Latest / Family Business Stories with Fexingo: Succession, Legacy, and Multi-Generational Companies / How the Van der Waals Family Built a Global Edible Oils Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: You ever open a jar of peanut butter, or a bottle of vegetable oil, and wonder who actually owns the supply chain behind it? Luna: I do now. I assume it's not a single farmer in Iowa. Lucas: Not even close. Today we're talking about the Van der Waals family. They're Dutch, they've been in edible oils since 1865, and they now control about fifteen percent of the global palm oil market. This is a seventh-generation family business that most people have never heard of. Luna: Seven generations — that's almost unheard of. What's their secret? Lucas: Part of it is structure. In the 1990s, the fifth generation was getting older, and the sixth generation needed capital to expand into Southeast Asia. The obvious move was an IPO. But the family didn't want to lose control. So they did something clever: they issued non-voting shares to the public. Luna: Non-voting shares — so they kept voting power within the family, but raised money from outside investors. Lucas: Exactly. They listed on the Euronext Amsterdam with a class of shares that carried economic rights but zero voting rights. The family held all the voting stock through a holding company. That gave them the capital to build refineries in Indonesia and Malaysia without ceding any control. Luna: And that worked? I mean, institutional investors usually hate non-voting structures. Lucas: They do. But the Van der Waals family had a reputation for discipline. They paid consistent dividends, they never diluted the voting shares, and they were transparent about their strategy. So investors accepted the structure because the returns were reliable. Luna: Right — it's a trade-off. You give up control, but you get access to capital. In their case, they gave up some economic upside to keep control. Lucas: Precisely. And that capital allowed them to make a critical strategic pivot. By the early 2000s, palm oil was facing a major backlash from environmental groups. Deforestation, peatland burning, orangutan habitat loss — the industry had a big problem. Luna: And the Van der Waals family decided to lean into sustainability? Lucas: They did. Not out of altruism — out of risk management. The sixth generation, led by a woman named Marijke van der Waals, realised that if they didn't get ahead of the certification movement, they'd lose access to European buyers. So they became early adopters of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil — RSPO — certification. Luna: And that paid off? Lucas: Massively. By 2010, they were one of the largest certified sustainable palm oil producers in the world. Their margins improved by about eight percentage points compared to non-certified competitors, because European food companies were willing to pay a premium for certified product. And they avoided the kind of consumer boycotts that hit competitors like Cargill and Wilmar. Luna: So the family's long-term thinking actually gave them a competitive advantage. That's the classic family business advantage — they can think in decades, not quarters. Lucas: Exactly. And that brings us to the current generation. The seventh generation is now in their forties and fifties. There are four cousins running different regional divisions: one covers Europe, one covers Asia, one covers Africa, and one covers the Americas. Luna: Four cousins, four regions — that sounds like a recipe for conflict. Lucas: It could be. But the family has a governance structure that helps. They have a family council that meets quarterly, a family constitution that defines how decisions are made, and a clear rule: no cousin can be CEO for more than eight years. They rotate the top role. Luna: Rotation — that's unusual. Most families fight to keep the CEO seat. Lucas: Yes, but the Van der Waals family learned from other dynasties. They studied the Wallenbergs in Sweden, the Agnellis in Italy. They saw what happened when one branch dominates. So they institutionalised rotation. The current CEO is the cousin running Asia, and the next one will be from the Americas division. Luna: And the cousins get along? Lucas: Mostly. There was a public disagreement in 2022 about whether to invest in a large refinery in Nigeria. The Africa cousin wanted it, the Europe cousin thought it was too risky. They debated it in the family council for six months, and eventually they put it to a vote. The Africa cousin won, but the Europe cousin got a concession — a lower capital allocation for the project, with more oversight. Luna: So they hash it out internally. That sounds healthier than a lot of corporate boards I've seen. Lucas: It is. And they also have a rule that any family member who wants to work in the business must have at least five years of outside experience first. No one comes straight out of university into a management role. Luna: That rule alone probably prevents a lot of resentment. You have to prove yourself elsewhere before you can come home. Lucas: Exactly. And it also means they bring in fresh thinking. The cousin who runs the Americas division spent eight years at Cargill before joining the family business. He learned a lot about risk management and supply chain logistics that he wouldn't have learned inside the family bubble. Luna: So what's the biggest challenge they face now? Lucas: The biggest challenge is probably the energy transition. Palm oil is used not just for food, but also for biodiesel. As Europe and other regions phase out palm-based biofuels due to deforestation concerns, the Van der Waals family needs to find new markets. They're investing in specialty oils — things like high-oleic sunflower oil and avocado oil — for the premium food market. Luna: So they're diversifying again. That seventh-generation mindset — adapt or die. Lucas: Exactly. And they have the capital and the patience to do it. That's the real advantage of a family business that survives this long: they don't panic when a market shifts. They just pivot. Luna: It's impressive. And it makes me think — you know, conversations like this are exactly why I love this show. We get to learn from businesses that think in generations, not quarters. Lucas: Yeah, and honestly, the fact that we can keep doing this — diving into stories like the Van der Waals family — it's because of a small group of listeners who support the show directly. If these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these. Luna: Yeah, it's a low-key thing. No ads, no sponsors — just listeners who find value in it. And it keeps the whole network ad-free. Lucas: Right. So back to the Van der Waals family — I think the takeaway for any business owner, family or not, is that governance matters more than individual genius. The Van der Waals family didn't succeed because they had one brilliant leader. They succeeded because they built systems that forced good decisions over seven generations. Luna: Systems over personalities. That's a good lesson. Lucas: It is. And the next time you open a bottle of cooking oil, maybe you'll think about the seven generations of a Dutch family who made sure it got to your kitchen. Luna: I definitely will. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna.