Balk Shipyard and Werf 't Kromhout join forces
Balk Shipyard and Werf ‘t Kromhout are going to join forces. Both yards see the opportunity to strengthen and expand their network within the business. A cooperation between these two extraordinary companies with both such extraordinary history within the Dutch boating and yachting industry can be called unprecedented.
Balk Shipyard, established in 1798, has been focusing on building, repairing and maintaining wooden vessels and pleasure crafts in the harbor of the picturesque town of Elburg for decades. Since 1998 Daan Balk is at the helm as the seventh generation of the family business. After sustained growth Balk Shipyard moved to a bigger location in the harbor of Urk in 2004.
Throughout the years the focus on repairing and maintaining pleasure crafts changed into refitting luxurious yachts up to 60 meters. Balk Shipyard has three departments; Refit, Construction and Slipway. But, still part of the current activities at Balk Shipyard are the repair and maintenance of commercial vessels, fishing boats and tall ships. In 2016 Jachtwerf Bloemsma was acquired, which gave Balk Shipyard the opportunity to focus with Bloemsma on the new build of luxurious yachts.
The brand awareness among Werf ‘t Kromhout is due to her rich history as a shipyard in the middle of Amsterdam and because of the Kromhout engines. After Dick van Amerongen took over the yard in the seventies, he promoted the yard in such a way that it gained an even better brand awareness. With controversial projects such as the VOC replica Amsterdam, built for the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam and the VOC replica Prins Willem, built for an open air museum in Holland Village, Nagasaki, Japan and many other projects, Van Amerongen took the yard to the next level.
Nowadays Raymond Grollé is CEO and Owner of Werf ‘t Kromhout. He has been focusing on maintenance and summer and winter storage of a wide variety of boats and pleasure crafts in the Amsterdam area.
Due to the joined forces between Balk Shipyard and Werf ‘t Kromhout a unique opportunity arised to share both yards’ rich history, skills and knowledge. The ultimate goal is to offer our clientele a full service package.