Jumbo is a supermarket chain in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It is part of the privately owned Van Eerd Group. Van Eerd was originally a grocery wholesale company established in 1921. With 740 stores and a market share of about 22%, Jumbo is the second largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, behind Albert Heijn.

History

On 18 October 1979, Jan and Anita Meurs opened the first Jumbo supermarket in a former church building in

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

. It was named after the elephant

Jumbo Jumbo (about December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes, a zoo in Paris, and t ...

as an act of one-upping the name of a local rival store called Torro, which belonged to Van Eerd. In 1983, Van Eerd bought the Jumbo store from the Meurs family and subsequently expanded, first in the southern provinces, then nationwide. , 77 establishments have been opened throughout the Netherlands. Together, they have a market share of 3.4% in the Netherlands as of 1 January 2006. The head office and distribution centre are situated in

Veghel Veghel () is a town and a former municipality in the southern Netherlands. On 1 January 2017 Veghel, together with Schijndel and Sint-Oedenrode, merged into a new municipality called Meierijstad creating the largest municipality of the provi ...

. Jumbo has three regional distribution centres: Beilen, Drachten, and Den Bosch. With the opening of Jumbo in Valthermond, Drenthe in October 2005, there is a Jumbo in every province of the Netherlands. Until the acquisition of C1000, relatively few Jumbos were in the

Randstad The Randstad (; "Rim" or "Edge" City) is a roughly crescent-shaped conurbation in the central-western Netherlands, consisting primarily of the four largest Dutch cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht); their suburbs, and many tow ...

. In September 2011, CVC announced that they would sell the

C1000 C1000 was a Dutch supermarket chain. Founded on 1 April 1977, the chain had 500 stores in 2012, with a market share of 12.1%. The supermarket chain operated in a rather unusual manner for supermarkets in the Netherlands, using the franchise system ...

supermarket chain. On 23 November 2011, it was announced that Jumbo would take over all C1000 stores. As a consequence, Jumbo became the second largest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, after Albert Heijn. On 26 January 2016, Jumbo announced that it had acquired V&D's restaurant chain, La Place, out of bankruptcy for an undisclosed amount of money.

Sports sponsorship

On 23 October 2014, Jumbo announced it would be a major sponsor of the

UCI World Tour The UCI WorldTour (2009–2010: ''UCI World Ranking'') is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the UCI ProSeries and various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an ann ...

professional cycling team, Belkin Pro Cycling, which became LottoNL–Jumbo and in 2019 Team Jumbo-Visma. Jumbo has been sponsoring Max Verstappen since 2016. In 2017-2019, Jumbo was a major sponsor of Racing Team Nederland that entered the

European Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

and the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2018-2019 and 2019–2020. In September 2022, company CEO Frits van Eerd was arrested amid ongoing investigations into money laundering that was carried out through real estate transactions, automotive trade and sponsorship in motocross. Jumbo commissioned an independent investigation into its sponsorship activities and found no criminal offenses or irregularities. Following the controversy, Jumbo announced in January 2023 that it will end most of their motorsport sponsorship but will continue support Formula One World Champion Max Verstappen.

References

External links

* * {{Supermarkets in the Netherlands Retail companies of the Netherlands Supermarkets of the Netherlands Companies based in North Brabant Meierijstad