Griendtsveen has a long history in Drenthe. Originally active in peat extraction, Griendtsveen has since developed in various directions, including the production of black peat and potting soil for the national and international commercial markets. The company has evolved out of the family firm of Van de Griendt and the Drentsche Landontginning Maatschappij (Drenthe Land Development Company).
Drentsche Landontginning Maatschappij (DLM or DLO)
In 1851, operating under the name Drentsche Landontginning Maatschappij (DLO), a group of Amsterdam entrepreneurs bought more than 2,256 hectares of peat lands south of Emmen with a view to developing the site and running it as a commercial operation. This area is now known as the Amsterdamsche Veld.
DLO was acquired in 1909 by the Griendtsveen Moss Litter Company Ltd, which later became Griendtsveen Turfstrooisel Maatschappij N.V. The company was sited alongside the Dommers Canal, and here a village developed that also took the name Amsterdamsche Veld.
Van de Griendt family
Between 1909 and 1914 Griendtsveen built three peat moss factories as well as workshops, a sawmill, a power station, a school, an office and homes for company employees. Later on a main field railway was constructed right across the Amsterdamsche Veld, running 12 km to the peateries owned by Griendtsveen in Schöninghsdorf across the German border. The factory closed in 1983; there were no longer sufficient local raw materials and extraction techniques were changing. As a result, the narrow-gauge railway fell into disuse.
A group of ex-narrow-gauge personnel took it upon themselves to preserve the redundant narrow-gauge stock. What started as a hobby club led to the founding of the Industrieel Smalspoor Museum [Industrial Narrow-gauge Railway Museum].
Jan van de Griendt, an industrialist and dignitary from ’s Hertogenbosch, was the founder of the Griendtsveen family firm. Together with his brother Nicolaas van de Griendt, he started business in 1853 with peat activities in the municipality of Deurne in De Groote Peel region of Brabant. In that year he also set up the Helenaveen Company and founded the village of Helenaveen. His sons Jozef and Eduard continued his work and founded the village of Griendtsveen in 1885 in the area of De Groote Peel situated in Limburg.
In 1888 Jozef and Eduard bought the small peat moss factory of Rijk Key & Co in Nieuw-Amsterdam and relocated a floating factory from De Peel to Drenthe. However, Jozef van de Griendt’s plans required so much capital that the board decided to allow the company to be acquired by the Griendtsveen Moss Litter Company Ltd, which was cofinanced by British entrepreneurs.
In 1917 the Griendtsveen Moss Litter Company Ltd was acquired by the Griendtsveen Turfstrooisel Maatschappij and, later, in 1931 it was renamed the Griendtsveen Turfstrooisel Maatschappij N.V.
With the arrival of the new board in 1998 Griendtsveen ceased to be a family firm. In 1999 Griendtsveen spun off its operational peat activities and merged with other players in the sector to form the Tref company. Today, Tref is a leading player in the organic substrates sector supplying commercial glasshouses in Europe. Griendtsveen sold its participation in this merger in 2008.
Since 2000 Griendtsveen has been developing entirely new activities on the land it owns. The company’s peat-cutting activities in Germany are ongoing.
