Arie de Bruijn, the outgoing chief executive officer of Europe’s biggest returnable transport packaging pool operator Euro Pool System International, has been named a Knight of the Orange-Nassau Order in recognition of his outstanding contribution to society.
The prestigious royal honour was bestowed upon Mr De Bruijn during his recent farewell celebration and marks the end of a 38-year career during which he has made a great contribution to the standardisation of packaging in Europe.
'Mr De Bruijn applied the concept of standardisation not only to packaging itself, but also to the logistics system around it,' said a spokesperson for the company. 'Thanks to the level of standardisation achieved, the supermarket sector can nowadays operate very efficiently. This leads not only to significant daily savings for European supermarkets and other supply chain partners, but also to considerable advantages for the environment.'
Mr De Bruijn was appointed CEO of Euro Pool System International in December 1992, having been general director of predecessing companies VPZ and Quality Pack since 1984.
He retired on 1 January 2009 and is succeeded by Peter Willems.
With 45 depots throughout Europe, Euro Pool System International employs a total of 152 people in seven countries. Its turnover amounted to more than €190m last year and the organisation’s 123m blue and green crates are estimated to have made some 540m rotations in 2008.
Euro Pool System is aiming to strengthen its leading position as Europe’s biggest returnable transport packaging pool operator based on four central pillars: partnerships, supply chain integration, innovation and sustainability.
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