FOCUS ON Sola A family affair


Leading cutlery producer, Sola, is a family business with its roots stretching way back into tableware history. Julie Baxter checked out the company’s heritage


utlery specialist, Sola, has just celebrated its 90th anniversary. Founded by the Gerritsen family, in the Netherlands, the company is now being run by its fifth generation and its products can be found onboard aircraft, cruise ships, trains and tabletops around the globe.


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Offering large production capacity, design facilities, support and specialist knowledge, the company is perhaps best known in the onboard sector for Sola Airline Cutlery, set up in 1990, and currently supplying over 70 airlines, many of which it has worked with for years. But beyond its aviation portfolio, Sola’s development has an interesting history and mirrors the heritage of the cutlery industry itself. Sola offers a wide range of designs used by hotels and restaurants in more than 50 countries and has strong connections with the cruise industry. The present owner, Bert Gerritsen, works alongside his two children; Robert, who leads the Sola Cruise Line and Hospitality Division, and Gwen, who is responsible for the overall production and logistics.


Cruise clients have been a part of the business since the 1940s. At that time more than 3000 people were employed in the cutlery industry around the company’s home base of Zeist, and at least 800 of them were employed by Sola. Holland America Line was among the earliest clients and, along with other lines, used Sola silverware, hollow-ware and kitchenware, all tailor-made in Holland. More recently the company has also forged strong partnerships with Far East factories to help meet demand.


It’s not all about mass-production though. The company has sold a range of genuine


Above, from top: the Gerritsen family in 2013; cutlery manufacture from an earlier era; Sola’s Luxor range of cutlery


86 www.onboardhospitality.com


999/1000 silver and 24Kt. gold cutlery as well as pure silver spoons, forks and knives, hardened according to a special unique process. Pure gold dinner sets have also been supplied to customers in the Middle East region. This kind of product has its roots in the company’s very first generation, as Johannes Albertus Adolf Gerritsen was a trained silversmith.


In the 1800s and early 1900s pure silver and heavily silver-plated cutlery was the preserve of only the very wealthy, with the general public more likely to use iron cutlery or cutlery made from pewter, which broke easily or rusted. In the early 1900s, Sola’s Marius Johannes Gerritsen initiated the production of imitation silverware – nickel silver (alpaca) or a silver- plated version. This was easier to look after and lasted longer for a much lower price and soon became more popular than sterling silver cutlery and more affordable to the masses. In 1922 the Sola factory began producing cutlery made of chrome-nickel steel which remains the most durable and effective alloy for daily-use cutlery to this day.


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