History
In 1958 Arie van der Kooy took over some old steam boilers from his father. The adventure began when he hired them out to his first clients. Nowadays, Annette, the daughter of Arie is the director of the company. Arie van der Kooy, an expert when it comes to business and technique, died in 2004 at the age of 70. His enthusiasm and inventiveness are forming the fundament of our entrepreneurship. With all pleasure, we will present how it happened.
Variety of steam boilers
Arie’s steam boilers hire service became a big success. He got many questions about the steam boilers and therefore he started to increase the assortment. Even nowadays there are only a few companies which have so many different steam boilers.
From coals to oils and gas
At the beginning Arie hired the steam boilers together with a stoker. In the mid60s coal has been replaced with oil and therefore it became easier to operate the steam boiler and the stoker wasn’t needed any more. In the 80s steam boilers running on gas have been introduced. The latest development is the sustainable bio oil from our own company.
Production of the oil
Arie van der Kooy was a real entrepreneur. He saw everywhere possibilities. When the steam boilers changed over into fuel oil, he got an idea to recycle the waste oils into fuel oil. He got the oils from the garages and the Ministry of Defense. The company in Pijnacker processed them into a useful product. The things he didn’t need had been sold to horticulturalists and industrial companies.
To Amsterdam
This successful part of the company moved to Amsterdam in 1978 (former Gulf- depot in de Jan van Riebeeckhaven). Eventually, the subsidiary company OVA (Olieverwerking Amsterdam) has been sold and the company continued independently. At that time, it was one of the six companies in the Netherlands which had been appointed as a collection and recycling center for mineral oil wastes.
From mineral to vegetable
In the meantime Arie van der Kooy began a pilot plant which studied how to extract the vegetable fats from used bleaching earth. When it worked out, the whole company had been built. Again he proved to be successful, because not only used bleaching earth became useful but also the wasted of vegetable oils and fats. Arie and his staff were continuously busy in order to process all the wastes into bio oil or technical oil.
Asphalt Lake in Curacao
In 1982 Arie got a new project, it was an infamous asphalt lake in Curacao. It was created during the Second World War when Shell had to provide a lot of fuel for the planes. Nobody wanted the asphalt which was released. Shell dumped it in the bay where it stayed for years. Arie, as the first one, succeeded in taking out the asphalt from the bay and delivering it to Shell. Then it had been processed into useful products and refined until Shell stopped doing it. The lake is still there and it is a bit cleaner than it was in 1982. In 2010 there was another try to clean it.
Ships, many ships
Arie van der Kooy was a big ship lover. The love for ships was visible in Kooy Shipping. Arie started buying the ships from the Ministry of the Infrastructure and Environment and rebuilt them into luxury yachts. Later, he combined ship building activities with the transport of the vegetable oils. He bought four ships suitable for dry goods and rebuilt them into tankers which were suitable for the shipping of edible oil: De Frederique, De Bernice, De Anette and De Almar. De shipping company was the pride of Arie van der Kooy but because of the economic reasons the ships had been recently sold.
Help in emergencies
Inventiveness is the best quality of Van der Kooy. Everybody can notice it in de daily activities. Quick solution in difficult situations is the motto van staff. We have assisted in cleaning of many burnt cool warehouses in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. We have also helped with cleaning the mineral oil along the coast, for example, after a ship accident.
Chaos
Not all the activities have to do with the calamities. Once, somebody asked us to clean a kennel with the steam equipment and we had to use our steam equipment to help a giraffe with pathogen in the neck. These are activities, we will never forget.
Sustainable energy
Specialist in durable energy. We can say that without boasting. Although the interest in durable energy in the Netherlands is still disappointing, our customers from different countries found us. We have got many customers from Scandinavia, especially from Sweden where people pay a lot of attention to sustainable energy. We try to get some more customers in our country by arousing the interest in bio-oil, yet is used for some steam boilers which we hire.
New location
The old location of the company was situated between meadows and green houses. In the meantime, the company has been moved. An industrial company is not welcome between residential areas and the expansion of the company is not possible. That’s the reason that in 2008 a new area of 18000m2 in Oosterhout has been bought. It is a place located near Wilhelminakanaal where the ships can load up to 1500 tons. We have got a laboratory and we have plans to expand the storage capacity up to 21 000 m3. At this moment, we are moving the steam boilers, the production of bio-oil, the processing of the bleach earth and the residuals from Pijnacker to Oosterhout.
Inventions
Everything changes but there is nothing wrong with it. The urge of renewal is our motto. Seeing chances everywhere, that’s something we have learned from Arie van der Kooy. Do you have any problems and you can’t find the solutions? Do you need help, or do you want to know something about our sustainable products? Do not hesitate, contact us! We will help you. We are open to any ideas.