This year, the company celebrates its 50th anniversary. A milestone we are proud of. Founded in 1973 as a local hydraulic specialist for agricultural machinery and grown into a global actor in drive technology in 50 years’ time.
Brenno de Zwart, Managing Director
“The foundation of Hydrauvision was laid 50 years ago by Karlie van de Vijver with the establishment of ‘Technische handelsonderneming van de Vijver-Cammaert’. Selling jacks and providing service were the start-up activities. In a way, Karlie had and has a tendency to push the limits of the feasible. With this, he built many different machines from the early days until the early 1990s, both mobile machines related to agriculture and industrial devices. An important aspect of the company was and still is the search for solutions and working out atypical customer requests. The contribution to the equipment on the ships deployed at the ‘Oosterscheldekering‘ boosted the company’s growth.
Over time, we have learned that specialisation is necessary to successfully conclude projects. In the beginning, ‘the customer’ was relatively mild and there was still plenty of room for hydraulic and mechanical innovation. Gradually, it became harder to sell a broad pallet of ‘inventions’ as more and more companies specialised in the various branches in which Hydrauvision operated.
"It is safe to say that the technical challenge remained a constant in the company."
The company has always attracted people who liked to take on slightly unwise projects because they were interesting technical challenges. It is safe to say that the technical challenge remained a constant in the company.
It is interesting to note that relatively early in the company’s existence, we built complete machines and partly phased this out due to competition from specialised companies. Our own specialisation concentrated (with some exceptions) mainly on hydraulic power packs, winches and construction of hydraulic systems and their maintenance. Now, a little further in time, mechanical engineering, both hydraulic and electrical, are back in the business. The specialised branches that used to be in the supply chain have now become part of the company. The scale on which it now takes place has become ten times larger to make it fit the customers’ needs in a professional way.
In a certain way, a cycle has passed and the next one might be even bigger.
"By combining the many disciplines, we can make a difference for our customers."
A company that is and wants to remain successful must match the right challenges with its people. Cooperation, knowledge sharing and intrinsic motivation to make ‘nice’ things are required for this. As the company grows, not only the products but also the people in the facilitating parts of the organisation have become indispensable assets. Feeling the drive to ‘just do it better’ has made the company what it is today.
By combining the many disciplines, we can make a difference for our customers. In the future, there are more and more challenges that we may embrace to make the world a little better.”