De 1e generatie: De smederij in Arcen
Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering was founded in 1911 by Handerie Kusters. When he started his blacksmith’s shop in Arcen, it was run in a traditional, artisanal way with no structured policy in place.
No, he was simply “the boss,” working hard to support his family while constantly searching for new products and new markets. Nevertheless, this marked the beginning of a successful family business. Throughout the more than one hundred years that Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering has existed, entrepreneurship and innovation have always been at the heart of the company.
The 2nd generation: Veegtes in Venlo
When Harrie Kusters took over his father’s company on January 1, 1950, it immediately became clear that he belonged to a different generation: dynamic, ambitious, and progressive. He soon moved the business from the city center to Veegtes, Venlo’s first industrial area. Like his father, Harrie was an old-fashioned craftsman, but he no longer saw himself merely as the boss—he was also the entrepreneur of the company. He too was constantly searching for new products and new markets. Fingerspitzengefühl was his most important guiding principle.
The 3rd generation:
When the third generation took over the company in 1979, it had already become a structured organization with clear departments, responsibilities, and authorities. Soon, plans and strategies were developed to further expand the company. The third generation also focused on innovation. “The boss and entrepreneur” was replaced by “the manager and the CEO.” Entrepreneurship has always been at the core of Kusters throughout its hundred-year history; it’s in your blood and instilled from an early age.
The 4th generation:
Today, you can no longer run a company successfully without having completed a good management education, nor can you develop new products without having defined an innovation strategy. In the past, this was simply called entrepreneurship, and the art of reaching a hundred years lies in finding the right balance between entrepreneurship and management. Entrepreneurship runs in our family’s blood—it’s something we were raised with. We have experienced many successes but also many setbacks. The fourth generation faces the challenge of learning from the past while maintaining the perseverance and ambition to make new dreams come true.
Read our full story in our book “A Hundred Years of Balance.”
“A project can only be successfull if at the end both parties are and remain completely satisfied.”
— George kusters, president of kusters engineering