The History of Euribrid

The History of Euribrid

Founders

Location

Company Development

Staff

Products: Layers

Products: Broilers

Marketing

Franchises

Bibliography and Resources

Founders
Wilhelmus Hubertus Hendrix was born in Venray in 1896, the youngest child of Engelbertus and
Anna Maria Hendrix. He had an older brother, Johannes and a
sister Anna. His family moved to Boxmeer in December 1903 and
set up business as an agricultural merchant in Spoorstraat. The
first indication that Wim Hendrix would follow his father in
agriculture was found in notary documents in 1916. His father’s
business was entered in the Boxmeer trade register in 1921. In
June 1925 Wim married Johanna Maria C. Reynen and two months
later the family business was transferred to his name at the
Chamber of Commerce and Factories in Venlo. Over the next 12
years the Wim and Anna Hendrix had six children of whom
Engelbertus would later enter the family business.

Wim Hendrix 1896-1965, Founder of Hendrix Fabrieken N.V. and Euribrid BV.
(Courtesy of Hendrix Genetics)
In 1928 the Hendrix Fabrieken NV began advertising compounded feeds for sale in a Boxmeer trade
magazine and employed extension staff. The company grew to become one of the largest private
cattle, and, pig feed compounders in Holland. Farmers who purchased feed were more or less
obliged, within the framework of the business management at the time, to all adopt the services of
the company. A pig farmer for example, purchased Hendrix bred piglets and Hendrix produced feed
and they were treated by a veterinary surgeon approved by Hendrix who prescribed products from
Intervet. Eventually the pigs ended up in the slaughterhouse of the company. Where such a link was
lacking the farmer got a lower price for his pigs. In the cooperative sector, such as Cehave
Landbouwbelang, similar practices applied. Fifty one years later the family sold its shares to British
Petroleum in 1979.

The idea to start a poultry business was

not Wim Hendrix’s. The inspiration came
from Ir. Guus P.A. van den Eijnden.
Following graduation from Wageningen
Agricultural University van den Eijnden
completed post-graduate studies at
Aberystwyth in Wales, home of the
famous "S" strains of grass and clover. At
Wageningen and Aberystwyth he would
have been aware of the developments in
hybrid corn that had been produced in the
U.S. by Pioneer since 1928 and by DeKalb
since 1934. The Pioneer poultry
department, Hy-Line, was selling semi-
inbred line crosses in the early 1940’s and
DeKalb placed their hybrid layers on the
market in 1948. He may have been aware of the visits to the UK by Henry B. Wallace in 1949 and
1950, and the collaboration between Henry B. Wallace and Cyril Thornber which amounted to
swapping some pure lines (John Harrison personal communication, and Thornbers Annual 1954).

The text reads “Henry B. Wallace and Cyril Thornber in America examining some Thornber Breeding stock which was
exported to Hy-Line Poultry Farms, Des Moines” (Reproduced from the Thornbers Annual 1954)

Van den Eijden was working as a corn breeder in the C.I.V. cooperative in Ottersum. He was selling
his hybrid corn to the CHV in Veghel who gave him 6c/kg more for his hybrid corn on a licensed
basis. Because of his hybrid corn breeding van den Eijnden recognised the potential of hybrid
chickens. In the beginning of 1951 he obtained the Hy-Line brochures from the headquarters in West
Des Moines, Iowa. He immediately wondered if Holland was a suitable country to make it work in
Europe. He did not have financial resources to start the business on his own but he found out from
his brother-in-law that Wim Hendrix was doing similar things.

