Flour for 40 million Europeans
Between 1898 and 1905 the Maashaven was built between the Rijnhaven and Katendrecht, the old red light district of Rotterdam. It was designed for the transshipment of bulk goods. Today it houses a waste incineration plant, warehouses and silos of (former) grain companies, such as the Meneba (Dossche Mills), the Quaker and the "Oude Graansilo". The last was redesigned into a nighthaawk venue, the Maassilo.
Next door the Meneba grain mill (MEelfabrieken der NEderlandsche Bakkerij), which was taken over in 2018 by the Belgian company Dossche Mills, is still thriving. The company was originally found in 1881 as N.V. Eerste Nederlandse Coöperatieve Meelfabrieken, a cooporerative where members of the bakers union could become shareholders here. In 1919, the factory was taken over by Meneba.
The building of the Maas flour factory was designed in 1913 by architevt Michiel Brinkman, who was responsible for several striking projects in Rotterdam like the elevatorhuis in Parklaan, the van Nelle factory, the Justus van Effen complex, the Sonneveldt and Boevé houses and the kuip voetbal stadium.
What seems to be straightforward today was revolutionary at the time: Brinkman took the production process as the starting point for the design of the building. The flour factory consists of a grain silo building, a cleaning building to process the grain and the mill building, where the grain is ground and sieved into different types of flour. These are then stored in flour silos to be packed in bags for transport to the bakeries. The complex also contains a boiler room, water tower, the loading and unloading building at the Maashaven and the bagging plant.
The factory is made of reinforced concrete and steel. The concrete mushroom columns were novelties first used for similar buildings in the United States. The buildings are clad in brick with various color accents and masonry bonds. Various ornaments and statues decorate the facade.
Architect Michiel Brinkman died in 1925, but the Brinkman and van der Vlugt agency continued building additions to the mill, such as, in 1931, a new office building, staff facilities and a factory gate, in 1934 a new boiler house, a grain silo with grain suction elevators and a coal bunker.
Changing room with the innovative mushroom columns
In 1944 the other factories of the company in 's-Hertogenbosch and Middelburg were destroyed and the production concentrated in Rotterdam. The factory there was expanded and they switched from steam power to electricity, which made the boiler houses and coal bunkers redundant. The expansions in 1953 to 1958 added the 46-metre-high flour and bag silo, which consists of ninety square cells.
The loading area
Even here are ornaments
The ruins of the elevators of the neighboring Maassilo
... and the Rotterdam skyline in the background
Dossche Mills ranks among the top 5 flour producers in Europe. The company has 350 employees, grind more than 1.2 million tons of wheat per year and generate a turnover of €350 million. Next to flour the milling residues are pressed into pellets sold as cattle feed. The products are marketed in more than 50 countries and 40 million Europeans are fed by the bakery products produced from the flower of this mill.
Top of the silo area
In a guided tour employees of Dossche Mills took us through the flour factory. One of the guides had worked here for more than 40 years. Everybody had to wear a protective coat and haircover. The tour started with the grain elevators. 99% of the grain arrives by ship, mostly from Germany and France, and is transferred to silos which hold a supply of 5 days of flour production capacity. It is weighed and sifted during transfer. Before being milled the grains are checked in an ingenious apparatus for ergot and bad grains, which are ejected by a quick jet of compressed air. Water has to be added to the grains to avoid splitting during the milling.
The ingenious sifting machine
After milling the flour has to be sieved and the coarse by-products are pressed into pellets as cattle feed. The products are either packed into sacks or elevated into trucks. Every year 24000 full trucks leave the plant.
The mills
In the basement, in the changing room for the employees, the famous original columns are still visible. Then we go up in an elevator for 8 floors. There is surprisingly little dust in the whole building. We climb up and down stairs between the different sections of the building. Eventually we end up in a floor where sieves wobble back and forth like fat living beings. It is difficult to walk through the narrow passage in between. My sense of equilibrium gets lost because all of the surroundings are moving in various different directions.
The whole process goes on 24/7 and is controlled by three shifts of only 5-6 operators. The company is in desperate need of new staff. They have set up a special study program at a school in Rotterdam. Students who pass can be sure to get a job.
The sieves
It is essential that the process runs smoothly and constantly. The electricity consumption is very high and each irregularity of the mills leads to a further increase in costs. About every 3 months the whole plant is shut down for several days to do maintenance so that the continuous process can be maintained the remaining time.
The pellet presses
A grain and flour plant is a heaven for rodents. Specialists and external companies try to change that into a hell for them. Every year 800 mice and 150 rats are caught without the use of poison, which might end up in the product.
Export flour
The work is not without dangers. In 2017, an employee fell in a flour truck. It took an hour-long rescue attempt to resuscitate the man, but he did not survive.
The entrance hall
The original part of the building still preserves the art deco entrance and hallway. The hall is decorated by stained glass, mosaics and busts of the founders of the company. In the hall of the head office building a narrow stairway leads down to a vault, which was used to keep cash money when every employee still carried home an envelope with his earnings at the end of the week. The director’s office offers a nice view of this part of the port. There are few ships left. Restructuring led to the removal of most industries from the city center to areas closer to the sea. Factories and warehouses are changed into apartments, shopping malls and entertainment.
Directorate meeting room
It is a long way from the traditional dutch windmill to a modern plant like the Dossche mill. However, some of the old wind mills still produce flower. Without consuming any energy they still work like they did when they were built, mostly in the 18th century. One is De Roos windmill in Delft. It sells flour, but the grain comes from Dossche mill, since it first has to be checked for not containing ergot or other bad content.
Main hall and stairs to the vault
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