The image of Frits van Eerd may have been damaged on Tuesday morning, September 13, after a raid by the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD). Almost no one would have made a connection between the Jumbo CEO and money laundering before today.
At the beginning of this year, supermarket expert Peter ter Hark attributed the increasing success of Jumbo to the person of Frits van Eerd to Omroep Brabant. “With his supermarket, he gives a we-know-us feeling.”
Van Eerd is known as a passionate general manager of Jumbo, who is also highly regarded in motorsport. He is the ‘golden boy’ who has raised the family business quite a few levels, without even getting a blemish. He is also married to a granddaughter of Gerrit and Toos van der Valk. In short: an ideal son-in-law on many fronts.
Ambassador of Brabant
Van Eerd started his career at Jumbo as a stocker. After studying business administration in the US, as the son of founder Karel van Eerd, he climbed to the top of the company. He has been the general manager of Jumbo since 2002.
Under the leadership of boss Frits, Super de Boer, C1000, La Place, EMTÉ and Agrimarkt were taken over, as was HEMA. The takeover of Super de Boer earned him the title ‘Topman of the Year’ in 2009.
Ten years earlier he was allowed to call himself Prince Carnival of Kuussegat (Veghel). In 2008 he had a real Top 40 hit with the carnival song ‘Wij Doen Het Licht Wel Uit’, together with the Ko Brothers. “When it was obvious to settle down in the middle of the Netherlands, I stayed in Veghel. I try to be a global ambassador for Brabant,” Van Eerd told Regio Bussiness in 2017.
Doing more with motorsport
In addition to his top position at Jumbo, Van Eerd is mainly known as a great fan of motorsport. He competed in – and won – several races, including a world championship. He also owns a large collection of racing cars. For example, the car in which driver Jan Lammers made his last race is in the garage of Van Eerd. In 2015 he took part in the Dakar for the last time, the following year he raced the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He explained to De Ondernemer: “During the race and the negotiations it comes down to technique. Then you have to push the adrenaline away.”
Max Verstappen’s partnership with Jumbo is also thanks to Van Eerd. Within the company he aimed to do more with motorsport instead of, for example, football pictures. “The whole world is doing football pictures and hamsters and all that stuff,” he told motorsport.com. According to Van Eerd, Jumbo had something unique in his hands with Max Verstappen.
Injury
The image of Frits van Eerd as the ideal son-in-law must have suffered some damage after the raid on his home by the FIOD. FIOD agents and the police walked in and out with moving boxes at the address of the Jumbo CEO in Heeswijk-Dinther on that Tuesday morning. His car was also searched.
As part of a money laundering investigation, nine arrests were made that same morning in North Brabant, Drenthe and Groningen. According to the Public Prosecution Service for the Northern Netherlands, money laundering would, among other things, take place through fraudulent sponsorship contracts in motorsport.
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