Dirk van den Broek (; 27 March 1924 – 8 April 2020) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

businessman. He was the founder of Cooperating Dirk van den Broek Companies. In 2014 some of his stores were renamed

Dirk A dirk is a long-bladed thrusting dagger.Chisholm, Hugh (ed.); "Dagger", ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 11th ed., Vol. VII, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press (1910), p. 729. Historically, it gained its name from the Highland dirk (Scott ...

Early life

Van den Broek was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in 1924. At the age of 15, he started selling milk throughout the city.

Career

In 1942, Van den Broek opened his first business, a small

dairy store A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese, and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building, or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also des ...

in his home neighbourhood. By 1953, he had expanded his small dairy business into a supermarket, which was the first of its kind in Amsterdam. He kept his business growing by adopting an acquisition strategy, taking over local

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop or grocer's shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday US usage, however, "grocery store" is a synon ...

s. Later he started D-reizen, a popular travel agency. This company is one of the oldest family-owned businesses in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. He owned over 120 stores in cities across the country. Van den Broek was knighted as Officer in the

Order of Orange Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...

in 1990 by Queen

Beatrix of the Netherlands Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as List of monarchs of the Netherlands, Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix was born ...

Personal life

He was married and was a father to his five children. His children have been actively involved in the family business. Dirk van den Broek died in

Aerdenhout Aerdenhout () is a village in the municipality of Bloemendaal, Netherlands. Located in the dunes between Haarlem and the beach town of Zandvoort, it ranks as the wealthiest town in the Netherlands. The name "" means , Dutch for "the other wood", a ...

at the age of 96.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broek, Dirk van den 1924 births 2020 deaths Businesspeople from Amsterdam