van Puijenbroek Family

The Van Puijenbroek Family is the owner of VP Exploitatie, a private equity firm that owns 16.7% of Mediahuis.

The Van Puijenbroek family’s entrepreneurial history dates back to the textile industry in 1865, when Hendrik Van Puijenbroek founded the Textielfabriken H. Van Puijenbroek, who have been a regular supplier to the Dutch armed forces since 1925.

The director of the Van Pruijenbroek textile factory at the time, Max Steenberghe, went on to serve in a number of cabinet positions for the Dutch government in the 1930s and 1940s, including as Minister for Economic Affairs, Minister for Trade, Industry and Shipping, and Minister of Finance.

The textile company exists today as H Van Puijenbroek BV Textiel or HAVEP, and produces clothing for the construction, catering, engineering, fishing, agriculture, utilities, oil, government, and transportation sectors.

In 1951, the Van Puijenbroek family became a major shareholder in the Telegraaf Media Group (40%) through their investment company VP Exploitatie. The Telegraaf Media Group merged with Belgian-Dutch Media conglomerate Mediahuis NV in 2017.

They also invested €5,000,000 in Egeria 3, a private equity fund which owns 80% of NRC Media, and since 2007 have had an interest of 77.18% in Batenburg Techniek NV, who are active in the field of trade and assembly, industrial automation and building-related installations.

As a private equity firm for the Van Puijenbroek Family, VP Exploitatie currently has about 50 investments, mainly in Belgium and the Netherlands, in 8 different investment domains – Media, Textiles, Energy, Agrifood, Smart Tech, Health, Water and Real Estate.