
From left to right: Dieter Hasevoets, Martijn van ’t Wout, Paul Boeren & Cor Klaassen
‘A company to be proud of’
In many ways, 2024 is a special year for KH Engineering. We are happily working on both small and large projects for our clients, securing multi-million orders, and celebrating our 75th anniversary. Long-time employee Paul Boeren, Chief Operations Officer of our company, and two relative ‘newcomers’, Dieter Hasevoets and Cor Klaassen, share more about what has been keeping us busy this year.
Cor Klaassen has strengthened our organisation since March of this year as Business Unit Manager at our Amsterdam office. From there, he uses his years of industrial engineering experience, gained at various engineering firms, to provide excellent service to our clients. ‘The market segments in which we operate include (petro)chemicals, storage & logistics, real estate, heavy industry, (sustainable) energy, pharmaceuticals, and the food industry.’
Energy transition
Cor: ‘We see that all our clients are really making progress with the energy transition. For example, we are retrofitting existing installations to accommodate new energy carriers, and we are supplying factories with new, low-carbon or climate-neutral energy sources. Think of hydrogen, ammonia, and batteries for energy storage. Furthermore, we are building new installations, for instance, to turn waste into new products or energy.’ Without diminishing the importance of other projects, Cor highlights a major ongoing project: ‘At Cosun Beet Company in Groningen, we are working on the expansion of a large installation where, by using heat pumps among other technologies, we contribute to the sustainability of their production process. We have formed an on-site team from Schiedam and Amsterdam that manages or oversees the engineering and construction from A to Z.’
Multidisciplinary service package
Dieter Hasevoets has been leading our Antwerp office as Business Unit Manager since the beginning of this year. He previously worked in various roles at Engie, including operations and maintenance, EPC projects, and Business Development. ‘I feel completely at home in this new role at KH Engineering’, says Dieter. ‘Developing our office while also working on business cases together with our clients is truly rewarding.’ Dieter is currently focused on consolidating the full range of multidisciplinary services that KH Engineering provides to industrial clients, both in brownfield and greenfield projects.
Framework agreements
Dieter: ‘We are also working on new framework agreements, where we see significant potential in Belgium to expand their number and align them more closely with our strong position in the Netherlands. It is a significant advantage for our clients when we are involved early in their projects to develop a solid business case based on a reliable design and investment budget. This is especially true because we are capable of engineering completely new installations, as well as integrating new, more energy-efficient, climate-neutral technologies into existing installations. This way, our clients can achieve their sustainability goals, reduce CO2 emissions, improve operations, and future-proof their businesses. We do this partly on the ground, and partly from our high-value engineering centres abroad. This creates a good synergy in knowledge while also offering competitive advantage.’
Career progression
Paul Boeren is undoubtedly a seasoned member of KH Engineering. He started 33 years ago as a Process Engineer with our company. He later progressed to become the Business Unit Manager of the Schiedam office and COO of KH Engineering. ‘I am proud to celebrate our 75th anniversary this year. It’s been a fantastic journey – from a small ‘drawing office’ to a medium-sized multidisciplinary engineering firm with a bright future ahead. What I appreciate about KH Engineering is our unwavering focus on ensuring that our solutions are future-proof for our clients. Moreover, we have the perfect ‘midsize’ scale to combine ample capacity with a personalised approach. We are always close to our clients, and our employees truly see the results of their efforts.’
Pride
Cor adds: ‘I consider KH Engineering a company to be proud of: with clients like KLM, Tata Steel, Shell, TotalEnergies, and many more, we have a strong market position that many other firms would envy.’ Paul: ‘Indeed. Over the past year, we have worked on many exciting projects, and in the meantime, we have also achieved our ISO 27001 certification. This ensures that both we and our clients can rely on the highest level of information security.’
Celebration
Dieter: ‘We’ve celebrated our anniversary in various ways throughout the year. In mid-October, we held the largest event at the Grote of Sint Janskerk in Schiedam. Hundreds of employees from all our departments and locations, together with their partners, enjoyed an escape game, a delightful food market, and the KH Top 75 playlist, compiled by our colleagues. We look back on this celebration with great pleasure.’