Deli Universal NV - Introduction

Introduction

Postbus 689
Rotterdam
NL-3000 AR
Netherlands
Telephone: ( +31) 10 402 17 00
Fax: ( +31) 10 411 76 94
Web site: http://www.deli-universal.nl

Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Universal Corporation
Incorporated: 1869 as Deli Maatschappij
Employees: 3,000
Sales: EUR 1 billion ($1.2 billion) (2003 est.)
NAIC: 511120 Offices of Other Holding Companies; 311423 Dried and Dehydrated Food Manufacturing; 312229 Other Tobacco Product Manufacturing; 423990 Other Miscellaneous Durable Goods Merchant Wholesalers; 424490 Other Grocery and Related Product Merchant Wholesalers; 424910 Farm Supplies Merchant Wholesalers; 424990 Other Miscellaneous Nondurable Goods Merchant Wholesalers

Netherlands-based Deli Universal NV is the wholesaling and distribution arm of Universal Corporation, alongside sister company Universal Leaf Tobacco Company. Deli Universal, which represents the continuation of the former Deli Maatschappij, is itself a federation of independently operating distribution and wholesaling businesses primarily active in the Netherlands. Deli Universal focuses on three core markets: Timber and Building Products, Agri Products, and Tobacco Sheet. The company's Timber and Buildings Products division is subdivided into three primary business units: regional distribution, through the Jongeneel network of 36 lumber centers catering to building contractors in the Netherlands; industrial, primarily through soft-wood specialist Heuvelman, as well as through its Bouter joinery business based in Bergambacht; and wholesale, through RET, Steffex, and Crailo, which supply wood products such as boards and plywood, as well as doors, ceiling and wall systems, and other materials and products to hardware stores and professional tradesmen and building contractors. Under Agri Products, Deli Universal includes: tea, under the more than 180-year-old Van Rees Group, supplying tea blends to packers worldwide; merchandizing, primarily of rubber, through Corrie, MacColl and Son in Engliand and Imperial Commodities Corporation in the United States; and canned goods, through Imperial Commodities Corporation. Deli Universal's Agri products also include the production and distribution of seeds and specialty grains and beans for confectionery and food processing through subsidiary Red River Commodities. Deli Universal's third division, Tobacco Sheet, is also the link to the company's past as one of the world's primary tobacco importers. This division, operating as Deli HTL in the Netherlands and as DHT in Germany, produces cigar wrappers and binders, as well as filler tobacco for cigars and cigarettes. Deli Universal has been part of the Universal Corporation since 1986.