History of Acomo
Back to 1856The roots of the group go back to 1856, the year that the two Catz brothers opened their first shop in Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. Headquartered in Rotterdam, Catz International is today the leading trading house in spices in the world and is now for many years the group's most successful subsidiary.
Predecessor
Rubber Cultuur Maatschappij 'Amsterdam' or RCMA, the predecessor of Acomo, was incorporated in 1908 and was officially listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange on 26 November 1908.
Postcolonial era
Till 1957, the company was among the largest plantation companies in Europe, owning and operating mainly rubber and palm oil plantations in Indonesia and elsewhere. After the loss of most of the plantations in the postcolonial era, RCMA was the object of a successful reverse take-over by Catz International in 1982. All the remaining plantations were valued at 1 Dutch Guilder in the books and the group took a fresh start as an international commodity trading house.
Independent rubber trading house
In the following years, RCMA expanded and diversified its trading activities, mainly through acquisitions. In 1985, L. Wurfbain & Co (Amsterdam) joined the group, one of the oldest (1897) rubber trading companies in Holland. In 1998, Wurfbain merged with the leading rubber trader in Asia, Singapore Tong Teik, to form today's largest independent rubber trading house worldwide.
New name
In 2000, a new name was adopted to reflect the diversification of the activities and the dynamic strategy. Today, Acomo is a modern, 150 years young organisation, continuing the centuries old tradition of the Dutch merchants. Based on the latest technologies and communication tools, we put our experience and knowledge at the service of our customers to bridge their needs.
Diversification
In 2006, Acomo acquired 100% of the shares of TEFCO EuroIngredients, marking its entry in the fields of development, production and distribution of natural ingredients for the food industry. This acquisition was complemented in February 2009 by the take-over of Snick EuroIngredients in Belgium.
In June 2010, Acomo acquired 100% of the shares of Van Rees and Red River Commodities, marking its entry into the trade of tea and confectionary sunflower seeds. In September 2010, King nNurts & Raaphorst joined the group tot strenghten its European nuts activities.
Focus on food
In June 2010, Acomo divested its minority shareholding in rubber to focus 100% of its strategy on food sourcing, processing and distribution of natural food products.