About Eijkelkamp
From a local forge to Royal Eijkelkamp
The story behind Royal Eijkelkamp is not a standard one. A small local forge starting at the beginning of the last century and grows into a group of companies that develop and supply equipment for research of the earth. You can call it unique.
More than 100 years of Eijkelkamp can not be summarized on one simple page. That is why we wrote this Company Story. You will find, short and to the point, a large number of events and things worth knowing that made the company what it is today: Royal Eijkelkamp!
• In 1911 Hendrik Eijkelkamp started a forge in Lathum, a small village nearby Arnhem.
• There was just enough space in the trunk of a Volkswagen Beatle to transport the hand auger of 1.2m that Jan Eijkelkamp (son of Hendrik) developed.
• Fons Eijkelkamp (son of Jan and grandson of Hendrik) was just a little boy and already involved in the company. He put the postal stamps on the first product catalogues (available in four languages).
• In 1970 Fons officially started working in the company on the condition that it switched completely to own products.
• The company focuses on all kinds of research equipment related to the sources of life: soil- and water.
• Company philosophy: be a blacksmith of your own luck!
• Around 1974 Albert Knol started as the company’s first sales employee.
• Around 1978 the first outlines of a distributors network became visible. In 2011 Eijkelkamp has 62 distributors, worldwide.
• Around 1984 the first catalogue with a range of specific trade products sees the light. The company’s device: One supplier for the field worker who will hear tomorrow he has to go far away the day after tomorrow.
• In 1995 the company already uses email which was stimulated by our good relations with universities worldwide.
• Around 1995 the company is one of the two companies that are selected by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to develop sampling equipment for the transport and use of fertilizers where users cannot commit fraud with.
• Since then already 550 complete systems have been delivered for the transport sector, behind a tractor as well as big fertilizer trucks.
• In 1996 the company’s first website was launched.
• In 1996 Eijkelkamp received the ISO-9001 certificate for the first time and has always managed to keep it since then.
• Since 1996 supplier of smart field sensors that can measure, save and forward several parameters in (ground) water.
• In 1996 started developing a new innovative way of mechanical drilling: Sonic Drilling.
• 1998 Foundation of Eijkelkamp Academy. In the meantime our ETC-trainers travel round the world for consultany, training and capacity building.
• At the end of 2005 Eijkelkamp SonicSampDrill was founded for the purpose of supplying a high-quality and quick sampling technique.
• March 2011 Centenary jubilee: ‘100 Years of Eijkelkamp, 100 years of quality’.
• March 2011 a complete renewed website goes online.
• The Eijkelkamp Foundation sees first light. 100 years of specialized knowledge and entrepreneurship obtained flows back at the community
• May 2011: Eijkelkamp is allowed to use the designation ‘Royal’ in its name. A crowning of all our work! From now on it is Royal Eijkelkamp.
• Social media have found their way into the society. Royal Eijkelkamp is active on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Summer 2012. Eijkelkamp Soil & Water won various projects, including 571 groundwater measurement points for Platform Water Vallei en Eem.
• Summer 2012. Eijkelkamp SonicSampDrill won the TNO SBIR 2012 and received a significant sum to develop a completely new approach to calculating copper quantities in ore, together with TNO, TU Delft and IHC Merwede, to enable more efficient and effective ore processing.
• The MAREC concept, brainchild of Fons Eijkelkamp, saw the light of day. Together with partners Witteveen+Bos and IHC Merwede, Royal Eijkelkamp is providing all the knowledge and skills required for responsible mining practices.
• August 2013: Following many years of negotiations and after devising innovative solutions, SonicSampDrill won a contract worth millions to develop an 18.5 metre long “train” on tracks to conduct a sampling programme for gold at up to -55 degrees C in the Russian Far East.
• 2014: Eijkelkamp Foundation starts it's own project The Water Entrepreneur in Benin.
• In 2015 the first Royal Eijkelkamp facility is established abroad. Eijkelkamp North America represents Royal Eijkelkamp in the United States and Canada.
• Royal Eijkelkamp is represented by partners in more than 90 countries.
• 2016: We are incredibly proud that Grundfos has found the ideal partner in Eijkelkamp Soil & Water to exclusively sell the Grundfos MP 1 submersible pump worldwide.
• In 2017 Royal Eijkelkamp has 125 employees worldwide.
• Fons Eijkelkamp hands over General Management to Huug Eijkelkamp.
• 2018: Royal Eijkelkamp has won a five-year multi-million euro project in Sri Lanka. Under instructions of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources Management, Royal Eijkelkamp starts with the realisation of a groundwater monitoring network.
• The start of the NL-Food Security Alliance, a Royal Eijkelkamp initiative.