To expand transport activities to Scandinavia, a transport service to Denmark was established from Zwolle to Padborg in 1984: Denmark Holland Transport. This Zwolle company got its own branch in Denmark: Danks Hollandsk Transport. After 5 years it was decided to sell DHT, which in turn gave room to develop new initiatives.
Growth in the 1980s
In 1984, BV Expeditiebedrijf VMD in Zwolle was purchased. This gave the Fritom Group a second shipping office. And VMD was not just any shipping office. In our archives we found a proud report from 1977, when VMD had the important task of transporting the golden coach from The Hague to Drunen. Oldenburger|Fritom is now the preferred supplier within our group, but so was VMD in 1977.
In 1985, a restructuring took place. The companies that the three families had founded or bought over the years came under a holding company. From then on, they belonged to the Frisian Transport Development Company. Fritom was born.
Fritom also became involved in the transportation, trade and storage of organic manure and sludge. A market for which much expertise was required due to strict legislation. In 1986 Fritom bought Mestservice Plender in IJsselmuiden. A year later, it bought Grond- en mestbedrijf Gromes BV in Wognum. These companies were merged in 1988 to form the Fritom subsidiary Gromes-Plender in IJsselmuiden.
Fritom saw the emergence of a new form of transport: huckepack transport, also called combined transport: freight transport in which semi-trailers are transported by road, but to a large extent also on special wagons by train. From Leeuwarden in 1987, in cooperation with freight forwarder/transporter Richard Kempers, Hucom was founded for huckepack transport on Italy. Unfortunately, Hucom was too far ahead of its time. In the 1980s it was not yet possible to make this transport profitable in terms of price.
In 1989, Fritom established Melkweg-Müller Combinatie (MMC) BV together with Müller Transport in Holten. MMC transported tank containers of cash from England and Ireland to the Netherlands. Ab Doorenbos was the only employee of this company in the early stages. The company had no transport capacity at the start, but hired this from Melkweg Zwolle and Müller.
Ab has fond memories of these early days of MMC: "We had 25 tank containers, no computers and no cell phones. Communication was extraordinary and there was growth. But we also knew worse times. For example, in the first few years we had to deal with mad cow disease. Then you see the work collapse, which is very unpleasant." A lot has changed in the past 30 years. For example, for the first few years Ab ran the farm alone. Later, an assistant joined him. "Because we didn't have cell phones yet, before I drove from Zwolle to Bolsward in the evening, I first called my wife to pass on the schedule. Should a driver call, she could pass on which route to drive."
