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History

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It is 3 October 1959 when Wolter Ketting officially registers his metal business in the trade register. 'Business: buying up iron and metals' it says. Youngest son Aart explains that everything basically started with the rebuilding of Rotterdam.

Around Pernis on wasteland along the river Maas, rubble was dumped. Mostly the heads of piles. The population saw bread in these remnants of reinforced concrete and many started chopping out the iron with a sledgehammer. This is how they earned an extra buck. Aart: "My father got the idea of buying up the iron at the same price as buyers paid elsewhere. By offering a larger quantity, he hoped to sell it again at a better price. And that's how he became known as the 'Buy Up of Pernis'."

Things got busy at Uiterdijk 45. All the iron, and later other metals, were dragged down to the small backyard behind the dike by Wolter and his family. The more expensive copper went into the cellar. Everything was meticulously cleaned and sorted. "Everywhere was packed to the brim," grandma Ketting remembered well.

Wolter's wife Wil also helped tremendously. Among other things, she operated the hand shears. Pieces of 40cm brought in the most. Aart: "In the report to the tax authorities, the then accountant scribbled in the margin about my mother: 'works like a fella'. He also claimed tax deductions for her because she cooperated fully in the business. In those days, that was not common."

Money from the baker

Credit was also a problem in the 1950s. "To buy iron, we had to have money and there was often none. Fortunately, baker Bouwman helped us with this. A form of true village helpfulness! We regularly asked to borrow a hundred guilders, which was repaid when we had delivered the material. The repayment was also partly in kind, because we brought eggs from the chickens we had running behind the house".

Box of cigars

To store all that iron, a site was found on Molenweg, right behind the then mill. This site was rented from a contractor for one crate of cigars a year. Aart: "At that time, we also bought the first electric scrap shears, running on 380 volts. We didn't have electricity, but that came from the blacksmith across the street."

In the late 1960s, iron storage moved to a new location on the Kouwenhoven firm's coal yard at the back on Molenweg. Years followed in which the company grew steadily: brand awareness increased and more customers came. Due to plans for social housing, the site had to be vacated in 1979. Incidentally, construction did not actually start there until 20 years later.

Continued growth

The metal trade continued to grow, mainly due to more trade in aluminium and stainless steel and the increasing supply of port containers that needed to be scrapped. Aart: "We were outgrowing our premises. Fortunately, in those years we were able to add surrounding parts around the original site." Things have also picked up fast in recent years. Turnover, which was less than 10,000 tonnes a year in 2003/2004, is now between 30 and 40,000 tonnes. The workforce has grown considerably and substantial investments have been made in new equipment. Willeke Ketting, Jan Ketting's daughter and Wolter Ketting's granddaughter, joined the staff in 2006. She is the third generation in the company and the managing director since 2018. She is also president of the Metal Recycling Federation.