Vetus breaks ground on new headquarters

Vetus has placed the first post of its new 9,500 sqm warehouse facility and headquarters in the Dutch city of Schiedam, where the company’s founder Willem den Ouden started the business from his home nearly 60 years ago.

Vetus, which designs complete marine product systems, says the new headquarters are scheduled for completion at the end of 2024 and will offer better facilities to showcase products and conduct in-water tests with dedicated mooring spaces for Vetus demo boats. The new facility has been designed to increase warehouse space to double the current capacity.

Roy de Vette, grandson of Vetus founder Willem den Ouden and the firm’s export manager, commemorated the step by placing the first post. “We can’t wait to embark on this new chapter as we move into our state-of-the-art headquarters, which also happens to coincide with our 60th anniversary year,” he says.

The new building will feature a rooftop solar panel array, generating much of its own energy, and won’t use any natural gas to heat up the building, relying instead on sophisticated heat pumps. This means the building will be almost energy-neutral.

The new warehouse will be equipped with automated storage and retrieval systems and have a significantly greater pallet capacity than the current Vetus warehouse, helping the company to store, process, and ship its products more efficiently.

Vetus says this move is part of a wider strategy for growth and development, which has seen the increase of its global presence through the opening of new branch offices, as well as multiple regional team expansions.