Overview
A slaughterhouse stood on Industriestraat, right by Aalten station, for almost a century. Its origins go back to the early 20th century, when the municipality began renting out facilities for slaughtering. From 1903, slaughtering became more industrial in character. In 1916, merchant B.J. Rathmer had an export slaughterhouse built here to a design by municipal architect Jan Brill. The municipality bought the complex in 1922, after which it officially became the municipal slaughterhouse.
In 1964, Bram Kropveld and André van Schipstal took over the slaughterhouse from the municipality and the business became known as KSA (Kropveld Schipstal Aalten). Pigs had also been slaughtered there in earlier years, but stricter regulations led the company to concentrate exclusively on calves. It later traded under the name Kalver Slachterij Aalten.
In 1976, KSA opened new office accommodation on the site of a former house. The foundation stone was laid by KSA employees. Production increased substantially over the years and additional cold-storage rooms were added. Around 1990, the dispatch area was completely rebuilt. From then on, two lorries could load at the same time and incoming and outgoing traffic was largely screened from view.
Takeovers
In 1988, the slaughterhouse came into the hands of the Coöperatieve Centrale Veevoederfabriek. In 1992, it was sold to the Van Drie Group and specialised in slaughtering Friander, or rosé, calves. During the 1990s, KSA developed into a modern company with around 65 employees and, at its peak, more than one hundred.
In April 1996, the Aalten slaughterhouse made international headlines. On behalf of the Dutch government, 64,000 British calves were killed because of BSE, commonly known as ‘mad cow disease’.
In 2001, plans were drawn up to add an upper floor to the slaughterhouse so that boning and further processing could also take place in Aalten. The planning procedures failed, however, and the foot-and-mouth disease crisis, together with the associated transport bans, brought the business to a standstill for several weeks. The plans were consequently abandoned.
Closure
In 2012, the Van Drie Group decided to concentrate its activities in order to reduce costs. This worked against KSA because the Aalten plant could slaughter calves only; the carcasses then had to be transported to sister companies for processing, which was expensive. As a result, KSA closed its doors on 31 December 2012.
Several years later, the buildings were demolished and the site, together with that of the former Te Paske timber merchant, was sold to the municipality. The municipality subsequently sold it to Beele Engineering. Beele developed its R&D campus, ‘Sealing Valley’, here, giving the former slaughterhouse site a new industrial role in manufacturing.
Address history
1934 address directory
Aalten A36 > Industriestraat 5
Slaughterhouse
1967 address directory
Industriestraat 5
Municipal slaughterhouse
Owners
This overview is not complete.
| Year | Plot | Owner | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | I-4164 | Bernard Johan Rathmer, merchant | 4,100 m² export slaughterhouse, stables, police hut and grassland |
| 1925 | I-6098 | Municipality of Aalten | 4,070 m² slaughterhouse site, |
| 1963 | I-8955 | Municipality of Aalten | 3,954 m² abattoir, house, shed, |
| 1978 | K-1043 | Kropveld-Schipveld Aalten B.V. | 3,320 m² slaughterhouse, shed, yard |
| 1987 | K-1683 | Kropveld-Schipveld Aalten B.V. | 4,441 m² slaughterhouse, yard |