Noebse – C&A Düsseldorf 2016

The Brenninkmeijer enterprise offers a rare glimpse into how a family can sustain a commercial legacy across six generations while continually reshaping itself. For nearly two centuries, they have run their affairs behind closed doors, guided by faith, tradition, and a strict internal code that shaped everything from ownership to leadership selection. Yet behind this guarded exterior is a story of continuous reinvention: a shift from itinerant linen traders to European retail pioneers, and later to the architects of one of the most diversified private portfolios in Europe.

The real intrigue begins now. After generations of resolute privacy, the family is preparing for a transformation that would have been unthinkable for their founders — opening their multibillion-euro asset base to external investors. This moment raises questions about how far a family can modernise without losing the ties that have held it together for six generations.

This case study explores how the Brenninkmeijer enterprise reached this turning point, how its governance adapted along the way, and what other families can learn from a group that has mastered the balance of tradition, scale, and quiet ambition. It is a story about risk, reinvention, and the long arc of stewardship — and about what happens when a family built on privacy chooses to step into a more open future.

At each stage of the Brenninkmeijer succession journey, we’ll look at how the Family Council Canvas could have supported decision-making. The Family Council Canvas is a practical governance tool designed to help families clarify their direction and create a shared structure for discussions, alignment, and long-term planning.

Origins and Early Commercial Foundations

The Brenninkmeijer story began in 1841, when brothers Clemens and August opened their first shop in Sneek. Their roots lay in the travelling linen trade of Westphalia and Friesland, a tradition of hard work, mobility, and frugal entrepreneurship. 

Their commercial insight was straightforward and ahead of its time: ready-made garments would change how ordinary people shopped. They expanded quickly, integrated production, and applied emerging assembly-line techniques. By the 1920s and 1930s, they had built a resilient retail model that survived economic shocks such as post-war instability and the Great Depression. Their success rested on discipline, a long-term perspective, and the demand for affordable products in difficult times.

This early success created a business built to last, but it also set the stage for later questions about unity and direction. For much of its history, the family relied on a form of governance characterised by their Catholic faith and a strong preference for privacy. Decisions were handled by a small inner group of around sixty individuals — sometimes referred to as the “Sneek Circle” — who managed the affairs of a far larger extended family.

A guiding belief was that discretion protected the business. Financials were kept private, ownership was limited, and strict social norms were enforced. Until the mid-1990s, only male descendants in a direct line could become partners. Divorce could end a partner’s involvement altogether. These rules were intended to keep the group aligned in belief, behaviour, and purpose.

Such a structure enabled the family to navigate international expansion without the pressures of public scrutiny. It also created a strong sense of identity: being an owner was both a privilege and a moral obligation. Over time, however, these rules reduced the pool of eligible, capable successors. As the family expanded to hundreds of members across multiple branches, the limitations of a closed circle became increasingly visible.

How the Family Council Canvas Could Have Helped

During the early decades, growth was driven by instinct, tradition, and a tight inner circle. If the Family Council Canvas had been available then, it could have provided a clearer structure for defining the family’s long-term objectives, their approach to shared ownership, and the balance between commercial ambition and cultural values. It would have helped surface early expectations around privacy, authority, and generational roles — areas that later became pressure points as the family expanded.

Transition to a Modern Cousin Consortium

As ownership moved into the fifth and sixth generations, the family entered the classic “cousin stage” seen in many long-lasting enterprises. The group now includes more than 500 owners across twelve branches. At this scale, instinct and tradition alone are no longer sufficient; governance must be designed with intent.

The family answered this challenge by formalising their stewardship ethos in practical ways. Family members entering the business were required to gain operational experience in C&A or another group company, complete internal training programmes, and demonstrate competence before moving into governance roles. Participation in the Family Council, committees, and educational gatherings became part of the owner’s journey. This framework made ownership an active responsibility: owners were encouraged to learn, contribute, and take part in shaping the enterprise, rather than simply receiving dividends.

The Cousin Consortium model has allowed the family to keep strategic control unified. It offers the breadth needed for diverse participation while maintaining a common direction, a balance many families struggle to achieve. It also widens the pool of capable stewards while reinforcing a culture of competence and service.

Examples such as the careers of Dennis and Johanna Brenninkmeijer illustrate the system well. Both built experience across different business lines before taking on significant responsibilities in investment and governance. Johanna’s role as the first female partner demonstrates the shift towards merit-based inclusion, a marked departure from the earlier all-male structure.

