Deli Home, producer and distributor of functional and decorative home products, has existed for over 150 years. That inspired Erik van Zanten, improvement director at the logistics department of Deli Home, to write a book about the company's rich history. The final result, A Heart of Wood, can now be downloaded from the Deli Home website.
Van Zanten has worked in logistics at Deli Home since 2009. His academic background as a historian sparked his idea to delve into the company's history. Van Zanten: “This was the perfect opportunity to let my inner historian have his moment in the spotlight."
Deli Home's roots lie in the tobacco trade, back when the business was still called the Deli Company. Later, the corporation started to trade in (tropical) wood, laying the foundation for today's Deli Home. In A Heart of Wood, Van Zanten not only narrates the history of the company, known among the general public mainly by its trademark names like Bruynzeel and Hubo, but he also attends to aspects like international entrepreneurship, knowledge and craftsmanship, collaboration and growth.
According to the author, those qualities make up the characteristic DNA shared by all companies operating under the Deli Home banner. "It turns out that all those different businesses that combined to create Deli Home had many similarities and things in common. Over the years, people found that these companies weren't as different from each other as they may have thought," Van Zanten says.
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