About Zijlstra - History

How it began

Zijlstra was established In 1957 as a Metal Processing Production Company specialized in home decoration articles. In those days, Zijlstra provided a wide range of metal, tin and brass articles to the retailer. Even back then Zijlstra was known for the diversity of products that were very innovative and way ahead of their time.

For a long time products like smoking standards, coasters, magazine racks and candlesticks were produced in Tiel and found their way to a wide audience very easily.

Adapting to the changing market

In the seventies the retail trade experienced  hard times. Home decoration shops like they existed in that time, started disappearing. They merged into large domestic store chains. A natural consequence of this was that the accent within the Zijlstra assortment moved slowly from home decoration to (occasional) furniture.

More than half a century of experience

With all the knowledge and experience that  the company had accumilated in the use of tin, brass and other metals the logical step was to incorporate more of these raw materials into the designs. Wooden furniture was also added to the collection.

Glass furniture was first introduced into the collection at the end of the seventies and these products are still an integral part of the Zijlstra product range. Of course we continued to adapt to the taste of the 21st century.

Expansion

In 2004 Zijlstra expanded considerably. A complete new logistics centre was built that made it possible to deliver even faster and more efficiently. The logistic processes had been completely automated. Zijlstra owns a total of 10.000m2 warehouse and has its own transportation.

Anno 2009

Today Zijlstra has grown into a complete supplier of occasional furniture and lighting and has kept its leading market position. Important is that Zijlstra, with its own production locations, retains the great flexibility where it is famous for. Adaptations in the collection offer Zijlstra the freedom to continuously respond to the market trends.

Nowadays the Zijlstra collection consists of more than 800 different models that are nearly all available from stock.