25 years of Undine

The Undine® has already saved millions of cubic metres of water. But how did it all start? In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we have listed our highlights. Check out our timeline below.

Farmer Ton Winters couldn’t receive an environmental permit anymore from the local municipality, because his farm used too much water. When an air compressor broke down and started spraying a mixture of water and air, Ton came up with an ingenious idea one night in August. Could he rinse his leeks with less water? It turned out to be a hit, and Undine® was born. On the 22nd of September, Ton applied for the first patent.

The first tests with the Undine technique at a chicken slaughterhouse. Many other tests will follow, including with Unilever Research.

In 2002 it was time to celebrate: Undine was the winner of best idea/invention of the year (in the Netherlands), chosen from 36.000 different projects. But unfortunately, the year after, the HT group went bankrupt.

In 2004, Ton met up with Tjerk Nijdam to see if they could start a cooperation and later, on 1 December 2004, IWC became definite.

In 2005 the Undine website goes live and the first small installations are built. From 2008 onwards we start to specialise in the poultry industry, almost all installations were done in the existing machines of the OEM. In the same year Ton sold the farm and the IWC office was established in Emmeloord. In the following year, the first export to foreign countries took place. The larger chicken slaughterhouses gave us the opportunity to save water while maintaining hygiene.

IWC is growing considerably: the orders are also increasing and agreements are made to create a new website.

Although the company was growing exponentially, we also had to deal with painful losses: with the passing away of Tjerk in 2018 as the biggest one.

In the last ten years we have been busy developing all products for the chicken industry and FFV. And of course expanding knowledge and growth of Undine in various markets. We have also gained experts in France, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, South Africa, Namibia, Italy and Spain.