History of IGO

On 4 December, 1924, Martien Jonkers was born in Helmond. On his 21st birthday Martien started his own business. With Jonkers’ Handelsonderneming (commercial enterprise) he laid the foundation of IGO-POST. He was one of the first people to introduce pens imprinted with advertisements to the Dutch (and European) market. His ambitions went beyond the Dutch borders and in 1961 IGO was founded, which is short for International Gift Organisation. IGO focused on selling promotional gifts to companies, foundations, institutions and the government.

In the 60s, Martien was introduced to the concept of ‘direct marketing’. He believed in this concept and changed IGO’s approach to the market. Sales was no longer done personally, but via catalogues. IGO, International Gift Organisation by (parcel) Post, was born! This turned out to be a golden move…

In the 80s, IGO expanded to Belgium and, in the 90s, France was added. In recent years sales offices were opened in England, Germany, Denmark and Austria. From these countries also the Luxembourgian, Italian, Swiss, Liechtensteiner, Irish, Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish markets are approached.

After having moved several times, headquarters has been situated at the Haverdijk in Helmond since 1992. To this day, the production facility in Helmond continues to grow. We have our own printing facility, packing and unpacking department and a large warehouse. In 2015 the logistics centre was extended by 10,000 m2, which enables further expansion of our production, making it ready for the future. Printing techniques are developing rapidly and our warehouse has more storage capacity, so that we can realise growth.

If you would like to know more about the history of IGO, please continue reading here for detailed information or view the company film about our history to this very day.