About Zeelandia

History.

In 1900 Herman Johan Doeleman (1884-1948) laid the foundation for the company with the product "rusk jelly" , a tool for baking airy, brittle rusk. The recipe was bought for a small amount from a baker in Maassluis. HJD, the youngest son of a Zierikzee baker , started manufacturing in his mother's kitchen . He was a passionate merchant , who from the very beginning paid attention to the needs of the bakery. The sales and advertising methods he used were revolutionary for the time. He immediately started writing letters to all bakers known to himto promote his wares and in 1925 he started publishing his own magazine for the bakery called "De Klok" , an edition which today still appears twice a year under the same name. The range was soon expanded with products for bread improvement and in the thirties the first 'modern' bread improver appeared on the market: Zea, a fat emulsion based on new techniques. In 1935 Carlo followed , a water in oil emulsion , developed for greasing baking trays and moulds. Carlo still forms the backbone of the release agent product group to this day and is exported to more than 50 countries. During the Second World War and during the flood disaster of 1953 serious setbacks in development. Yet soon after the flood disaster (1965) the first building on the industrial estate in the Zuidhoek was taken into use. Zeelandia now uses a site of approximately 8 hectares with a built-up area of ​​approximately 35,000 square meters. Exports were also taken up with the first appointment of an importer in Belgium in 1923 . Immediately after the war, export activities to several other European countries followed. In the 1970s, exports were much more planned, resulting in rapid growth abroad.