A LITTLE HISTORY

In the mid to late 1950's and early 1960's, there was a huge influx of migrants of all nationalities into Australia. Being in a new country was perhaps wonderful for many having left behind difficult times in predominately Europe, however, people were of course homesick both for the old country, but especially the food they had become accustomed to as part of their traditions and day to day life.

Many enterprising migrants recognised this as an opportunity to import products from their various home countries, which saw a huge influx of Greek, Italian and many other European products including amongst others, products from the Netherlands.

One such person from Western Australia was a Joop De Haan, who started from humble beginnings working from his home and selling to the local Dutch population a range of cakes, biscuits rusks and all manner of foodstuffs he imported from the Netherlands. He worked from home and stored goods both inside his house and later in a tin shed adjacent to his home. Mr De Haan did very well visiting his customer base and selling product from a vehicle in basically a door-to-door situation. The Dutch population were thrilled to be able to enjoy these "homesick" products right here in Western Australia and soon of course shared these goodies with the local Australia population.

From these humble beginnings Mr De Haan was approached by certain supermarkets and specialty stores who were in search of something new and different and so began the story of Centra Fine Foods as a wholesaler and importer focussed then almost entirely on imported products from the Netherlands. He soon outgrew his home storage situation and moved to a purpose built warehouse in the late 1970's.

In 1981, an already successful Dutch business couple, John and Selma van Straalen saw the opportunities offered from a business such as Centra Fine Foods. They had been regular customers of Mr De Haan and jumped at the opportunity when the business became available for sale. The van Straalen family took over in April 1981 and apart from growing the business via just Dutch products, they embarked on expanding and diversifying into both other European products as well as some excellent Australian products.

Mr and Mrs van Straalen retired in 1989 and management was vested in their son Paul van Straalen. The grocery business continued to grow and in 1991, a food service division specialising in cheese and dairy products was set up. This division handled predominately Australian dairy products and focussed on the growing number specialty and boutique dairy operations that proliferated in the early 1990's. The business grew phenomenally throughout the nineties and is now poised for bigger and better things as we head into the new millennium.

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