RZ-100-wt4-E-flipbook-240702 - Flipbook - Page 85
Catalogue 1986.
1986
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86
Taurus
Spinach
Initially, the cooperation between BP-Nutrition
and Rijk Zwaan goes reasonably smoothly, despite
some attempts by BP-Nutrition to integrate the
Westland company into its own organisation.
However, Rijk Zwaan manages to parry these
attempts effectively, allowing it to maintain its own
corporate culture. So now the tide of the troubled
1980s seems to be turning. Rijk Zwaan fully exploits
Rijk Zwaan on sale again
the advantages of a capital-rich parent company
On 24 January 1989, BP definitively announces
and further strengthens its (international) position.
that it wants to sell Rijk Zwaan. The sale will be by
However, the company finds itself in more troubled
controlled private auction, an auction procedure
waters in 1988. ‘Parent’ BP is changing its strategy
in which a number of companies are selected to
and focusing more and more on oil and chemicals.
submit a final bid after an introductory round.
Rijk Zwaan no longer fits into this picture, and
The bidder with the best papers (highest bid and
the ‘parent-subsidiary’ relationship is becoming
best terms) will then become the new owner of
increasingly strained. Other ‘subsidiaries’ also
Rijk Zwaan.
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86
BP-Nutrition
becomes owner
of Rijk Zwaan
come and go in the BP group.
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86
Herman Beeftink
retires, Anton van
Doornmalen
and Ben Tax
become new
Board members
The person appointed by BP to oversee the sale of
Two-and-a-half years after the acquisition,
Rijk Zwaan doesn’t really click with the Rijk Zwaan
BP-Nutrition announces that Rijk Zwaan is being
Board. From the outset, it was clear that BP and
put on sale due to a ‘strategy change’. The news
the Board were not on the same page. BP has only
is difficult to take but is not entirely unexpected.
one goal: to win the highest possible bid for its
A nerve-racking, uncertain and stressful period
shareholders, regardless of the consequences
dawns, with Rijk Zwaan’s future seemingly hanging
for Rijk Zwaan. The Board of Rijk Zwaan stresses
by a thread. Former director Anton van Doornmalen
that a controlled private auction is very unusual
remembers it well: ‘There were days when I went to
in the Netherlands and that the company itself
work in the morning and told my wife that I wasn’t
would benefit most from a management buyout
sure if I’d still be employed by Rijk Zwaan in the
(a takeover of the shares by the Board). For BP,
evening.’ In retrospect, even current managing
however, the price is the deciding factor, so the
director Ben Tax sees this episode in Rijk Zwaan’s
parent company is only willing to allow a manage-
history as crucial, and ‘it still reads like a tale of
ment buyout if the price is in line with the market
intrigue and adventure’. In fact, this period lays the
price. This will have to be determined on the basis
foundation for the current social and civic culture
of the aforementioned controlled private auction.
that characterises Rijk Zwaan today.
Initially, it seems that Rijk Zwaan still has some
influence on the progress of the sale. For example,
the Board will be given the opportunity to voice
1985-1986
its opinion on the list of ten companies that will
be eligible for the sale, and the members of the
1986-1990 | The management buyout | ‘An adventure story’’
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Turnover
FTE
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