
History
Chicory company “Nature’s Gold” is located at the Meirseweg in Zundert, in the Netherlands. The company was started by Peter and Anne-Marie van Dongen in 1996, in hydroponic forcing rooms.
After about 8 years of partnership in the company, son Gijs took over the company in 2007.
From 2011 daughter Sophie works part time for the company, to manage the financial and administrative part of the company. Her experience as a financial consultant in the greenhouse sector from 2005 comes in handy.
Father still works for the company, in this way his many years of experience are maintained for the company and transferred to the next generation.
Since 1986 the company has grown from 12 hectares of chicory roots to 220 hectares. In multiple phases are as well the growing rooms renovated and expanded as well as the storage capacity for the roots. Also big steps are made in the field of automation, amongst others in 2004. With the automated internal transport system, forklift truck movements in the working are kept to a minimum.

A rich history
1986:
Start chicory farm in Zundert
2004:
Internal transportation system in Zundert
2007:
Son Gijs van Dongen takes over the company
2017:
Expansion cultivation capacity in Zundert with 33%
2018:
New cold store in Zundert
2018:
Start on the second location in Langeweg
2019:
Installation of over 1,000 solar panals in Zundert
2020:
Washing machine for growing containers and planting installation in Langeweg
The last expansion on the location in Zundert dates from spring 2017. Then the growing rooms were expanded with 33%. Important advantage in this expansion is the improved possibilities for climate control, because now there is a separate growing room for every harvest day. There is also an extra growing room, that is used as a spare room and can be used for extra customer demand. In 2018 in Zundert a new cold store was built for the storage of chicory roots.
Besides this Nature’s Gold took over a second production location in Langeweg in September 2018. This location is mainly used for growing smaller chicory for a wide range of small packages. With the take over of this company, the location in Zundert is able to further optimize the production. The smallest chicory roots are used on the location in Langeweg, so they are not used in Zundert anymore. This makes the spread of root sizes in Zundert smaller and more uniform.