Douwe Egberts - Chronology

Chronology

• 1753 - Egbert Douwes starts a grocery shop in Joure, called De Witte Os ("the White Ox").
• 1780 - The company is transferred to his eldest son Douwe Egberts. Its main activities are processing and trading coffee, tea, and tobacco.
• 1948 - DE starts sales in Belgium. France, Spain, and Denmark follow.
• 1968 - A holding company, Douwe Egberts Koninklijke ("Royal Douwe Egberts"), is founded.
• 1969 - DE takes over Kanis & Gunnink, another Dutch coffee manufacturer.
• 1978 - DE is in its turn taken over by Consolidated Foods Corporation.
• 1985 - Consolidated Foods becomes Sara Lee Corporation as a result of acquisitions that year.
• 1989 - DE takes over Van Nelle, its main Dutch competitor in coffee, tea, and tobacco.
• 1998 - The hand-rolling tobacco business (Drum, Van Nelle, Amphora and Winner) is sold to Imperial Tobacco.
• 2001 - The company collaborates with Philips to produce a coffee maker called Senseo.
• 2007 - Sued the province of Groningen over the introduction of rules stating that all coffee supplied in the province must meet Fair trade criteria set by Stichting Max Havelaar. Courts ruled in favour of the province of Groningen.
• 2012 - Douwe Egberts becomes an independent Dutch company again, trading under the name D.E. Master Blenders 1753 NV