With the arrival of Frans van Winden on 1 October last year, the Van Dijk Heating B.V. management team has grown from two to three people. The growth in our product portfolio and in the number of projects we are handling meant it was time to bring another person on board. As Chief Operating Officer, Frans is responsible for the internal organization and customer communication.
Frans van Winden grew up in Berkel en Rodenrijs, where he took over his parents’ cucumber nursery. After selling the business, he followed his passion for agricultural technology. Before joining VDH, he ran a company supplying big bale systems for potting compost and was sales manager at Heto Agrotechniek.
“I love technology, greenhouse horticulture and pushing boundaries,” he says. Last year, Frans was ready for a new challenge. Coincidentally or otherwise, around that time we invited him to come and talk to us. During the first conversation it soon became clear that he was on the same wavelength as Hans Harting and Joek van der Zeeuw. They didn’t take long to make up their minds, and Frans was appointed as the third member of the management team shortly thereafter.
“In the five months I have been with VDH, I have realized that they make fantastic products and are extremely customer and service oriented,” Van Winden adds. “They also think and act constructively, so very little goes wrong. Both the people and the business culture are an excellent fit for me. What I also really appreciate is the fact that we liaise closely with customers on ongoing projects. Their feedback helps me to cross the t’s and dot the i’s internally. After all, no matter how well things are going, there is always room for improvement. I expect to get a lot of satisfaction out of my job here for a very long time.”