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Gideon Yadin, Gevasol’s CEO, recounts how our 20 year long partnership with Lely begun.

Twenty years ago, my mother-in-law casually mentioned an acquaintance—a Dutchman who volunteered on a kibbutz in the 1970s. This Dutchman now works at Lely, a company that makes “a robot that does something with cows, and you should meet him.” Little did I know, this casual mention would lead to The Gevasol Group.

After some failed attempts to meet with “the Dutchman,” he eventually asked me to come to Schiphol Airport for a ten-minute meeting before he flew to South Korea. I came and met Aart van ‘t Land and his wife, Annette.

Aart, “the Dutchman,” was quite an intimidating figure who tried to understand the point of wasting his time in this forced meeting.

He told me I was wasting my time because Lely works with the best manufacturers in the world—ASCO and Festo—and they had no need for another manufacturer, let alone one who had nothing but motivation and broken English.

However, when the Dutch sense there might be something worthwhile, they are known to give it a chance. Aart promised to pass my details to Lely’s purchasing manager and to ensure a meeting would happen.

Months passed, and I heard nothing. Then, one day, the phone rang on a Friday afternoon, and the purchasing manager asked me to come urgently to Lely because they had a problem: A crucial FAS solenoid was unavailable, and they couldn’t deliver a robot without it. The solenoid was familiar to me because, for years, Baccara—the company I came from—supplied coils and actuator parts to FAS.

I jumped on the opportunity and provided an alternative in a short time.

When I brought the solenoid to Lely, I requested a tour of the facility. An engineer named Gerard Mostert showed me around, and during the tour, I noticed numerous opportunities for specialized manifolds. I asked Gerard if I could design an alternative at my own expense.

I was given the opportunity, and ever since—20 years now—we’ve been working with Lely, and we’re very proud of this partnership.