By Roel Dreve
A strong brand SUPPLIERS
The Twente region used to be the centre of Dutch textile production. This once thriving industry declined in the 1960s and the old factories disappeared, but the machines are still weaving fibres to make textiles on a large industrial site in Hengelo. It is here that the familiar Nicolon® growing, glide and tunnel nets for mushroom growing roll off the production line at Solmax Netherlands BV.
T
Mushroom Casing Partner
Your
he company’s turbulent and somewhat complicated history
dates back to the devastating flood that struck the Netherlands in
1953, when Nico ter Kuile in Enschede - traditi- onally a hub of textile production - supplied nylon sandbags to help close the dikes. Nicolon
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BV was founded in 1968 and TenCate acquired the shares in 1974. This was followed by nume- rous mergers, international expansion and relocations. In 2021, TenCate Geosynthetics was acquired by Solmax, the world’s largest producer of geosynthetics with a current annual turnover of more than one billion euros. However the focus on innovative textiles for civil engineering and industrial applications has been maintained and the company’s market-leading position with its Nicolon® growing and tunnel nets for mushroom cultivation has also stood strong against the storms of time.
Örjan Hulshof Örjan Hulshof, who started working at Solmax two years ago when Maarten Bos retired, is a seasoned professional in the horticultural sector, including at the Aalsmeer flower auction and De Ruiter. He, Maarten Bos and Jan-Willem Heezen (who is now CEO of Solmax EMEA) all have roots in the region and attended the same university of applied sciences - Van Hall Larenstein in Deventer. As market manager for industrial fabrics, he divides his time between the mushroom sector (75%) and horticulture and feels completely in his element playing this free role in the sector and within the company: “I am like an entrepreneur within the enterprise.”
Strengths All Solmax growing nets supplied to the mushroom industry are manufactured here in Hengelo under the name ‘Industrial Fabrics’. Örjan: “However, most people use the name Nicolon® to find us. It is a strong brand name and well-known to many customers and potential customers, which explains why we have continued to use the name ‘Nicolon® nets’. Everyone in the mushroom world knows our products. And while they are not the cheapest, they are the most sustainable nets on the market.” Örjan believes
36 MUSHROOM BUSINESS
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