Willem Grasso

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Willem Grasso (20 April 1833, Tilburg – 20 March 1903, Boekel) was the founder of Grasso’s Royal Machine Factories Ltd.

As a son of a smith, Grasso moved in 1845 from Tilburg to 's-Hertogenbosch. At the age of 14, he did experience at the (in that time well-known) Belgian factory Galain. In 1858, he started his own little forge in ’s-Hertogenbosch. In 1868, he let himself built a new factory / living house. Thanks to his good contacts with Jurgens, who received the rights for producing margarine in 1871, Willem Grasso was the first to have the chance to produce machines for this fast growing industry. The name Grasso soon would be world famous. In 1894, his son Henri Grasso would take over the company. In 1896, he strated a refrigeration department in Vught. In 1913, he returned to ’s-Hertogenbosch, when the opportunity came up to build a brand new factory there. In the same year, he was the first in the Netherlands to start producing refrigeration machines, using the name Grasso.