Kees Bruynzeel

Cornelis ("Kees") Bruynzeel (February 19, 1900 in Rotterdam – 1980) was a Dutch businessman, timber merchant and yachtsman.

Bruynzeel was the son of Cornelis Bruynzeel Sr., who founded a timber factory in 1897, and Antoinette Lels. He studied in The Hague, and took several trips to the United States and Sweden to study progress in automatization and wood manufacturing. In 1920 he became manager of the family's new door factory in Zaandam. In 1922 he married Titia Verkade, daughter of the industrialist Ericus Gerhardus Verkade.

Bruynzeel Jr. was an avid sailor. He won the Fastnet race for the Netherlands in 1937 with his Stephens-designed yawl Zeearend ("sea eagle", the eagle being the logo of the Bruynzeel company). The Dutch designer Piet Zwart worked closely with Bruynzeel's father and his brother Willem (he designed their first kitchens) and was involved with the design of the Zeearend as well.

In 1939, when the production had expanded to include floors and kitchens and the threat of World War II was causing a decline in the building industry, he considered alternatives and pioneered the development of new timber materials for the production of the Bruynzeel kitchen and for boat construction. Using a newly developed water-resistant synthetic resin glue, Bruynzeel developed a durable three-ply wood, similar to plywood, for the fabrication of external doors. Bruynzeel went on to extend the concept of the modular kitchen and with E.G. van de Stadt developed the first industrialised boat construction system in the world.

Today Bruynzeel Multipanel Int. B.V., as it was later renamed, is a leading timber company that specialises in marine and construction timber, with distribution throughout Europe, North America and the Caribbean, amongst others. The Bruynzeel name also lives on as a shelving brand of the Norwegian Constructor Group.

...
Wikipedia