1989 | Start of the company
Started by entrepreneurs Toon and Mieke van Gennip both experienced in textiles; One was an textile agent in Belgium for several fashion brands and the other sold babywear and swimwear on local markets, the idea of creating their own brand was born in 1989 and in December 1989 they decided to travel to Hong kong to meet new suppliers.This was the start of lentiggini swimwear.
1991 | Launch Dirkje Babywear
Family Van Gennip decided to add babywear to their assortment as swimwear is a seasonal product only. They decided to name the brand after their dog ‚ Dirkje‘ which is a name used for both girls as boys in Holland. They found a good designer who manually draw all sketches and did all coloring and artwork by hand. All operations were done from their home and a rented warehouse for the incoming and outgoing goods.
1998 | Start building
They outgrown their home office and warehouse. They decided it was time for next step and they bought ground of almost 4000m2 in Weert where they build their new office space and warehouse.
1999 | Grand opening Weert
All operations were up and running in Weert.
2004 | Start export
With the new generation on board new ideas were born and fresh look on fashion and sales. The brothers started to focus more and more on not only importing the goods to Holland and selling them in Holland or Belgium but also exporting the brands to European countries. By attending more international fashion fairs and searching for good business partners abroad they quickly build up a network of good fashion partners with own shops or networks in their country, this gave a boost to the company turnover and growth.
2005 | New project
As Van Gennip textiles sold Dirkje babywear successfully there were some requests from their customers if we could also do kids wear. Dirkje was only sold up to 2 years at that time, one of the sons decided to start this new project.
2007 | Launch DJ Kidswear
They tried to make a more rougher brand, denim look and feel. Making this brand a good addition to the existing dirkje brand.
2009 | Retirement Senior
Founder Toon van Gennip retires leaving the company in good hands for a younger generation.
2011 | DJ Dutchjeans
To give more brand value and more international exposure DJ Kidswear was turned into DJ Dutchjeans.
2015 | Launch Mila Beachwear
Start of Mila, beachwear for Ladies. The demand of a luxury higher margin product from our customers lead to the start of this new brand within van Gennip.
2017 | Charlie Choe
Van Gennip textiles takes over Charlie choe the sleepwear brand. This brand has a good addition to the brands VGT is running already, with a good part of kids pyjamas and high quality level. VGT will lift this brand in following years to a major player on the global sleepwear market. Charlie choe b2c sites will be implemented to Van Gennip systems and extended to our other brands.
2017 | New WMS
New warehouse management system. From December a new WMS is implemented into VGT‘s head office making the logistic process quicker better and easier.
2017 | Launch Koko Noko
a new storytelling marketing brand for baby and kids up to 8 years. A new look on baby fashion and a new business model.
2018 | Launch B2C marketing platform
Launch of the b2c webshops of Koko Noko & DJ dutchjeans.
