Founder Profile
Samuel van den Bergh
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Samuel van den Bergh?
Samuel van den Bergh is a founder of Unilever PLC, which was founded in 1929 with William Hesketh Lever and Anton Jurgens.
- Company founded
- Unilever PLC
- Founded
- 1929
- Co-founders
- William Hesketh Lever and Anton Jurgens
Background
Van den Bergh came from a Dutch family business trading butter and later producing margarine in the Netherlands and Germany.
Founding Story
Samuel van den Bergh led Van den Bergh, a Dutch margarine maker that became one of Jurgens' main rivals. The two families combined their businesses into Margarine Unie in 1927, and Margarine Unie merged with Lever Brothers in 1929 to create Unilever. Because both soap and margarine depend on oils and fats, the merger gave the combined group shared purchasing of raw materials.
Samuel van den Bergh was born in 1864 in Oss.
Van den Bergh was born on April 6, 1864 in Geffen and died on February 4, 1941 in Nice. He joined his father's margarine company in 1888 and became its general director in 1909.