Wim van der Leegte, the Brabant entrepreneur who developed VDL into one of the largest industrial companies in the Netherlands, died on the night from Saturday to Sunday. VDL reported this in a press release on Sunday. Van der Leegte, who was 76 years old, died of natural causes in his hometown of Duizel.
From 1972 to 2016, Van der Leegte was director of VDL, an international industrial family business, which he expanded through dozens of acquisitions into a concern with approximately 15,000 employees. At a young age he took over his father’s struggling metal company and, after making it profitable again, went on a takeover tour of many ex-Stork and ex-Philips parts. The company currently owns bus factories, but also supplies parts to ASML and builds tanning beds.
Nedcar
The highlight of Van der Leegte’s time as CEO was the takeover of the Nedcar car factory in 2012, for 1 euro. This meant that VDL grew significantly in one fell swoop. It is now clear that the car factory will close almost completely in March 2024, as no new customer has been found.
In 2016, Van der Leegte stepped down as CEO, after which his son Willem van der Leegte took over the daily management. Father Wim remained strongly involved: in 2020 Willem van der Leegte said no NRC that he had had to send his father home during the corona crisis because he kept showing up at the office.