Cees Boer, Managing Director, Van Beest

Van Beest recently announces that after one and a half year of intensive construction and renovation their renewed and expanded housing is ready for use.

This investment allows Van Beest to further strengthen the pillars on which the company is built:

reliability, quality and customer oriented.

The solid growth of the international position and future plans of Van Beest, which currently has subsidiaries in four countries, gave cause to adapt the housing of the headquarters and production facility in Sliedrecht, The Netherlands.

The company realized this by:

  • Expanding the production hall with 2500m2 to a total of 7400 m2
  • Expanding the warehouse with 2500m2 to a total of 8600m2, containing over 11,000 pallets of Green Pin®, Excel® and trade products
  • Renovating and expanding the office by adding a complete floor of 500m2

Expanded head office

A leading manufacturer and supplier, with a long history

Van Beest manufactures high quality lifting products such as shackles and hooks, under the registered trade names GREEN PIN® and EXCEL®. The company currently has branches in the Netherlands, Germany, France and USA, and stock holding distributors in more than 80 countries worldwide.

In 2007 Van Beest acquired the brand EXCEL®. Under this brand grade 8 and grade 10 lifting hooks are produced in the company’s French factory. The EXCEL® range of chain accessories is very complete. Everything required to make a chain assembly is in the program. From the master link to the hook, whether this should be an eye-, swivel-, or clevis hook. And not only in grade 8, but almost every product can also be supplied in grade 10 or stainless steel.

For over 90 years the production of high tensile shackles has been Van Beest’s core business and competence. Dirk van Beest founded the Van Beest Company in 1922, initially as a supplier of iron works to the dredging industry, which was strongly developed in the Sliedrecht area.

From the very beginning, the company has been forging shackles. Its ironwork expertise gave the Van Beest shackle an edge over the competition and this was the start of a network of professional users that now stretches across the world.

Excel®-logo_meitu_1-800x220Brands: Green Pin® and EXCEL®

In the 1970’s, the trade name Green Pin® was launched to emphasize product quality, recognition and demand worldwide. The Green Pin® shackles are manufactured in Van Beest’s production unit in Sliedrecht, The Netherlands. It is a genuine “Made in Holland” product.

Currently, not only shackles are sold under the name Green Pin®, but also other items, such as sockets, turnbuckles, wire rope clips, loadbinders, etc. In 2007 Van Beest acquired the brand EXCEL®. Under this brand grade 8 and grade 10 lifting hooks are produced in the French factory. The EXCEL® range of chain accessories is very complete. Everything needed to make a chain assembly is in the program. From the master link to the hook, whether this should be an eye-, swivel-, or clevis hook. And not only in grade 8, but almost every product can also be supplied in grade 10 or stainless steel.

Warehouse in the Netherlands

Both Green Pin® and EXCEL® products are inspected and stored at Van Beest’s main warehouse in Sliedrecht, 30 km from Rotterdam, where the company can offer their wide range of products from stock. Rotterdam is the main seaport to Europe inbound and has sailing connections to all the major business centres across the world outbound.

Storage efficiency is optimized by the latest computer software, enabling the maximum use of the storage facilities. A customer order can be shipped from Van Beest’s warehouse within 4 hours from placing the order.

Expanded warehouse

Warehouse in the USA

The Van Beest warehouse in Houston, Texas holds a large stock of Green Pin® and EXCEL® products.

Because of the fast growing sales of the Green Pin® and EXCEL® items in the United States, Canada and Central America, Van Beest USA needs more storage space to meet the increasing demands from these markets. Therefore Van Beest USA moved to a new premise near Houston International Seaport in 2011. This new location offers many advantages:

  • 15.000 square feet, or 1.400 m2, which is double the size of the previous warehouse
  • Biggest stock of quality lifting equipment in the area
  • Logistic tools like barcode readers and board computers on the forklift trucks for quick and efficient packing and a minimum risk on mistakes
  • Modern office space with fully equipped and comfortable meeting rooms
  • Live computer connection to the company’s other branches worldwide provides accurate information about availability, order status etc
  • Easy to reach by truck to collect customer’s shipment

Worldwide distributor network

Additionally, distributors throughout the world maintain stocks of Green Pin® and EXCEL® products in order to serve their own target markets best. In over 80 countries worldwide Van Beest’s products are available from stock at the various distributors.

This article is published on LRW Magazine vol16, 2014.