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Friday March 29, 2024

Notable Dutch firms, brands and infrastructure facilities 

By Sabir Shah
February 10, 2016

An overview of the economic prowess of Queen Maxima’s country

LAHORE: The Netherlands, world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products after the United States, may be a small country with a population of only 16.97 million people, but it is associated with numerous globally-acclaimed companies and brands.

Having proclaimed independence from Spain in July 1581, it was just the third country in the world to have an elected parliament in 1848.

Having a nominal Gross Domestic Product of $750.782 billion and the world's 13th highest per capita income of $44,333 in 2015, the Netherlands was ranked by the United Nations Happiness Report as the seventh happiest country on Earth in 2013.

Having followed Portugal and Spain in establishing an overseas colonial empire, aided by their skills in shipping and trade, the Netherlands is today famous on the planet for its fabulous infrastructure facilities, companies and brands.

Here follows a list of notable firms, infrastructure facilities and brands based in the Netherlands: The port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe – as large as the next three largest combined. It was the world's largest port between 1962 and 2004.

Fokker was a Dutch aircraft manufacturer, named after its founder Anthony Fokker.  The company had operated under several different names, starting out in 1912 in Germany moving to the Netherlands in 1919.

During its most successful period in the 1920s and 1930s, it had dominated the global civil aviation market. Fokker had filed bankruptcy in 1996, and its operations were sold to competitors.

The KLM or the Royal Dutch Airlines is the national flag-carrier of the Netherlands. KLM was founded in 1919 and is hence the oldest airline in the world.

Having over 32,685 employees on its pay-roll register, KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to approximately 138 global destinations.  Its fleet size consists of 115 planes. Its 2014 revenue was 9.643 billion Euros.

Messrs Heineken International was founded in 1864. 

As of 2015, Heineken owned over 165 breweries in more than 70 countries and employed approximately 76,000 people. Besides the Heineken Lager Beer, it brews and sells more than 250 other international premium, regional, local and specialty beers. Its 2014 profit was 1.758 billion Euros.

Another renowned Dutch company, Philips, was established in 1891 by Gerard Philips and his father Frederick Philips. 

It is one of the largest electronics companies in the world and employs around 105,365 people across more than 60 countries. It had started out as a humble light bulb factory that added an increasing number of electrical products to its extensive range over the years. 

As of 2012 Philips was the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world measured by applicable revenues.

Early in 2013, Philips had announced that it had sold its Lifestyle Entertainment Group, consisting of an Audio, Video and Multimedia Accessories arm, to a Japanese company, Messrs Funai Electric Co.

However, in October 2013, the deal with Funai Electric Co was broken off and the consumer electronics operations continue to remain under Philips. The company said it would seek damages for breach of contract in the $200-million sale.

Its 2014 profit was €415 million. 

Messrs Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational and consumer goods company co-headquartered in Rotterdam and London. Established in 1930, it is the world's third-largest consumer goods company measured by 2012 revenue, after Procter & Gamble and Nestle.

Unilever owns over 400 brands, but focuses on 14 brands with sales of over 1 billion Euros.

With 172,000 employees on its pay-roll, its 2015 profit was 5.3 billion Euros.

The Amsterdam-based ABN AMRO Bank is a product of a long history of mergers and acquisitions that date back to 1765. 

By 2007, it was the world’s 15th biggest bank and had operation in 63 countries, with over 110,000 employees.

In October 2007, a consortium of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Fortis and Banco Santander, known as RFS Holdings B.V., had acquired the bank, in what was the world's biggest bank takeover to date.

Consequently, the bank was divided into three parts, each owned by one of the members of the consortium. 

However, RBS and Fortis soon ran into serious trouble: the large debt created to fund the takeover had depleted the banks' reserves due to the 2007-2010 financial crises.

With 22,215 employees in 2014, around 80 per cent shares of the ABN AMRO Bank were owned by the Dutch government till 2014.

Its 2011 profit was 689 million Euros, while its assets were valued at 404.68 billion Euros. Its total equity had rested at 11.420 billion Euros in 2011.

The Royal Dutch Shell plc, known as Shell, is headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom.

Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the fourth largest company in the world as of 2014 in terms of revenues.

Shell is also one of the world's most profitable firms.

It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and had a Market Capitalisation of £129.8 billion at the close of trading on April 13, 2015, the largest of any company listed on this bourse.

Founded in February 1907, Shell's 2015 revenue was $264.96 billion, its profit was $1.939 billion and its total equity was $111.35 billion.

It has over 94,000 employees.

Last but not least, the Internationally-famous tax, audit and advisory firm Messrs KPMG employs 173,965 people.

Seated in Amsterdam, the name "KPMG" was chosen when KMG (Klynveld Main Goerdeler) had merged with Peat Marwick.

KPMG's member firms in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein merged to form KPMG Europe LLP in October 2007. 

These member firms were followed by Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Norway and Saudi Arabia etc.

In 2008, KPMG in the UK was named the best big company to work for by "The Times." This was the fourth consecutive year that KPMG made the top three firms.