jacobus Verkade (1906-2008): Pionier in marketing koekjes en chocola |last=Voormolen|first=Sander|date=27 June 2008|work=NRC Handelsblad|language=nl|access-date=11 May 2010}}</ref> and the albums, most of them written by Jac. P. Thijsse were especially popular.<ref name="nijs"/> The albums generated a kind of collection mania among the Dutch population before World War II: 27 albums were made, a total of 3.2 million copies;<ref name="nrc"/> another source lists 28 albums and 362 million cards distributed over 30 years.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lans |first=Jos van der |url=https://archive.org/details/lagelandenhogesp0000lans |title=Lage landen, hoge sprongen: Nederland in de twintigste eeuw |author2=Herman Vuijsje |date=2003 |publisher=Inmerc |isbn=978-90-6611-109-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lagelandenhogesp0000lans/page/190 190] |language=nl |url-access=registration}}</ref> {{-}}

==The women of Verkade== thumb|left|150px|Advertisement for Verkade rusk, ca. 1900, by Jan Rinke. In the company's early days, the main part of the workforce consisted of young women who walked in their company uniform to work; these "Verkade girls" (''De meisjes van Verkade'' or ''Verkadevrouwen'', also ''Ruytermeisjes'', for the company's earlier name) are occasionally revived for ceremonial purposes, such as when Queen Beatrix opened the Verkade pavilion (which houses corporate art owned by the Verkade family) in the Zaans Museum.<ref>{{cite news |date=11 March 2009 |title=Koningin bijt zich vast in koekjes van Verkade |url=http://www.brabantsdagblad.nl/algemeen/kunst/4643528/Koningin-bijt-zich-vast-in-koekjes-van-Verkade.ece |access-date=10 May 2010 |work=Brabants Dagblad |language=nl}}</ref> The ''Zaanstreek'' (roughly, the area on the river the Zaan) was a regional center of industry, and women workers were employed at many of the factories in the area, including {{ill|Honig (company)|lt=Honig|nl|Honig (firma)}}, Hille, and Albert Heijn.<ref name="nijs"/>

The history of these factory workers was published in ''Ruytermeisjes and Verkadevrouwen'' in 1997; oral historians Ineke Hogema and Ivonne van der Padt describe the women and their situation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hogema |first=Ineke |url=http://www.scriptum.nl/boeken/mens-en-maatschappij/geschiedenis/ruytermeisjes-en-verkadevrouwen |title=Ruytermeisjes en Verkadevrouwen: Een eeuw vrouwenarbeid bij de Zaanse zoetwarenfabrikant |author2=Ineke Hogema |date=1997 |publisher=Scriptum |isbn=978-90-5594-078-3 |language=nl}}</ref> Many of them came from the poor areas of Amsterdam (starting in 1911), and most talked about the pleasant social interactions: "We sang all the time," one of them said, and they were allowed to chat during work. Distinct regional and class differences were noted: girls from Amsterdam (specifically the Jordaan, a working-class neighborhood) were deemed to be very outspoken, even vulgar, compared to their counterparts from Zaandam;<ref name="sfeer"/> some of the girls were rumored to have undressed a train conductor between Amsterdam and Zaandam.<ref>{{cite book|last=Blok|first=Els|author2=Mathilde Vogelaar |title=Uit de schaduw van de mannen: vrouwenverzet 1930-1940|publisher=Sara|location=Amsterdam|date=1985|isbn=978-90-6328-136-6|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4cqAAAAYAAJ&q=meisjes+van+verkade|language=nl}}</ref> For Verkade, the benefit of hiring female workers was twofold: women were thought to have more delicate hands and be better at packaging brittle materials such as cookies and rusk, and they commanded lower wages than their male counterparts. In a tradition of paternalism, the company apparently felt a kind of responsibility toward the younger girls, who often came from uneducated backgrounds; after hours, they were offered classes in cooking and sewing.<ref name="nijs"/> The girls usually quit their jobs when they got married (in fact, company policy often dictated that they be fired; unmarried women over 30 had to have made promotion or lose their jobs<ref name="nijs"/>), and often thought of their old jobs and colleagues with nostalgia.<ref name="sfeer"/>

After World War II Verkade found itself competing for scarce labor, and it drastically changed its policies, now employing married and older women.<ref name="nijs"/> It began to run advertisements in the Amsterdam public transportation system: ''Meisjes komt werken bij Verkade en neem vooral je moeder mee'' ("Girls, come work at Verkade, and please bring your mother"); in 1961, it opened a daycare facility, one of the first Dutch companies to do so.<ref name="sfeer">{{cite news|url=http://www.trouw.nl/krantenarchief/1997/02/28/2523330/De_sfeer_in_de_koekfabriek_was_hartstikke_leuk.html|title=De sfeer in de koekfabriek was hartstikke leuk|last=Salm|first=Harriet|date=28 February 1997|work=Trouw|language=nl|access-date=11 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Schaik|first=Anne van|title=Honderd jaar vrouwen in overheidsdienst|publisher=Het Spinhuis|date=1998|pages=46|isbn=978-90-5589-115-3|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2N55IlBHkboC&pg=PA46|language=nl}}</ref> In the 1960s and 1970s, Verkade also benefited from the influx of migrant workers, who were just coming onto the Dutch labor market, and began hiring and employing the wives of those workers. The end of the ''Verkademeisjes'' came in the 1970s and 1980s, when machines started doing the work formerly done by delicate women's fingers.<ref name="nijs"/>

The Zaans Museum has a section dedicated to the girls. It is sponsored for an amount of €60,000 by PDZ, one of the country's largest temp agencies, which was one of the main providers of women to Verkade's workforce since the 1960s.<ref>{{cite news |date=4 February 2009 |title=PDZ sponsort 'meisjes van Verkade' |url=http://www.noordhollandsdagblad.nl/nieuws/stadstreek/zaanstreek/article4341667.ece/PDZ_sponsort_meisjes_van_Verkade |access-date=10 May 2010 |work=Noordhollands Dagblad |language=nl }}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Today's ''Verkademeisjes'' are a group of singers/actresses founded in 2005 who have revived one notable tradition of the original Verkade girls: singing cheerful songs.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.noordhollandsdagblad.nl/nieuws/stadstreek/zaanstreek/article4458825.ece/Verkademeisjes_zingen_voor_de_koningin|title=Verkademeisjes zingen voor de koningin|date=8 March 2009|work=Noordhollands Dagblad|language=nl|access-date=10 May 2010}}{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Dutch author and songwriter Willem Wilmink named one of his collections for them, ''Brief van een Verkademeisje en andere liedjes''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilmink |first=Willem |title=Brief van een Verkademeisje en andere liedjes |date=1964 |publisher=De Arbeiderspers |location=Amsterdam |language=nl}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==External links== *[http://www.verkade.nl Company website]

Category:Companies based in North Holland Category:Snack food manufacturers of the Netherlands Category:Food and drink companies established in 1886 Category:2014 mergers and acquisitions Category:Yıldız Holding Category:Dutch companies established in 1886