Founding
VLP flexible partitions was founded in 1982 under the name Van Leeuwen Plastics BV and originated from Van Leeuwen Grondstomen which was founded in 1965 and specialised in the rental and sale of soil steam materials to growers. These soil steaming materials were used to disinfect horticultural land before the new crops were planted.
In the early 1980s, the use of Methyl Bromide (disinfectant gas) as an alternative soil disinfectant was banned in horticulture. Due to the ban on Methyl Bromide, Van Leeuwen Grondstomen grew rapidly. This opened the way for Wim van Leeuwen sr. and Wim van Leeuwen jr. to start producing steam tarpaulins themselves. This took place in a specially equipped workshop with high frequency welding equipment, marking the birth of Van Leeuwen Plastics.
Van Leeuwen Plastics
The range of products then soon expanded to include tarpaulins, car covers, pond, and basin linings, etc. Later, followed by sliding walls, strip walls and swing doors.
During this period, VLP only supplied horticulturists, greenhouse companies and horticultural suppliers. More and more products were added to the range at the time, including industrial curtains. As the name suggests, a product that was sold precisely to many industrial and garage businesses.
Due to market demand for automatic doors, VLP developed its own sliding door operator for installation on existing sliding doors. Shortly followed by the supply of complete automatic aluminium sliding doors, lift gates and lift hatches.
To reduce noise nuisance during soot measurements and 4-gas tests in garages, VLP developed a patented noise-reducing curtain and, for cold stores, temperature-insulating curtains. As workshop partitioning, centre roller walls and lifting curtains followed. For use in distribution refrigerated vehicles, a special roller door was developed that drastically reduced cold emissions.
In time, the name Van Leeuwen Plastics caused some confusion due to the overly broad term 'Plastics', which is why the name was changed to "VLP flexible partitions" in 1997; this name more clearly described VLP's activities.
VLP outgrew its premises at the old location in Poeldijk and therefore moved on 16 March 1998 to the Industriestraat in Naaldwijk, also the current location. Here, even more flexible partitions were developed, refined, and added to the company's product range, such as retractable tunnels, dock shelters, food roll walls, firescreens, folding doors, high-speed doors, welding curtains, draft curtains, smoke thresholds and FleQswall rolling walls.
On 1 January 2015, Bart van Leeuwen took over from Wim jr. as the third generation of the family business Van Leeuwen Plastics. Before that, Bart had worked in various positions in the company, as early as 1 September 1999.
On Industriestraat, too, VLP continued to grow and eventually ran into space limitations. By chance, the building behind it on the Nijverheidstraat became available and has since been added to the premises.
Corona obviously caused a dip, but VLP also thought of a solution: various types of custom-made hygiene screens were developed to enable our customers to continue operating where keeping 1.5 metres distance was not feasible.
Hence, flexibility, customisation, quality and thinking along being VLP's core values.
Nowadays, VLP supplies several market segments, including agriculture and horticulture, the bulb sector, coachbuilding & garages, production industry (concrete, steel, wood, plastic, and paper), printing, storage and logistics, food industry, schools, fitness centres, construction companies, petrochemicals, clean rooms, data centres, air bases and shipyards.
The products are mostly installed by VLP in the Netherlands and Belgium but sporadically also further from home such as France, the United Kingdom and Germany but also further away such as the United States, Canada, and Ecuador.
With deliveries via intermediaries, VLP's products have even ended up on every continent.