History
PICUS Since 1883
In 1883 a German entrepreneur named Bruning started PICUS under his own name in Eindhoven (The Netherlands), because of the regional availability of cheap labor. He observed the rapid growth of the Dutch cigar trade and its need for large numbers of wooden boxes. Later he renamed his firm to PICUS, which is the Latin word for woodpecker.
This was a fitting name indeed, because Bruning was clever in exploiting the potential of Okoume wood, a light material with refined manufacturing potential. Out of this material he made the world’s first water-resistant plywood. This material was used for one of the first cars in the world called “Spijker”; also used by one of the first aircraft industries in the world named “Fokker”; and panels made out of this material were used for cruise vessels of “The Holland America Line” which brought many immigrants to the United States of America.
At its peak several years ago, the PICUS factory was quite large with about 1,200 workers. It even had its own soccer team called “The Woodpeckers” (De Spechten in Dutch).
Nowadays, we still use that PICUS know-how to produce high quality wooden boxes in our high tech production plants.
For more than 120 years, we have worked with one of the most interesting materials provided by Mother Nature: “wood”. This material is still appreciated by the people who work with it. Therefore, we invite you to do business with PICUS.
