Simon van den Bergh

Simon van den Bergh ( born October 26, 1819 in Geffen, † April 6, 1907 in Rotterdam ) was a Dutch producer.

Van den Bergh is from the Netherlands Oss. Even as a youth he entered the grocery store of his father.

Work

In the second half of the 19th century wrote of the French Emperor Napoleon III. a contest of, with a spreadable mass was sought that be similar to butter, but stay fresh longer and should be cheaper to produce. Ulterior motives of the French ruler it was going to use the new invention as catering his troops in the field. Three years - from 1866-1868 - worked the chemist Hippolyte Mège - Mouriès with high pressure at an art butter, then beat the birth of margarine.

Simon van den Bergh recognized the economic importance of margarine and tried to obtain the composition of the Art butter by the inventor. When he reached it, he began in his founded in Oss, the Netherlands in 1872 company with the margarine production. Of Oss from the new art butter was delivered in the Lower Rhine area in Germany.

Out of respect for the local ( German ) economy, the Bismarck government took the importation of margarine van den Bergh a tariff protection: imported per ton of margarine had to be paid a sum of 200 marks. To escape these protective tariffs, Simon van den Bergh decided its margarine production on German territory to lay.

The former spa town of Bad Cleve (now Kleve ) rejected a settlement of margarine production in their field. Therefore, van den Bergh acquired in the autumn of 1887 a 6,750 m² plot of land of the former town Kellen close to the train station Klever (now van -den- Bergh Street). The authorization to construct a margarine factory was issued May 3, 1888, already on August 20, 1888 began with 14 workers margarine production in Kellen.

1904 Sanella brand was introduced as almond milk plant butter - margarine. In the summer of 1929 ( after the death of Simon van den Bergh ), the margarine works Jurgens & Prince joined in Goch and Van den Bergh in Kleve on the German Union Lebensmittelwerke together. That same year, followed by a more extensive fusion with the English soap manufacturer Lever. With the establishment of Unilever, the third and decisive step was taken.