Frits van Eerd will definitely not return as Jumbo’s top man, even if he turns out to be innocent

Also read this profile about the new Jumbo CEO: If Ton van Veen doesn’t want it, the Van Eerd family won’t

In the search for a replacement, the family ended up with one of the children: Colette Cloosterman-Van Eerd, until last year on the board responsible for the development of the business formula. Cloosterman-Van Eerd is a shareholder of Jumbo together with Frits and younger sister Monique Groenenwoud-Van Eerd. Since the death of their father, they each own a third of the company.

Despite the changes in the top, Jumbo will continue with “the strategic course for the short and long term”, which the company formulated at the beginning of last year. The family is pleased that Van Veen wants to lead that process, said Cloosterman-van Eerd in a written explanation. “Ton offers Jumbo the continuity and stability it needs in these economically challenging times. He knows our family values ​​like no other and understands how Jumbo was originally intended.”

Twenty Rolexes

Jumbo from Veghel was surprised in mid-September when the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) showed up unannounced at the door of the head office. That same morning, former CEO Van Eerd was arrested at his estate in Heeswijk-Dinther. This happened in a large-scale investigation into money laundering through sponsorship contracts in motor sports, real estate and car dealing and through ‘unexplained cash deposits’.

Justice immediately reported that Van Eerd is not the main suspect in the case. That is Theo E. from Gasteren in Drenthe, a former motocross racer and since then a car dealer and a good acquaintance of Frits van Eerd. Nevertheless, the Public Prosecution Service saw sufficient reason to detain the entrepreneur for questioning for five days. During raids at Van Eerd, twenty Rolexes and 450,000 euros in cash were seized, reported NRC earlier.

Although Jumbo and the family decided to wait in silence in the first days, it soon became clear that the criminal investigation would not be finished soon. According to experts, such an investigation sometimes takes more than a year. A week after his release, Van Eerd therefore concluded that the situation had become untenable. He stepped down “in the interest of Jumbo”, and to “fully concentrate on his personal situation”.

Explosive growth

This was a radical change for the family business. Van Eerd has been emphatically involved in the explosive growth of Jumbo in recent decades. He worked with Van Veen on the acquisitions of, among others, Super de Boer (2009), C1000 (2012) and more recently HEMA (2020). As a result of these purchases, Jumbo grew from a regional family business into a dominant chain, with an annual turnover of 10.3 billion euros.

Shortly after Van Eerd’s temporary departure, Van Veen was brought forward as a provisional replacement. That construction could not last very long, Van Veen said earlier in conversation with NRC. “It does work in practice, this model. […] But it is not a model of years. So at some point you have to make a decision. And a lot also depends on the question: will Frits return or not?”

The temporary CEO did not want to anticipate that at the time. “We have agreed that we want to close the year first, in all respects. The books close, the accountant checks them. Hopefully at the end of February we can then say that 2022 is really ready and that we can look ahead. At that time, the shareholders and supervisory directors will start evaluating, and they will have to consider how those two positions will be filled definitively.”