The market leader in high-quality used process equipment, Foeth, is one of the oldest companies on industrial site Harselaar and one of the fastest growing in the Netherlands. In 2020, Foeth scooped the FD Gazellen award and they have been nominated this year as well. What is it like to work here?

We ask Marijn Verkuil. Within a few years, he grew within Foeth from mechanic to operations manager.

A place at Foeth

"When you walk into the workshop, you smell the oil and a grin appears on your face, you have to be at Foeth.", Verkuil says. Immense and full of the most diverse equipment. From gigantic pressure vessels to a small sieve. Walking around Foeth's premises, you can't help but be impressed. Foeth supplies premium quality used process equipment. They buy up process equipment, clean it, repair it where necessary, then sell and ship it around the world. Verkuil got to know Foeth through his previous employer, where he serviced forklifts. "It seemed like a great company, where I could use all my knowledge as a mechanical engineer," he says. No one was needed at the time, but after the takeover in 2017, Foeth grew fast. A prime time to take another shot. "Then it hit me and I got a job as a mechanic in the workshop.

Growing

Dynamic, growing and challenging. That's how he would describe his employer in three words. In a few years, Verkuil grew in from mechanic to salesman and eventually operations manager. "At Foeth, you get the opportunity, if you are open to it. There is plenty of room to learn in the field. As long as you are serious, eager to learn, and open to it, Foeth responds." "At the end of 2017 during Christmas drinks, the sales department suggested that they needed people, preferably a technical salesperson. I had the technical background, not the sales knowledge." He decided to seize the opportunity and study German and undergo sales training. After a few years of work, he was then the perfect candidate to organise the link between the workshop and sales. Since this autumn, he has left sales behind for an overarching position: operations manager, and he likes it. "It's a learning curve: you learn by doing and that's nice," he says.

Curious

What do you have to meet to work for Foeth? "Curiosity, ownership and of course a love of technology: that's what we think is important," states director Erik Saat. "That you walk around the site, see a machine, and instinctively think: what is it and what can it do? As long as you have a good technical base and want to learn, listen, and try, you've come to the right place."