Germany: Pellikaan Germany Celebrates 50th Anniversary

The construction company Pellikaan was founded in 1947 by entrepreneur Henk Pellikaan in the Netherlands. In 1967, the first foreign office was opened in Belgium, five years later followed another one in Germany. Pellikaan Germany is now celebrating 50 years of construction projects. While the focus of their projects at that time was still on apartment-, school- and industrial building construction, in the 1960s it started moving rather in the direction of sports complexes. Founder Henk Pellikaan himself was also a professional soccer player in the Dutch national team and built a sports hall in 1963, the “Pellikaanhalle“, the concept of which got such positive response that numerous more were subsequently built throughout the Netherlands.

In the 90s, his son Gerard Pellikaan opened a sports complex, innovative in that times, which comprised a swimming pool, wellness pools, fitness equipment and tennis courts. At first, the building was only accessible to members of the Pellikaan Health & Raquet Club, but today it is a sports school located at seven sites in the Netherlands under the name of “Club Pellikaan“. Pellikaan is still a family-owned business, currently run by the third generation, Roy Pellikaan. Managing director of the German office is Paul Gerrits.

In total, the company has already completed more than 1,000 projects. These include numerous sports halls, swimming pools and leisure facilities in Germany such as the transformation of the Düsseldorf Hockey Club, the construction of the Sea Life Center at the harbor basin in Speyer, the AQUApark Oberhausen, the multifunctional Vital Resort Oversum in Winterberg and the first David Lloyd fitness club. Another milestone in the company’s history was the realization of the 250th swimming pool: The Vogelsang family pool in Solingen, which opened in 2019. (eap)