King Willem Alexander opens renewed Lely Campus in Maassluis

"What started with a good idea to make it easier to work on the land, invented by two brothers in Maassluis in 1948, has now grown into a family business with 2,100 employees worldwide. With numerous innovations that make the lives of farmers around the world more sustainable, profitable and enjoyable. As a family business, we have been focusing on the long term for almost 75 years, and we will continue to invest in products that support this mission. The renewed Lely Campus offers Lely more space to build products for a sustainable future. The future of livestock farmers, cows, the planet and everyone who lives on it now," says Andre van Troost, CEO of Lely. 

Van Troost: "These are turbulent times for farmers in the Netherlands, and the government's plans to drastically reduce the livestock population bring great uncertainty. As an internationally operating company, but with the Netherlands as our home country, that hurts our hearts."  

According to Lely, many more opportunities can be seized to make the agricultural sector more sustainable and to reduce nitrogen emissions. The renewed Lely Campus is working on the farm of the future where circularity and animal welfare are key: reusing important nutrients, the feeding of fresh grass, waste reduction, emission reduction and creating a closer bond between the farmer and the consumer. Lely's 'Farm of the Future' is fully robotised and consists of integrated solutions that work 24 hours a day.  On this farm, completely centered around the cow, repetitive tasks such as feeding and milking are automated to enable the farmer to focus on what really requires his attention. 

Minister Henk Staghouwer: “It is great to see how successfully this Dutch family business contributes to making agriculture in the Netherlands more sustainable through innovation. Currently, conversations are often about farmers who will step out, but many more farmers will remain. We want to explore the opportunities with these farmers as entrepreneurs. Innovation plays a very important role in that.”

The Lely Sphere is Lely's most recent innovation. A circular barn system that separates solid manure and urine and converts nitrogen emissions into valuable fertilizers. The farmer can reuse this for precision fertilisation on the land. For example, the mineral cycle becomes circular, the use of artificial fertiliser decreases, and the climate in the barn improves. Recent scientific reports show that the Lely Sphere reduces ammonia emissions by up to 70%.  In 2021, the barn system was officially recognised, and included on the RAV-list (Regulation on Ammonia Livestock Farming).

Lely now employs 2,100 employees worldwide, of which approximately 1,350 work at the renewed Lely Campus in Maassluis. The new part of the Lely Campus was built by Dura Vermeer, according to a design by Converse Architects from Rotterdam and DoepelStrijkers for the interior architecture. During the design and construction of the Campus, sustainability was one of the most important design principles. 

The building is BREAAM outstanding certified, which means that it is one of the top most sustainable buildings in Europe. In addition, it is also a SMART building: it is full of sensors that collect data about the use of the building, which helps to use and maintain the building more efficiently. Above all, it must be a nice place to work, focusing on meeting colleagues. For this purpose, all sorts of facilities have been created, such as a wide variety of meeting rooms, individual workplaces, but also a healthy catering concept and a gym of 250 m². 

Lely, founded in 1948, focuses on a sustainable, profitable, and pleasant future for the agricultural sector. With the cow as the center, Lely develops high-quality robots and data systems that increase animal welfare, flexibility, and production in the dairy farm business. 

Lely has been a global leader in the sales and service of automated systems, to successive generations of dairy farmers for 30 years. Every day, Lely inspires its employees to offer their customers innovative solutions and to be a trusted partner for long-term advice and support. With its head office in Maassluis and a worldwide network of dedicated Lely Center branches for tailormade sales and service, the Lely Group is active in over 45 countries and employs around 2,100 people.