The Strategic Hub

The Brenninkmeijer governance architecture separates strategic oversight from day-to-day management, reducing the risks that come with mixing family loyalty and commercial decision-making. The structure rests on three layers:

  1. Family Council / Consortium
    Holds the ownership and protects the family’s values, unity, and long-term direction.
    Its role is identity, purpose, and stewardship.
  2. COFRA Holding Board
    Defines strategy, approves capital allocation, and supervises the group’s activities.
    Family members such as Martijn and Johanna sit here, alongside seasoned professionals.
  3. Management Team
    Executes strategy and runs the operating companies.
    Led by external executives such as Boudewijn Beerkens (CEO) and, from 2025, Florian Brenninkmeyer (CFO).

This separation ensures that commercial decisions are driven by competence, while the family maintains authority over purpose, risk appetite, and overall direction.

Family Services and Philanthropy as Governance Anchors

Anthos and Porticus extend governance beyond finance and operations. They anchor the family in shared values, long-term planning, and responsible behaviour. Anthos brings the family’s moral outlook into financial decision-making. Porticus ensures that giving remains aligned with the family’s ethical commitments. They strengthen cohesion by giving owners a shared moral centre and a sense of meaningful contribution.

Cultural Capital Through Draiflessen

Draiflessen, the family’s private heritage centre, completes the governance system by safeguarding collective memory. It houses archives, exhibitions, and learning events that connect owners back to their roots in the linen trade. These stories give context to the responsibilities they now carry. For a family spread across continents, this cultural anchor helps prevent drift by creating continuity between past and future.

How the Family Council Canvas Could Have Helped

As the family moved into a much wider ownership structure, the shift from an informal patriarchal system to a professionalised Cousin Consortium required clearer alignment. The Family Council Canvas could have supported this transition by mapping out responsibilities across branches, defining what active ownership should look like, and setting shared criteria for participation, competence, and decision rights. It would have given the expanding family a common reference point at a time when scale made informal governance unsustainable.

Recent Developments and the 2025 Strategic Pivot

The last few years mark a decisive period in the evolution of the Brenninkmeijer enterprise. Leadership movements within COFRA, renewed attention to the future of C&A, and the upcoming opening of the family’s asset base to external investors show a system in active transition. These decisions reveal how a multi-generation ownership group reassesses its priorities when scale, liquidity, and long-term resilience begin to pull in new directions.

Leadership and Operational Shifts

The family continues to balance two complementary aims: preserving strategic control while ensuring that operations are led by experienced professionals. This balance is visible in the leadership changes across C&A and COFRA.

C&A Europe has seen a series of adjustments, reflecting the challenges of the retail sector and the need for steady guidance. Family members have often taken on transitional roles in such moments, giving management space while signalling commitment to employees and partners.

Within COFRA Holding, the next generation is quietly moving into key governance functions. Martijn Brenninkmeijer serves as Chairman of the Board. Florian Brenninkmeyer becomes Chief Financial Officer from early 2025, taking responsibility for financial discipline across the group. Philippe Brenninkmeijer continues to guide the family’s talent pipeline, and Johanna Brenninkmeijer brings her impact-investment expertise to both COFRA and Anthos.

These appointments show the pattern the family now follows:

  • Strategic roles held by trusted family members.
  • Executional roles filled by seasoned professionals.
  • Succession pathways supported through structured development.

Opening €35 Billion to External Capital 

The announcement in 2025 that the family will begin opening its asset base to external investors marks one of the most significant changes in its history. For nearly two centuries, the enterprise remained fully private, funded exclusively by the family. Allowing outside capital represents a conscious shift toward institutional scale.

The reasoning behind the move is practical. The sectors where COFRA aims to grow — private equity, renewables, real estate, and sustainable infrastructure — require large, steady flows of capital. Relying solely on internal funding limits what the group can achieve, especially with more than 500 owners who each have their own financial needs.

By widening its capital base, the family creates the means to accelerate expansion in areas with long-term potential, reduce the financial burden on individual owners, and introduce external oversight that strengthens discipline and reporting.

This shift reduces dependence on internal liquidity and helps keep unity intact. With less pressure on individual owners, discussions can return to stewardship, education, and long-term planning rather than emergency financing.

Seen through this lens, externalisation becomes a form of succession planning for the seventh generation and beyond.

How the Family Council Canvas Could Have Helped

Opening the family’s asset base to external investors required a shared understanding of transparency, control, and long-term direction. The Family Council Canvas could have helped the owners assess how this shift aligned with their values, their appetite for openness, and the future needs of a 500-member consortium. It would have given the family a way to examine how external capital affects each of the four abundances — from liquidity and risk, to cohesion, stewardship expectations, and the expression of family purpose — ensuring that all branches understood both the opportunities and the trade-offs before moving forward.

