Ben Pon senior

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Bernardus Marinus "Ben" Pon senior (born April 27, 1904 in Amersfoort , † May 15, 1968 in Amstelveen ) was a Dutch businessman, whose company Pon's Automobielhandel was the first abroad in 1947 to sell German vehicles after the Second World War Volkswagen group exported abroad.

Life

Ben's father Mijndert Pon had a shop with sewing machines, household items and tobacco products on Arnhemseweg in Amersfoort in the Netherlands since 1895 or 1898 . Opel bicycles and bicycles with auxiliary engines were added later . From 1920 Pon also sold Opel and Ford automobiles as well as Continental tires. In 1931 the brothers Ben and Wijnand Pon turned the company into Pon's Automobielhandel .

Relationship with Volkswagen

On August 8, 1947, Pon became Volkswagen general importer for the Netherlands and received 51 VW Beetles from Wolfsburg in the course of 1947 . In 1948 the company also became an importer of Porsche vehicles.

Ben Pon senior gave the decisive impetus for the development of the VW bus with a sketched design and is therefore considered one of the fathers of the VW Type 2 "Bulli".

In 1949 the first Beetle was shipped to America (half a million should follow by 1960, two years later there were a million Beetles ). What is certain is that Ben Pon was the first exporter to the USA via the Netherlands to make a significant contribution to this success . There is no evidence that he actually sold the first Beetle in the USA because he could not pay his hotel bill after looking for a sales partner - as described in The Beetle Driver .

In 1971 the company's dealer division was spun off and has since been run as a Pon Dealer . After Audi became a Pon partner in 1974 and the company continued to grow, Pon Holdings was founded in 1980 by Ben Pon junior , one of Pon's sons. Pon Holdings is still today (2015) a family company with around 13,000 employees.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Taco R. de Vries: De Vries-Bouma, Eikenaar-Brienesse - Pon, Bernardus Marinus (Dutch), accessed on March 12, 2018 ( Memento of March 12, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a) Pon Holdings: Van Hollandse handelsreiziger tot wereldspeler (Dutch), accessed on March 12, 2018. ( Memento from July 5, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
        b) Vereniging Bedrijf Historie: Pon's Automobielhandel (Dutch), accessed on March 12 2018. ( Memento from February 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Pon Dealer BV official website for the company's history DE DISCRIBE VAN PON DEALER IN VOGELVLUCHT ( Memento of November 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b "Met both benen op de grond", Pon in bedrijf , magazine of Pon Holding, 2006, p. 6 ff. (Online PDF 2.85 MB) ( Memento from July 10, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b Peter Lanz: Das große Käfer-Buch , Munich and Bergisch Gladbach, 1985, ISBN 3-404-60141-6 , p. 165 f.
  6. ↑ 1947–1955. Ben Pon has a brilliant idea . vw-nutzfahrzeuge.at, accessed on February 12, 2016 ( Memento from February 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Der Käferfahrer Issue 14, February 2001, p. 8 (online PDF 1.21 MB) ( Memento from April 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Pon, Ben senior
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pon, Bernardus Marinus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch businessman
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Amersfoort
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1968
Place of death Amstelveen