Jaap Fluit

Bredenoord | Jaap Fluit

Website: www.bredenoord.com

Bredenoord

Bredenoord supplies mobile and permanent power facilities. Its distinctive red generators are found all over the world at events from the European Football Championships and Southeast Asian Games to the Dutch music festival Pinkpop and a climate conference in Marrakech. From sustainable mobile power in Africa to back-up power in the Rotterdam harbour.  “Our goal is to provide clients with fast, affordable and absolutely secure power,” says Managing Director Jaap Fluit. “We develop, build, sell and rent a large assortment of power solutions. It could be custom-made for a power plant in Benin or a standard system for a village fair in Apeldoorn.”  Bredenoord has been going for 85 years; a typical, no-nonsense, regional company, enterprising and down to earth. It all began in 1937 when the founder Jan Bredenoord came up with a smart idea to generate power using the gasses from his wood-burning oven. It is now a third-generation family firm with 320 employees and a turnover of 65 million euros, 48% of it from export and 10% from export outside the EU. The Bredenoord rental fleet consists of more than 2200 machines.

EU – Africa

Besides the head office in Apeldoorn, Bredenoord also has offices in Germany and Denmark. “Export is part of our business. We operate particularly across the EU – Africa axis. Africa is interesting to us because power grids are sparse while the industrial demand for energy security is on the increase.” Doing business in Africa can be challenging though, in terms of payment and also manners. “In Ghana we first got to know all the stakeholders, who ultimately determine the success of a local partner. The most important person turned out to be the king of a certain tribe.”  Fluit stresses the importance of local presence and cooperation with local parties: “They know how things work and can regularly visit clients and stakeholders.”

New generation of generators

Bredenoord is continuously developing more efficient and more sustainable generators in terms of fuel savings, new technology and emission reduction. “We are busy working on new battery systems and the use of hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels. We have our own R&D, engineering and production departments, but are always on the lookout for good partnerships. We are collaborating more and more within the chain to develop innovative, integrated and sustainable energy concepts together.” 

Export countries: mainly Europe, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean.