N.V. VSH FOODS, formerly known as the ‘Margarine, Fats and Oil Company Ltd.’, was established in 1960 by Rene Chin-Ten-Fung. Our Factory officially started up its machines in 1963 for the production of Yellow Bird Margarine.
During the second half of the 1970s the factory underwent its first large update. In this revision outdated machines were replaced and the production process was modernized. Times were good and the future of the Margarine, Fats and Oil Company looked bright. In the 1980s however the tides changed. Until the early nineties the factory faced great challenges, resulting from scarcity of foreign currency and fixed pricing policies. The supply of raw materials stagnated and the factory remained idle for quite some time. Important investments in replacement and renovation were postponed, because there was no prospect of a swift economic recovery. The extent of the damage only became apparent when Surinam joined the CARICOM in 1996. The factory was lagging behind in production, technology and marketing, which lead to inconsistent quality and packaging that did not meet the modern standards.
In the years that followed luckily the Surinamese economy recovered and the sales slowly started to increase again. This was largely thanks to very essential investments that could finally be done. An issue of bonds in 2001 made it possible to purchase new production machinery and laboratory equipment and to build a new storage facility. This thorough update was completed in 2004. A year later, in 2003, the factory shipped its first export order to Curaçao and in that same year the company acquired the HACCP certification. In 2004 the first export order was shipped to Trinidad.
During the same time, N.V. VSH FOODS introduced two new products: Bake ‘n Fry Shortening in 2004 and Golden Brand Slim in 2005. By the end of 2007 Golden Brand margarine, Yellow Bird margarine, Bake ‘n Fry Shortening and Golden Brand Slim were all transfat free. The upward trend continued and in June of 2008 the factory successfully introduced Marigold Butter Spread, followed by Golden Brand Slim No-salt Margarine.
On April 27th 2009 the General Shareholders’ Meeting officially approved the amendment to change the name of the Margarine, Fats and Oil Company Ltd. to N.V. VSH FOODS. In 2014 we started the preparations for the production of Golden Brand 2-stick Margarine, which was launched on November 20th 2015. This new easy and efficient packaging is fully in line with the international trends in margarine.