History: the Nijhuis Group roots

The Nijhuis Group, with Herman and Carolien Nijhuis as owners and Carolien as Managing Director, is formed by the Ter Hart BV and Nijhuis MiTech BV teams. The Nijhuis Group’s history goes way back.

Entrepreneurship from an early age

Herman and Carolien’s roots have a rich history in entrepreneurship. G.J. Nijhuis, Herman’s grandfather, started Machinefabriek en IJzergieterij G.J. Nijhuis as early as 1904. From this company, the companies Nijhuis Pumps, Nijhuis Water and Nijhuis Slaughter Technology emerged. All had worldwide sales of products.

After first working in the family business Nijhuis Pompen, Herman became an independent entrepreneur in the manufacturing industry in 1984. Several companies in the food and semi-finished products industry passed by. In 1997, Nijhuis MiTech was founded. Over the years, this company has made a turnaround from environmental technology and recycling to trading in pig dehumidification components.

Become the best in a niche for existence

A good raison d’être for a company is to want to become the best in a niche. Therefore, Herman wanted to manufacture the pig dehairing products himself. He decided to make these parts with an improved design, based on years of Nijhuis slaughter technology knowledge. This was a good choice, as these products are now among the best in the world. In 2008, Carolien returned to Winterswijk, also to work on her father’s mission – to make the best crab block in the world.

Nijhuis MiTech and Ter Hart prove a fruitful match

Due to Nijhuis MiTech’s growth, a larger site was sought in 2017. As of January 2018, Ter Hart BV, which has a working area of over 2,000 m2, was acquired for this purpose. This enriches the history of the Nijhuis Group.

Ter Hart also has a very rich history dating back to the 1845 blacksmith shop. This means we celebrated the 175th anniversary in 2020! The collaborative DNA turns out to be a good match not only in the present. Also in the past, the ancestors of the Meerdink family, the former owner of Ter Hart, cooperated with those of Nijhuis. Together they took care of rebuilding trains after the Second World War. Ter Hart also contributed to the strong growth of Nijhuis Slaughter Technology in the 1970s and 1980s. In those years, Ter Hart produced almost all stainless steel parts for the slaughter lines.

Quality products and relationships create sustainable businesses

Years of experience in metalworking have taught us above all that everything is ultimately about delivering quality and having excellent relationships with suppliers, customers, colleagues and other stakeholders. That also means doing your very best every day to deliver good work together with your team. There’s no shortcut.

The nice thing is that today we still work together with ‘our family businesses’, which now operate under the flags Nijhuis Pumps Pentair, Nijhuis Industries and Marel. Now that is a great example of sustainable working relationships!

We said goodbye to Herman Nijhuis in 2022

Successes and goodbyes should be celebrated.That is why we toasted the fine entrepreneurial achievement together with the entire team in 2022. Herman is going to enjoy his well-earned retirement. He is more than welcome to do so. With the rest of the team, we will continue: on to the next 25 years full of new adventures.