Former VDL CEO Wim van der Leegte died in his hometown of Duizel on the night from Saturday to Sunday. His death is unexpected. The entrepreneur and founder of the VDL group was 76 years old.
A born entrepreneur with a large dose of common sense and social talent. This characterization is reflected in every interview and description of Wim van der Leegte. His company takeovers were characterized by simple but unprecedentedly creative solutions that he worked out on a few A4 pages.
He allowed staff to participate in weekly company meetings and the conversations in the Brabant dialect that he had on the ‘work floor’ are legendary. He found interaction with his staff important and he expressed it this way: “How you deal with employees determines how you get through life.”
Due to his father’s poor health, Wim was put in charge of the metal and construction company that his father had set up at the age of 19. He started there as an HTS mechanical engineering trainee, a course he would not complete until 38 years later, in 2004.
Bankrupt DAF bus company
The metal company P. van der Leegte had 30 employees at the time and was anything but profitable. Wim is committed to growth, including through the acquisition of other companies. The bankrupt DAF bus company is making a new start under the flag of VDL and gave Wim an entry into the bus world. He would later add two more bus companies.
The most striking takeover is that of the NedCar car factory in Born in 2012. Wim uses his network to arrange temporary unemployment benefits for employees and works out the employment conditions with the FNV during an interview at his stud farm in Hoogeloon.
When Wim transferred the management of the VDL Group to his son Willem in 2016, the company had 14,000 employees and a turnover of more than three billion euros. More than 16,000 people now work for VDL. After his departure, profits amounted to more than 150 million euros. The VDL Group then had almost a hundred operating companies spread over 19 countries.
Commander
Due to his services to the Dutch manufacturing industry, Wim van der Leegte was appointed Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2014.