Océ Celebrates 130 Years

Earlier this week, Océ celebrated 130 years of business in a special ceremony in The Netherlands that included the great grandson of the company’s founding father.

In a speech to mark the occasion, CEO Rokus van Iperen detailed Océ’s achievements since 1877, when Lodewijk van der Grinten, a pharmacist, began large-scale production of an edible yellow coloring for butter and margarine.

In 1920, his grandson Louis started the company’s document-copying activities. He invented a new ammonia-free diazo process for copying technical drawings. He called it “O.C.”

“In the following decades, Océ grew that business to become the number one supplier of diazo,” said Iperen. “Today we are the number one global supplier of wide format monochrome printing systems for technical documentation, and number two in monochrome and color combined.”

Iperen also detailed the development of the Océ Copy Press—which transfers toner by direct press—the acquisition of Siemens Nixdorf High Performance Printing, and other milestones.

During the ceremony, he also recognized Olav van der Grinten, the great grandson of founding father Lodewijk van der Grinten. Olav van der Grinten was the last member of the family to have a seat on Océ’s corporate board.