The municipality of Veldhoven always wanted to extend its beautiful and historic cemetery, De Hoge Boght, with a funeral parlour and a crematorium. DELA won the tender that was subsequently issued. The funeral complex, with the same name and situated in a beautiful forested area, has now been realised. Peter Engelen is integration manager for the DELA cooperative and, as such, is responsible for developing new building projects. He is justly proud of the latest acquisition.

A lot of people who live – and die – in and around Veldhoven and Eindhoven are members of DELA. Although located only 12 km from another crematorium, demand in the Veldhoven region is such that there really was room for their ‘own’ facilities. Peter: ”Our crematorium in Eindhoven operates at maximum capacity and in this region there is especially a demand for small-scale funeral services that are nevertheless complete.”

Daylight and optimum services are the key to the new DELA accommodation. Peter: “We build our premises for the friends and relatives. As a cooperative association, making profit is not our most important objective; some of the profits go back to the members. What counts is that we want to offer what our members want. For instance, here in the Hoge Boght, families have space and time to say farewell in the way best suited to their loved ones. A committed team, supervised by location manager Margret van Hest, is realising that objective.”

DELA now has DFW Europe human cremators and filter technologies in nine locations. Peter: ”We have a good collaboration with this fast-growing party. They are quick to act and you always find yourself at meetings with the right people. People who do the work are service-oriented, close at hand and professional.” Naturally, DELA also has relationships with other oven-builders, but DFW Europe has a number of strong points. Peter: “I certainly do see this as a win-win situation because DFW Europe translates our ideas, our experience, our observations into practical solutions. This means our input can contribute to DFW Europe making their products more contemporary and user-friendly.”