Written By Sam Henselijn
New life to an old passion. L’Orenta’s story started in 1934 with our great grandfather’s company called De Schaap B.V in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, an import and export distributor of dried fruits and a factory and processor of nuts, peanuts and dried fruits.
The company started by purchasing nuts and dried fruits through an importer. During World War II the company was not operational. After World War II the Henselijn family regrouped and rebuilt the company.
A new building of approximately 10,000 Sq. Ft. (1,000 m2) was purchased in 1960. The first new production machines such as ovens, packaging equipment, roasters etc. were housed in this new building. Even machines were purchased a lot of products were still manually packages. In the early 1960’s the first nut bars were established and supplied by De Schaap.
The so called nut bars turned out to be a great success and eventually about 2,500 stores came to life. Aside from selling nuts, the company’s assortment continues to diversify and increase, resulting in sales to national groceries, selling under private label and establishing a laboratory to ensure the highest in-house quality control possible.
In the 1970’s the company expansion included a larger production facility, warehousing, cooling cells and new offices. De Schaap was vertically integrated by owning the complete supply chain from start to end. The company had different divisions including: Marketing, procurement, finance, production, logistics, laboratory, import and retail.
The company’s warehouse footprint grew to about 300,000 sq. ft. (30,000 m2) in mid 1970’s.
Aside from production and supplying retail stores and national groceries the company started an export food distribution company early 1990’s. England, Belgium, Germany, France, all the Scandinavian countries, Russia and other parts of the world were supplied to name a few.
New life to an old passion
The Henselijn family decided to sell De Schaap and all the subsidiary companies (including the honey farm, and salmon smokery) in 1995. A few years before the sale the family incorporated a general foods import and export distribution company called Hocorn B.V., which is still an actively operating Henselijn owned company today the day.
An old love never fully disappears and sometimes gets chased down even after many years go by, along with the right opportunity presenting itself, now a fourth generation Henselijn, graduated with his MBA in The States, has decided to blow new life into our old passion, tradition and love in The United States.
With L’Orenta we want to give the United States customer an outstanding authentic experience delivering high quality and fresh products. Our goal is to provide our customers with a European happy experience and terrific customer service while providing delicious and exceptional tasting in USA made products.
Sam Henselijn Author’s Biography – Meet L’Orenta Nuts CEO
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L’Orenta Nuts proudly holds the SQF food safety certification, symbolizing our unwavering dedication to upholding the highest standards of food safety and quality. This certification guarantees that our products undergo rigorous scrutiny, ensuring transparency, traceability, and adherence to global food safety regulations for the utmost consumer confidence.
L’Orenta Nuts has the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) certification is a systematic approach to identifying, evaluating, and controlling food safety hazards. It ensures that food products are produced and handled in a manner that minimizes risks and complies with safety standards.
Our GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certification ensures that a manufacturing facility adheres to comprehensive quality and safety standards while producing pharmaceuticals, food, and other consumer goods, promoting consistency, quality, and compliance with regulatory requirements.
L’Orenta is an FDA-approved manufacturing facility and has met the rigorous standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It demonstrates compliance with regulations, ensuring the production of safe and high-quality food products.
