The list of the richest stinkers in the Netherlands is back: the Quote 500. Omroep Brabant has already looked for the richest, but especially the most striking Brabant residents for you.
Let’s just start with ‘our’ leader: Breda’s Adriaan Mol in 9th place. He is the owner of the payment service company Mollie and was also the richest Brabander in 2022, with his sixth place. His wealth has dropped by 20 percent in one year, to an estimated 2.8 billion euros.
Van Eerd supermarket family
It was also a bad year for the Jumbo Van Eerd family, to say the least. In December 2022, the founder of the Van Eerd empire: Karel van Eerd passed away. Son Frits, who was raided in September and hundreds of thousands of euros were found in the safe, resigned as CEO of the supermarket group.
Because father Karel has passed away, son Frits and daughters Colette and Monique now have their own listing in the Quote. Together they are in 10th place, three places lower than last year. Their wealth fell by almost 7 percent. Although we are still talking about a modest 2.7 billion euros.
Big climbers
Then another interesting one: the Eindhoven Wiet Pot. The former banker has risen fourteen places in the list to 21st place. His assets increased by 43 percent to two billion euros. For years he was active as a shareholder and director of stock exchange trader IMC and that is apparently still paying off.
Who else will we meet? Ben Mandemakers, for example, was born in Kaatsheuvel and foreman of the kitchen company of the same name. With 1.8 billion he is in 24th place. Or Raymond Cloosterman, the founder of cosmetics company Rituals, who lives in Brabant with his wife Colette van Eerd (yes, the one in 10th place). His fortune increased by 36 percent to 1.5 billion.
Arrest warrant
A striking figure from the list is Frank Zweegers, a real estate magnate from Geldrop. He is in 36th place with a fortune of 1.4 billion. His place in the Quote 500 is fairly certain, but in everyday life he prefers to seek shelter. That worked reasonably well, until he was arrested on his yacht in Italy in 2017 because there was an outstanding European arrest warrant for him. He was suspected of bribery, among other things, but has always maintained his innocence.
Who lives less sheltered is number 43, Robert van der Wallen. “I earn so much money, it’s not fair,” he told the NRC newspaper in April this year. The Deurne entrepreneur, who had his own golf course built for 65 million, is PSV CEO and owner of the company BrandLoyalty. He also bought the most expensive private plane in our country, a Bombardier Global 6500, only to sell it again a few months later for environmental reasons.
Biggest decliner
Finally, the biggest outlier: Peter Bijvelds, CEO of bus manufacturer Ebusco in Deurne. Bijvelds is the biggest loser in the Quote 500 this year. Number 371 lost 66 percent of its assets. While he made his debut on the list in 2022 with an estimated net worth of 480 million, that amount dropped to 165 million a year later. Cause? Personnel and material shortages. So deliciously typical for this time, so to speak.
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