Berkhof was a Dutch bus and coach builder based in Valkenswaard. Arthur Berkhof and his son Henk started it in 1970 with ten employees in a 1,000 m² workshop, and for the first eighteen months the company only repaired buses. Four decades later it was one of the factories behind VDL Bus & Coach, and its own name had gone.
VDL Berkhof at a glance
| Founded | 1970, by Arthur Berkhof and his son Henk |
|---|---|
| First workshop | 1,000 m², 10 employees, bus repairs only |
| New factory | 1985, Valkenswaard, 10,000 m², 132 employees |
| Capacity | 350 units a year after a 1989 expansion and the takeover of Hainje |
| Group | Berkhof Groep from 1989; Berkhof Jonckheere Groep from 1997 |
| Jonckheere takeover | 1994; the group then had about 1,200 employees |
| Bought by VDL | September 1998, as part of six companies |
| Brand ended | 2010, when VDL replaced the separate bus brands |
| Coach models | Axial 50, 70 and 100 DD; Excellence 500, 1000 and 2000 HL/HLE, 3000 |
| Bus models | Ambassador, Diplomat, Procity, Eclipse |
| Also built | low-floor articulated trolleybuses for Arnhem and Solingen |
The dates follow the Dutch articles where they are more precise than the English one: the group was bought by VDL in September 1998 and the brand names were dropped in 2010.
History of the VDL Berkhof
The company began in 1970 as a repair shop. Arthur Berkhof and his son Henk had ten employees and a factory of 1,000 m², and in the first year and a half they did nothing but repair buses. Growth came quickly: in 1985 the operation moved to a new 10,000 m² facility in Valkenswaard with 132 employees, and in 1989 the factory was enlarged by a further 10,000 m². That gave a production capacity of 350 vehicles a year, helped by the acquisition of Hainje.
From a factory to a group
In 1989 the business became the centre of a holding company, the Berkhof Groep, set up after Berkhof of Valkenswaard had taken over the bus factories of Hainje and the metalworker Postma, both in Heerenveen. More companies followed: the Belgian small-bus builder Denolf & Depla in 1991 and the Venlo builder of small buses, Kusters, in 1992. In 1994 the group bought the Belgian bus and coach maker Jonckheere of Beveren near Roeselare, which sold about 400 vehicles a year and employed 500 people. The staff of the whole group then reached 1,200, and in 1997 the holding changed its name from Berkhof Groep to Berkhof Jonckheere Groep.
Part of VDL
In September 1998 the VDL Groep bought the complete Berkhof Jonckheere Groep, adding six companies at once: Berkhof itself in Valkenswaard, Hainje and Postma in Heerenveen, Denolf & Depla, Kusters and Jonckheere. VDL had entered coachbuilding two years earlier with the takeover of Smit Joure, and in 2003 it also bought BOVA, the other coachbuilder in Valkenswaard. In 2005 a central organisation, VDL Bus & Coach, was set up for all the bus companies, and in 2010 the separate brand names — BOVA, Berkhof, Jonckheere and Kusters — were replaced by the single VDL brand. The factories were renamed in 2011, and the Valkenswaard body plant became VDL Bus Modules.
What Berkhof built
The company made both touring coaches and public transport buses. Its coach range included the Axial 50, Axial 70 and the double-deck Axial 100 DD, and the Excellence 500, 1000, 2000 HL/HLE and 3000. For city and regional services there were the Ambassador, the Diplomat, the Procity and the Eclipse. Berkhof also built low-floor articulated trolleybuses, which ran in Arnhem in the Netherlands and in Solingen in Germany.
Design and features
- Bolted bodywork: the lightweight construction refined on the Ambassador joined roof, side frames and side panels with bolts rather than welds, so that a damaged bus could be repaired quickly without a major strip-down.
- Two ranges: separate coach lines (Axial, Excellence) and city and regional buses (Ambassador, Diplomat, Procity, Eclipse) came from the same Valkenswaard works.
- Trolleybuses: low-floor articulated trolleybuses were built for the networks of Arnhem and Solingen.
- Group production: with Hainje in Heerenveen the group could offer city buses alongside the Valkenswaard coaches.
VDL Berkhof versions
- Ambassador: the city and regional bus that became the best-known Berkhof product and the base for the lightweight construction later used on the VDL Citea.
- Axial 50 and Axial 70: touring coaches; the Axial 100 DD was the double-deck version.
- Excellence 500, 1000 and 2000 HL/HLE: the coach range above the Axial.
- Diplomat and Procity: city buses; the Diplomat was still in production when the Citea arrived.
- Eclipse: a further bus model of the later years.
The lightweight construction developed for the Ambassador was carried over to the VDL Citea, which replaced the last Berkhof city buses, while the coach side of the group stood next to VDL Bova. More vehicles are in the VDL collection.
Video: Arriva 8329 – VDL Berkhof Ambassador 200
Video on YouTube.
Sources
- Berkhof Groep, English Wikipedia: founding, factory, models, trolleybuses
- Berkhof Jonckheere Groep, Dutch Wikipedia: holdings and takeovers
- VDL Bus & Coach, Dutch Wikipedia: 1998 purchase and end of the brand names
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