Philippus van Ommeren III joined his grandfather’s firm Firma Phs. Van Ommeren in 1878. Seven years later, on January 1885, he was made a partner. He saw that an important link between the supply and distribution of oil products was missing. He believed the business should operate a tank site in the Port of Rotterdam to store oil before its further distribution. The eldest partner, Hermanus de Jongh, saw nothing in such a storage site and refused to add a new activity to the shipbroking, agency, short-sea shipping and inland shipping activities.

Philippus van Ommeren was not deterred by his uncle. Together with a fellow Rotterdam businessman, A.J. van Woerkom, he established Maatschappij tot Exploitatie van handelsterreinen Vlaardingen (Matex) in Rotterdam in 1910. The authorised capital amounted to 500,000 guilders. Van Ommeren held three quarters and Van Woerkom the remainder. Matex’s management and offices were located on the Westerlaan in Rotterdam.

 

Nieuwe Matex under Van Ommeren’s wing

Philippus van Ommeren III bought the Matex site to the west of Vlaardingen in 1910 and sold it in 1929 together with a number of tanks and tank wagons to Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij. He retained the right to begin a new storage business at another site using the tanks he had not sold. Bataafse had insisted that the new business could not store mineral oil or mineral oil products. For a new storage site for edible oil and molasses, Van Ommeren turned his sights to the east of Vlaardingen. A site with 29 tanks arose at the Koningin Wilhelminahaven, where the terminal is still located today.

The deed incorporating Nieuwe Matex NV was executed before a notary on 16 December 1929. Philippus’s brother, Pieter Johannes, was one of the supervisory directors at Nieuwe Matex. At the beginning of 1942 he told his eldest brother in Wassenaar of his concerns for the future of the tank storage operations. Since the start of World War II, the company had been virtually idle and had suffered a loss for two years in succession. The only work at the site was the storage and processing of Dutch molasses. No one knew how long the war would last. Wouldn’t it be better to transfer Nieuwe Matex to the company with which there had traditionally been such strong family ties, Phs. Van Ommeren’s Scheepvaartbedrijf?

More and more people saw the advantages of having the business run by Van Ommeren. Van Ommeren’s international network, for example, would be of untold value to the tank storage operations after the war. Co-ordination of Van Ommeren’s tonnage on the one hand and Nieuwe Matex’s storage capacity on the other hand had significant potential, which might eventually lead to the storage of mineral oils. Moreover, a Van Ommeren - Matex bloc would be better positioned to negotiate favourable terms if it ever came to an alliance with Pakhuismeesteren.

On 6 October 1942 an agreement was finally concluded between Philippus van Ommeren III and NV Phs. Van Ommeren’s Scheepvaartbedrijf. All issued and placed shares in NV Nieuwe Matex, with a nominal value of one million guilders, were transferred to the company on 1 November 1942.

On 5 October 1944 the Vlaardingen facilities were blown up by dynamite. The liberation heralded a great deal of work for Van Ommeren. At Nieuwe Matex in Vlaardingen no effort was spared to rebuild the original capacity of 144.000 m3. By the end of 1945 a third of the storage site had been restored and immediately taken into operation.