History

Crown Van Gelder can look back on a rich past. In 1896 Pieter Smidt van Gelder set up a mill for newsprint in Velsen, on the then recently excavated North Sea Canal. And that’s exactly where you will find us today. We owe the name Crown to the collaboration we started in 1963 with the American Crown Zellerbach Corporation in the field of tabulating card paper.

A lively hundred years
In the first eighty years of its existence the Veslen paper mill experienced a long period of growth, followed by a bankruptcy of the parent company and a successful restart and now another twenty years of healthy continuity. Although much has changed in over a hundred years, many things have remained the same too. Not only our view of the North Sea Canal, for instance, but also our sense of ambition and our responsible, careful attitude towards the markets in which we operate. Today CVG is a vital and environmentally aware paper company that, in this 21st century, will continue to contribute to the prosperity and employment needed to keep the IJmond region healthy.

Here is a brief overview of our hundred years and more of history.

Over one hundred years of history in a nutshell

Ups and downs
The first eighty years of our history went well, with the exception of the war years. But when the economy took a downturn at the end of the 1970s the tide began to turn for us too. Ultimately the parent company Van Gelder Paper went bankrupt in December 1981. This resulted in 540 redundancies in Velsen and the production of newsprint was shifted to the former sister company in Renkum, now Norske Skog.

Restart
However, the company was essentially sound and several private investors were prepared to invest capital in a restart. A tense and exciting period followed, but their investments and the major commitment of the staff, the regional government and the Municipality of Velsen all paid off: on 13 January 1983 Crown Van Gelder Papierfabrieken was able to start out as an independent company with 260 employees and one paper machine (PM 2), while the other paper machine was put into storage.

Going public
In 1985 Crown Van Gelder was floated on the Amsterdam stock exchange. The introduction was a success, with the share price ending well above the indicative quote. Since then CVG has concluded all financial years positively, apart from a small loss in the year 2000 and 2008, with a high dividend yield and an attractive P/E ratio.

New growth
In 1987 the moth balled paper machine (PM 1) was brought back into service. Moreover, another 80 employees (some of them former staff) were taken on. The capacity rose by 60,000 tons to 140,000 tons, bringing an increase in per capita labour productivity from 300 tons to 400 tons per year. Currently (2009) the capacity is around 220,000 tons and the labour productivity is almost 790 tons per employee. Both paper machines are fully up to date in technological terms and thus ready for a further increase in the production capacity.

Our current name
In 2003 the company was given a new, transparent corporate structure, involving the abolition of the holding construction and the creation of a single company known as Crown Van Gelder N.V.