Left Ir. Guus van den Eijnden, Co- Founder of Euribrid B.V. (Courtesy of Hendrix Genetics) Right Mr A.J.S. Derks with Wim
Hendrix on his right (Reproduced with permission of Martinus Nijhoff)

Van den Eijnden approached Wim Hendrix with the intention of trying to interest him in supporting
his idea of producing hybrid chickens. Wim Hendrix asked van den Eijnden to explain the concept to
a lawyer employee, Mr. A.J.S. Derks and left them to discuss the idea. Half an hour later Hendrix
returned and Derks said there was something in it. That was how the idea of hybrid chickens was
introduced to the Hendrix organisation in 1951.
In the summer of 1951, Mr. Derks and Guus van den Eijnden went to England to introduce
themselves to Henry B. Wallace. A daughter of Mr. Derks accompanied them to be, if necessary,
their translator. In September 1952 Guus van den Eijnden and Bert Hendrix, the eldest son of Wim
Hendrix, travelled to the Hy-Line farms in West Des Moines. That resulted in the European agency. In
1953 Henry B. Wallace made a counter visit and in 1954 Wim Hendrix visited Iowa with advisor D.
Mossel, Bert Hendrix and Guus van den Eijnden, who in November of that year was hired with a long
term contract to Hendrix. In August 1955 Mr. and Mrs. Cyril Thornber and Henry B. Wallace, visited
the Hendrix H.Q.
After this trip, several more visits were made, culminating in November 1958 with the visit of the
father of Henry B. Wallace, Henry A. Wallace to Boxmeer. Henry A. Wallace was the founder of Hi-
Bred Corn, later to become Pioneer Hi-Bred, and was a Secretary of Agriculture and a Vice President
in the Franklin D. Roosevelt era.
However there were many difficulties to overcome before the idea was realized. The poultry
cooperatives in Holland were totally against it and De Bilt, the Government organisation for the
management of chickens and egg industry, was totally against it. The view was that it would be
impossible to import “miracle chickens”. The Dutch believed that Holland was the most properly
organised country in poultry breeding and production. There was a huge resentment of the prospect
of hybrid chickens following WW2 when Europe had a fresh memory of the idea of a superior race of
people through selective breeding. The cooperatives also warned that the introduction of the U.S.
breeding methods would create a dependency on U.S. technology. The hybrid chickens would be a
potential danger to their own poultry races and existing Dutch breeders. But it became a matter of
time, not a question of if, when things would start to happen in Holland.
From the beginning Wim Hendrix knew he was definitely right to make his vision work in Holland.
Actually the first hybrid chickens arrived in Belgium in 1951 and were used to launch some clever
publicity. Some chickens had been brought up in Belgium. Van Haeren, the Director of egg laying
competitions in Belgium, France and Germany for 50 years allowed the Hendrix Hy-Line stock to
enter the competitions. All of them were won by the new Hendrix product. Advertisements and
articles in papers were creating good publicity and promoted the superb quality of the hybrids.
Hendrix started, under supervision of Marinus van den Eijnden, brother of Guus van den Eijnden, a
new brochure - Hy-Line News- to promote the idea and the quality of the new hybrids. This was
similar to the Hendrix feed brochure. The pressure of the business itself really won over what the
government was doing to stop it. In a parallel development in 1951 an International Breeding
Congress in Paris produced a report totally focused on the hybrid breeding system.
The Dutch Cooperatives were in a very protective mode lead by their Chairman Mr. J. Tucker.
Although poultry imports were prohibited in Holland, Hendrix knew how to import fertilized hybrid
eggs. Mr. G. Richter of the Laboratory Nobilis, part of the Hendrix Organisation, was able to import
eggs for the purposes of vaccine production. On April 16th 1951 he made a request for the import of
720 hatching eggs from hybrid laying hens to the Director of Animal Health and Production located
in Gravenhage. The purpose was to be able to do tests to get a higher virus concentration in the
vaccination against pox and diphtheria. Letters had already been sent by van den Eynden to Henry B.
Wallace at Hy-Line to include eggs from lines suitable for dams and sires. In a few weeks time 720
test eggs of different lines arrived in Holland ready for “vaccine production testing”. On the 29th April
1951 the first eggs were placed in an incubator by van Duynhoven in St Anthonis.