100+ years
of innovation

On 1 April 1922, Wijnand Houdijk founded 'Machinefabriek en Reparatie-inrichting W. Houdijk' with a 345-guilder loan from his wife, Johanna. At 32, and with a solid background in engineering and management, he opened a small workshop in Vlaardingen.

Working alongside his first employees, Jan and Bernardus Versteege and Willem van der Schee, Wijnand quickly grew the business and repaid the loan within a year. It was the start of a lifelong commitment to quality and craftsmanship.

About 25 years after its founding, Wijnand Sr.’s three sons, Wijnand Jr., Joop and Aad, joined the family business. Under their leadership, Houdijk evolved into a versatile machine factory, developing custom solutions for every automation need.

In the 1960s, Houdijk ventured into biscuit processing, rapidly expanding its reach across Europe with innovative systems. As projects became more complex, simple automation was no longer enough, pushing Houdijk’s creativity to new heights.

In the late 1980s, Bart Houdijk succeeded his father Joop and uncles, steering the company towards specialization in the engineering of advanced processing systems for baked goods manufacturers worldwide. As part of this transformation, all repair work and other machine manufacturing activities were phased out and outsourced to trusted partners.

First introduced in 2008, the Houdijk Capper confirmed our position as global leader in biscuit handling. Designed for sandwich biscuits like Oreo, the Capper has continuously evolved. From its early version with single-cookie flipping to today’s Mark III with high-speed continuous turning, the Capper delivers unmatched efficiency and quality in biscuit production.

While our high-volume lines were built for maximum efficiency with one product type, customers increasingly asked for more flexibility. As Bart Houdijk put it: “We’ll solve this with robots.”

Introduced in 2018, the Cookiebot is a smart pick-and-place robot that uses vision technology to handle biscuits of different shapes and sizes. Whether placing cookies into trays or onto conveyor belts, the Cookiebot delivers speed, precision, and flexibility.

Today, the Houdijk Cookiebot has become a trusted solution worldwide.

On April 4th, 2022, we - as Houdijk Holland - proudly celebrated our 100-year anniversary. As the ultimate recognition of our expertise, national significance and longevity, we were honored to receive the prestigious title of 'Royal', granted by the King of the Netherlands. From that moment, the company name became Royal Houdijk, marking a new chapter in their rich history.

Want to dive deeper into 100 years of Houdijk? To mark the occasion, we launched a dedicated website featuring a rich, in-depth timeline that brings our history to life. You'll find it here. 

By 2025, Royal Houdijk is a global leader in processing and packaging technology for baked goods, from high-volume lines to advanced robotic systems.

Despite rapid growth, Royal Houdijk stays true to its family values, combining a century of innovation with service and dedication to deliver lasting, impactful solutions for generations to come.