Royal Smit & Zoon mourns former CEO Joost Smit, dies at 83
Joost Smit, Royal Smit & Zoon’s sixth-generation owner and former CEO, died suddenly at 83 after shaping the leather chemicals maker for decades.
Royal Smit & Zoon is mourning Joost Smit, its sixth-generation owner and former chief executive, who died suddenly on Friday, June 19, at the age of 83. Smit led the Dutch leather chemicals company until 2006 and remained involved afterward as a member of its Supervisory Board, keeping his influence in the business long after stepping down from the top job.
His death lands hard in a trade where tanning leadership reaches far beyond boardrooms. Royal Smit & Zoon says it is a world-leading manufacturer of chemicals for leather manufacturing, with solutions spanning beamhouse, tanning, wet end and finishing under the Smit, Codyeco and Nera brands. For leather makers, those are the stages that shape how a hide becomes usable leather, affecting everything from feel and workability to durability and finish.
The company traces its roots to 1821, when Albert Smit, captain of the vessel De Koornzaaijer, founded the business. Today Royal Smit & Zoon describes itself as a seventh-generation family business, with Marc Smit now serving as owner after taking over from his father. The company is based in Weesp, the Netherlands, and says it employs more than 400 people worldwide.
Royal Smit & Zoon said Joost Smit played a defining role in shaping the company into what it is today. That legacy matters across the leather supply chain, where the choices made by chemical suppliers influence the leather that reaches automotive upholstery, high-end fashion houses and upholstery makers. In that sense, Smit’s era was not only about stewardship of a family name, but about the standards and processes that determine how leather is produced and sold.
International Leather Maker and Leatherbiz also echoed the company’s tribute, describing Smit as pivotal to the business’s growth and development over decades. The company’s remembrance also pointed to his children, Valerie and Marc Smit, underscoring how closely Royal Smit & Zoon’s history has been tied to the Smit family for generations.
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