Power
Keurslager HP Van Linschoten: "We want to conquer the Netherlands"
Family businesses are the cornerstone of the economy. They pass down development from past to present, from parent to child, and look far ahead as long-term companies. In this series, MASTERS portrays family businesses with a story. This time Keurslager HP Van Linschoten in Rotterdam, founded in 1908 and currently led by the fourth generation in the person of David van Linschoten (Capelle aan de IJssel, 1990). With his brother Hubert (Rotterdam, 1986), who oversees all aspects of the butcher's shop as a graphic designer, he also founded a company that markets high-end gin. "We want to make the Van Linschoten name bigger than just the butchery."
INTRODUCTIONFamily businesses are the cornerstone of the economy. They show the development from the past from parent to child and look far ahead, as long-term companies. In this series, MASTERS portrays family businesses with a story. This time Keurslager HP van Linschoten in Rotterdam, which was founded in 1908 and is currently led by the fourth generation in the person of David van Linschoten (Capelle aan de IJssel, 1990). With his brother Hubert (Rotterdam, 1986), who is responsible for all aspects of the butcher's shop as a graphic designer, he also founded a company that markets high-end gin. “We want to make the Van Linschoten name bigger than just the butchery.”
What are your first memories of the butcher shop that your great-grandparents started more than a century ago?
David: “People who have been customers here for thirty or forty years have seen me as a baby in a box in the butcher's shop. When I was a toddler, I would occasionally spend an hour coloring in the shop. At that time, there were mainly women behind the counter. They were always very nice to us, they enjoyed spoiling those little guys - we got one slice of sausage after another, haha. It was always a party when we were here.”
Hubert: “The butcher's shop contained shelves with all kinds of herbs and items, more than just meat products. When someone asked my grandfather if he had any sprinkles, it was on the shelves the next day. He was really a trader. When customers paid, a coin would sometimes roll under a shelving unit. We would lie on the floor and try to get it with our little hands. The store was in the same location as it is now, but it doubled in size in 2016. It was really a very narrow store. At that time, suppliers, wearing a white coat and hood, with half a cow on their back, still had to squeeze through the customers to the back.”
David: “Not normal, those guys were carrying a hundred to a hundred and fifty kilos. Nowadays we also buy whole cows and calves, but they have already been boned. There are still butchers who do this themselves, but I believe that deboning does not add quality to the meat. The processing here is very traditional. We make fifty types of meats, different hamburgers and meatballs, sixty types of meals... And of course everything is fresh every day.”
To what extent were you involved in the butchery from an early age?
David: “From the age of seven we were sometimes given chores to do, such as cleaning the plastic price tags with a bucket of soapy water and a brush. Then I was rewarded with a quarter afterwards.”
Have you never felt pressure from your family to join the business?
Hubert: "No. That was different for my father: my grandfather appointed him as his successor at an early age – 'you will take over the business from me later' – and also obliged his daughters to often help out in the business. Our parents left us free to make that choice. When I was about fourteen or fifteen, I started helping out here on Saturdays. And I still help out in the store every now and then. But around the age of twenty I decided that I was not going to take over the butcher's shop. I saw my father leave every morning at seven o'clock and not return home until seven in the evening - he was always in that shop. That was not the future I envisioned. I attended the Grafisch Lyceum and felt much more attracted to the creative and commercial aspects. For example, I sold T-shirts and other things with homemade prints. I currently run an advertising agency, but I remain closely involved with the butcher shop. Not least because I make all the expressions, logos, promotional materials and clothing for Van Linschoten.”
Did you know right away that you would succeed your father, David?
David: "No definitely not. When I was at school, I sometimes helped on Saturdays and during the holidays, but I also worked in the port. After school, I took an entrepreneurial course at IVA Driebergen, because I wanted to start a business. I took my first steps in real estate and the financial world. But that was just around the time that the credit crisis broke out, in 2009. Are you stuck with your real estate... A contractor said: 'Why don't you join your father's business? Wonderful company!' As a child I never realized what potential the butcher shop had, perhaps because I was too close to it. That evening I told my parents: 'I'm going to take over the business.' Very spontaneous. No, no champagne was opened, my father kept it to 'fine'. Butchers are a down-to-earth people, aren't they.”
