My journey started in 1988, when I started to work for Boal in the Netherlands as an apprentice die-corrector. I just finished school and was searching for a job. Accidentally I found an ad in the newspaper and I read that Boal was looking for trainee die-correctors. I didn’t know what a die-corrector was or did but by reading the information in the ad, it got me interested. I applied for the job and got hired, the start of my career in aluminium extrusion had begun.

When Boal bought a small press in the south of the Netherlands, I was asked to join them over there. I didn’t have to think long about it and we moved to the south to start working at Boal Finex, an extrusion company specialized in mini-extrusion. I stayed there for 1,5 years but moved on eventually and started to work for Almax, Europe’s first die-manufacturer. Unfortunately this job already came to an end after 1 year. The company had created so many debts throughout the last couple of years that it went bankrupt in 1999.

The next two years following, I would be working as a die-corrector consultant for a German company. It brought me to many places and I got to know a lot of interesting people. My two months at Profil Gruppen was one of the highlights during this period. A stunning well organized company in a beautiful country. 

During this period I also got to know Jan de Lange, the MD of Alcoa who asked me to join him in Tarragona, Spain. After a lot of thinking and having a lot of doubts, my wife and I moved to Spain. Because we had to learn the language and the culture, it was a difficult time but we managed to feel at home eventually. 

A fatal accident at work brought this period to an end. The worst thing that ever happened to me, during my career, was losing a colleague at work. We talk a lot about safety and for me this is always the priority at work but unfortunately we are all human and we all make mistakes. A simple mistake can cost you your life. That’s why we, as managers, always have to stay focussed and keep an eye on our employees (and ourselves). A clean, well-organized company, where people can do their jobs in an ergonomic way, will provide a safe and pleasant environment with a good productivity and with a high quality standard.

After almost 5 years at Alcoa, I moved to Italy and started to work as a sales manager for Phoenix. During 10 years I worked for Phoenix (4 years Italy and 6 years in the Netherlands at Phoenix Nederland) and I got to know a lot of experts in our field and saw a lot of aluminium extrusion companies throughout the world. It’s interesting to see how we all make the same product (an aluminium profile), with the same process (extrusion) but with so many different approaches, based on experience but mostly also based on culture. The best way to sell a product is getting to know your client and his culture. 

Selling extrusion dies is a great job. You get to travel, visit a lot of companies, meet interesting people but you are not really selling an end-product. The performance of the die doesn’t only depend on the die-design or the quality of the finishing of the die. It also depends on how the corrector treats it but mainly on how the condition of the press is and the parameters which are used in extrusion. The perfect die, being too cold to be extruded or put in a non-aligned press will give you a bad end-result. That’s why I moved back to Spain and came to work eventually for Extrusax in Alicante.

During my stay at Extrusax I learned a lot. Not only was I responsible for the operational part of the business, I also was involved in quality, safety and the hiring of new production operators. Thanks to the support of the people I got to work with, I was lucky to be a small part of the success of this beautiful company.

My next stop was Hydro where I worked briefly in Lichtervelde, Belgium, responsible for their biggest press; 8.200 TN. Here I got the chance to work with a lot of experts in the field of big and wide extrusion. Although the plant itself isn’t state of the art, the people who work there certainly are. The commitment to deliver an aluminium profile within its specifications is of a very high standard.

Today I work as an independent aluminium extrusion consultant, collaborating with Eroga Die, UK’s biggest die-supplier and working closely together with two of Spain’s most recommended extrusion companies. At the end of last year I started selling aluminium profiles, extruded here in Spain to the northern European market. For me, after so many years, it’s still mind blowing to see all the different applications made with aluminium extruded profiles. There are simply no limits for what you can do with an aluminium profile.