Our Company
A FAMILY-OWNED COMPANY SINCE 1920
Our company was founded in 1920 and is still a family-owned business. Our core values are continuity, cooperation, trust, innovation and sustainability. As a family-run company, we do not pursue short-term success but focus on continuity and the future. We invest in long-term relationships and are constantly innovating. Our customers can count on the safety and quality of our products and our ability to assist them with innovative solutions and sustainable products.In addition, our fats and proteins are natural products, without any added substances. They are GMO- and allergen-free.
SUSTAINABLE NATURAL FATS AND PROTEINS
Ten Kate’s natural animal fats and proteins are important ingredients for foodstuffs, animal feed and technical products. Sustainable products with high added value that help our customers to operate successfully in their markets. Our raw materials, processes and products all comply with the most stringent European standards for quality and food safety. We are one of the larger producers of animal fats and proteins in Europe and export our products around the world.
ULTRA-MODERN PRODUCTION FACILITIES
Our production facilities are equipped with the latest technology. We have complete control over our processes: we know precisely where our raw materials come from and can therefore deliver products of consistent and verifiable quality. We have separate production locations: our fats and proteins for foodstuffs are produced exclusively in the Netherlands, while our production in Germany is devoted solely to animal feed and technical products.
INNOVATION AND RESEARCH
Our own Research & Development department develops fats and proteins with specific properties and substantial added value. With our constant focus on innovation, we develop new products and optimise processes and so improve the quality of our products. Our R&D department works closely with universities and research institutes in Europe and Asia and with our customers in the countries where we operate. This collaboration results in solutions and products that can help our customers to excel in their markets.
History – Our Milestones
Sjoerd ten Kate sets up a wholesale business on the Sluisstraat in Musselkanaal that distributes cheese, lard, fat and magarine. He responds to the demand for affordable high calorie food for the peat workers, who have to carry out heavy physical work in the peat colonies.
The company S. ten Kate starts producing its own margarine and selling it under the brand name Kroon (Crown) margarine. The company also begins rendering animal fats.
After the war, Sjoerd ten Kate had lost everything and had to start all over again. He initially concentrated on producing margarine, but quickly switched entirely to rendering fat.
Ten Kate gets its first patent registration for their own invention: the crystallization of fat. The process proves to be a great success and the business is barely able to keep up with demand, resulting in a period of major growth.
In 1971, Ten Kate opens a fat rendering factory in Sögel. During the following years, Ten Kate expands its German operations, by taking over companies in Delmenhorst and Kiel. In the Netherlands, the company takes over the famous Branbergen biscuit factory.
Ten Kate continues to invent new products and processes. In 1985 they aquire a patent for the process of enzymatic rendering. The company shifts its focus to the production of fats and proteins with a high added value.
Ten Kate continues to grow, taking over yet more business and establishing numerous collaborative junctures with abattoirs. Quality and food safety are key priorities. Ten Kate is one of the first fat rendering companies in Europe which receive the NEN-ISO 9001 certificate.
In Musselkanaal, there is simply no more room for further expansion. In
collaboration with the German company Gelita and the American company AFB International, Ten Kate constructs a new, sustainable business cluster in Ter Apelkanaal.
The production of lard oil commences, and the company Crown Meat opens in Nordhorn. Crown Meat packages and freezes meat by-products, such as legs, tails, ears and ribs, for export to Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Now, Asia is the most important export market for Ten Kate outside the European Union and South America. In 2011, Ten Kate opens an office in Hong Kong to serve Asian customers well and drive further growth in the region. Native employees who speak the language and know the culture are employed in the office.
Increasing the added value to Ten Kate‘s protein streams is becoming an
important part of the strategy increasingly. An important step in this is the construction of a modern new protein factory in Ter Apelkanaal. In a mild drying process, very high-quality functional proteins are produced here for the food industry.
In order to speed up the ambition to become the market leader in functional
animal proteins, Ten Kate takes over the factory in Groenlo from Hulshof
Protein Technologies in 2018. Thanks to the unique production process of this factory, fat and proteins can be extracted from animal skins here without
raising the temperature. The production process is also very suitable for the production of food supplements and pharmaceutical products based on animal byproducts. Now, all functional proteins are market under the Collapro® brand name.
After a 7-year process, Ten Kate receives the export license to sell packaged lard for food to China. This makes it the first company in the world. China is the largest market in the world for pig products and this new license therefore offers great opportunities for the company.
Sjoerd ten Kate could not have suspected in 1920 that his trade in cheese, fat, margarine and bacon would grow 100 years later into one of the largest producers of animal fats and proteins in Europe. And that the products from the company would be sold all over the world. After 100 years Ten Kate is still a family business and the fourth generation is now working in the company.
In 2021 Ten Kate was awarded the royal predicate. There are only a few companies in the Netherlands that are allowed to carry the royal predicate. It symbolized the respect, appriciation and trust of the Dutch King towards our company.