Background
In 1888, the year his father, Simon van den Bergh, opened his first German margarine factory in Kleve, Van den Bergh joined his father"s margarine company, of which he became general director in 1909 after his father"s death in 1907.
In 1888, the year his father, Simon van den Bergh, opened his first German margarine factory in Kleve, Van den Bergh joined his father"s margarine company, of which he became general director in 1909 after his father"s death in 1907.
He was initially in fierce competition with another manufacturer from Oss, Netherlands. Antonius Johannes Jurgens,whose grandfather, Antoon Jurgens, had founded the first margarine factory in the world in 1870 in Oss by buying a French patent and operated another German factory in nearby Goch. Both competitors merged in 1927 to form the Margarine Unie in Rotterdam (which would merge in 1930 with Lever Brothers to form Unilever).