Chapter 7. Florax Group: when unintended succession leads to unfulfilled promises

Florax was founded as a pharmaceutical firm by Ulrich and Mieke van Noorden in Netherlands in 1982. Ulrich and Mieke worked hard for years to grow the family firm but over the years the intention to sell the firm upon retirement grew. Their sons, Sjak and Paul, were too different to succeed the family firm together and Ulrich did not want to favor one son over the other. For that reason, Ulrich neither discussed succession with them, nor took effort in keeping the buildings and machinery up-to-date. Then, Ulrich suddenly passed away. On his deathbed, he asked Sjak to sell the company. But Sjak promised him to take care of the family and to continue the family firm, together with Paul. However, the years passed and it became harder and harder for Sjak to keep his promise. Problems in the company piled up and conflicts between the brothers occurred regularly.