Den Hartogh is a family-owned business that has been active in the market for 95 years now. Over the years, the company has faced a lot of challenges, continuously adapting its services to the requirements of the market.
“We have always aimed for client satisfaction, offering high quality in products and services,” states Patrick Leendertse, the company’s Business Unit Director Tank Cleaning since October 2014. “Those are essential to us in our market. In addition, we compete with a strong price and service ratio. However, what distinguishes us is that we value our relationship with our clients very highly. We see them as partners and are very open and honest in our dealings with them.”
Den Hartogh Cleaning has five cleaning stations in Europe, where more than 60,000 tanks, containers and barrels are cleaned every year. The Den Hartogh group has cleaning companies in Botlek and Dordrecht in the Netherlands, Amiens in France, Parets in Spain as well as a joint venture in Gebze near Istanbul in Turkey.
The company offers not only cleaning services for the chemical and food industries, but also full-service tank container repair at three locations in Botlek, Dordrecht and Parets, the storage of empty containers and the steaming of the tanks, where the content and the containers are heated up so that the content remains in a fluid state.
Den Hartogh works with the latest equipment and cleaning substances, keeping up to date with the developments in the market. The cleaning processes fulfil the highest safety standards and are in accordance with different regulations such as the HACCP standard for the food industry as well as SQAS.
“We are much stricter than is necessary in local conditions,” says Mr. Leendertse. “Safety is most important within our industry as 90% of our revenues are made in the food and chemical industries. To improve our safety standards even further, we are running a huge safety program for the whole Den Hartogh Group called the Power of Safe.”
Den Hartogh also invests in its employees by giving them the opportunity to pursue their professional development at skills and qualifications training courses. As a result it has a highly educated and well-motivated workforce in all functions and positions.
The company also places a high value on sustainability, using modern technologies to minimize environmental impact. Den Hartogh uses a modern wastewater treatment system, which has a performance of over 98%, keeping the water as clean as possible.
In addition, the firm has its own wind turbine at the headquarters in Botlek, which supplies the largest part of the required energy.
Today, Den Hartogh has a strong position in the European market, operating from 30 sites in 17 countries around the globe. In the future, the family business, which is owned by Pieter den Hartogh, plans to further expand its activities worldwide.
The Tank Cleaning business unit is currently building a new depot in Jubail in Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, the group also has activities in Asia and the USA. “Our ambition is to grow,” illustrates the Business Unit Director. “We want to be present in several strategic locations with a depot, fitting them with up-to-date equipment, materials, working processes and well-educated employees. We aim for client satisfaction, in both thinking and acting, and will keep a strong focus on improvements in our own processes to offer benefits to our customers through our services.”