On October 1, 2018, on the 110th anniversary of the butcher's shop, you purchased the first shares and became co-owner.
David: “On that day we were a little less sober, haha: what a party that was! Together with the Schiedam distillery Onder de Boompjes, one of Hubert's customers, we decided to make our own gin as a memory of that festive day. The distiller suggested adding an ingredient from our company so that it became a real butcher's gin. That became Rotterdam Steak Herbs, which we launched in 2010: a mix of dried vegetables such as garlic, oregano, coriander and dried pepper 'that brings out the best in a piece of meat'.”
Hubert: “The nice thing was: the grandfather of the master distiller had also been a butcher. His clothes always smelled of some sort of dry beef smell. "Exactly the same smell came from the boiler," said the stoker enthusiastically. 'I was suddenly sitting on my grandfather's lap again!' That man really threw himself into our gin and turned it into a perfect product. Not too much spice, because then it becomes a liqueur. It remains a real gin, but with a touch of Van Linschoten. Our first idea was: we buy fifty liters, divide it into sixty bottles and put our own label on them. We pour it out at the party and what remains we give to our loyal customers.”
About 50.000 bottles have now been sold... How did it explode like that?
Hubert: “People were excited and there was still some distillate left. So we filled another sixty bottles. In honor of the 110th anniversary, we had started a savings campaign, where you could also save for the gin. So those bottles were gone quickly. And some catering establishments also showed interest. We asked the distiller if we could order some more gin. But dozens of bottles each time, that was not logistically convenient, he thought. If we wanted more, we had to buy larger.”
David: “He suggested that we buy a thousand bottles this time. I joked to Hubert: 'We have enough birthday presents for the next forty years.' We had that number made. We then took our gin to the Horecava and set up a company specifically for this product in March. We went to festivals with the gin and also performed at MASTERS EXPO with it. We had developed a limited edition box especially for that occasion: 250 copies that together formed a wall that was painted as one large work of art by the Rotterdam artist collective AAAFresh123. Each box was a unique piece of that great work of art, containing a bottle of our gin with a handmade brass label, two gin glasses, garnish and other accessories. The gin was a hit everywhere, sales were going well.”
What is that success based on?
David: “It really is a top product. Completely made in the authentic way, in copper stills, the correct way of distilling and only the heart of the distillate is used, the middle 50 percent. Our distiller is truly a craftsman: he smells whether the alcohol is pure and feels the temperature of the kettle. If you produce millions of liters per year, that is of course not possible. You can taste that small-scale, that craftsmanship in our gin. You won't find it better. We quickly decided to include a container with twenty ready-to-use dried orange slices with each bottle. This saves time in the catering industry, because they do not have to cut themselves when preparing a gin and tonic. And it is a special garnish: the slices are manually cut into slices of three millimeters thick and then dried in drying cabinets for twenty hours. Finally, they return to the butcher's shop where they are briefly smoked in a clean smoking cabinet.”
MASTERS MAGAZINE #54
The entire interview with David and Hubert? The summer edition is a fresh cocktail of entrepreneurship and sport. In this edition, several entrepreneurs from the Champions League of business are reviewed. Including Freddy Heineken and hospitality tycoon Richard Caring, whose expanding empire has been called the 'restaurant equivalent of LVMH'. Doing business is top sport, but top sport is also doing business. Take Formula 1: the sport is increasingly developing into an octopus with arms that touch all aspects of our society. Jaap de Groot investigated how millions are converted into billions. Also interviews with gymnast Sanne Wevers, two-star chef Guido Braeken, hotelier Robert-Jan Woltering, designer Maarten Baas and Rico, together with his Naomy. The 'King of Kickboxing' also turns out to be an octopus (with very strong arms): as an entrepreneur he is active in various industries. “When I look back later, I don't want to think 'I wish I had this or that'. I just want to, boom, accelerate, do fun things, enjoy.” Boom, the new MASTERS: enjoy!