Four Abundances Diagnostic

The four abundances — Wealth, Relationships, Time, and Purpose — offer a simple way to understand how the Brenninkmeijer enterprise holds together across six generations. Each abundance is well developed, yet each carries its own tensions. Taken together, they show where the family is strong and where future attention may be needed.

1. Wealth

The Brenninkmeijer enterprise built its financial strength by diversifying far beyond its retail origins. COFRA’s structure protects the family’s capital from sector volatility and allows long-term investment across private equity, real estate, and renewable energy.

Strengths

  • A diversified, multibillion-euro asset base under COFRA.
  • Clear separation between operating companies and long-term capital.
  • A mature single-family office (Anthos) that supports planning, education, and disciplined allocation.
  • Strong risk management achieved by shifting growth away from the volatility of C&A.

Pressure Points

  • The need for significant capital to grow renewable energy, private equity, and real-asset platforms.
  • An ownership group of over 500 people with differing liquidity needs and risk profiles.
  • External investment introducing new oversight and disclosure obligations.

2. Relationships

Strong internal ties have always supported the family’s cohesion, even as the ownership group expanded. Over time, formal structures replaced informal circles to keep 500+ owners connected and aligned across branches, countries, and generations.

Strengths

  • A long-standing ethos of stewardship and shared responsibility.
  • Strong identity reinforced by institutions such as Draiflessen.
  • An organised Cousin Consortium structure that allows 500+ owners to act collectively.
  • A history of loyalty and long-term participation in governance.

Pressure Points

  • The legacy of secrecy, which can limit inclusion and understanding among newer generations.
  • Geographic and cultural distance across branches.
  • The risk that some family members may feel peripheral in a large ownership group.

3. Time

Continuity is a defining feature of the family’s approach. A clear expectation of stewardship, combined with structured development pathways and long-term planning across COFRA, Anthos, and Porticus, has helped maintain stability across six generations.

Strengths

  • A six-generation track record of long-term planning.
  • Professionalised pathways for family members who seek active roles.
  • A governance system that encourages responsible ownership from early adulthood.
  • Stability provided by COFRA, Anthos, and Porticus.

Pressure Points

  • A new generation with varied ambitions and different work–life expectations from their predecessors.
  • The challenge of maintaining stewardship language in a global, culturally diverse group.
  • The risk that continuity expectations become too rigid.

4. Purpose

Purpose acts as the family’s anchor. Their values—shaped originally by faith and now carried through responsible investing, philanthropy, and heritage institutions—give owners a shared direction that extends beyond commercial outcomes.

Strengths

  • A deeply rooted value set shaped by faith and a sense of moral duty.
  • Strong alignment between investment philosophy (Anthos) and philanthropic work (Porticus).
  • Institutions dedicated to cultural memory and identity.
  • Clear ethical commitments across both profit and non-profit activities.

Pressure Points

  • Different generational relationships to the family’s religious heritage.
  • The possibility that the historic framing of values may need broader interpretation.
  • Balancing tradition with contemporary social expectations.

How the Family Council Canvas Could Have Helped

The Family Council Canvas could have helped the owners view these areas side by side, making it clearer where the family was robust and where adjustments were needed. It would have highlighted tensions between financial scale and cohesion, the expectations placed on younger generations, and the evolving expression of shared values. With all four dimensions visible on one page, the Canvas would have offered a grounded way for a large and diverse ownership group to discuss priorities, identify imbalances, and set a direction that felt fair and realistic across branches and generations.

Lessons in Family Office Governance

The Brenninkmeijer experience offers great lessons for families navigating the challenges of scale, generational turnover, and the tensions between tradition and adaptation. Their story shows how governance must evolve in step with the size and complexity of the family itself, and how long-term continuity depends as much on values and communication as on financial performance.

Lesson 1: Governance Must Evolve to Retain Talent

The family’s early governance model relied on strict social rules that defined who could participate and on what terms. This approach worked when ownership was small and culturally uniform. As the family grew, those same rules began to restrict access to capable successors.

Relaxing traditional rules allowed the family to draw from a wider, better-prepared pool of potential leaders. Merit, experience, and commitment gradually replaced inheritance-based criteria. Opening ownership to women strengthened the group and signalled a lasting move toward professional standards.

Lesson 2: Institutionalise Purpose to Maintain Cohesion

In a large Cousin Consortium, shared purpose is essential. Without it, different branches may drift apart and view the enterprise through conflicting lenses. The Brenninkmeijers avoided this by institutionalising their values through Anthos and Porticus.

Anthos carries its principles into investment decisions, while Porticus expresses them in philanthropy. Both reinforce the family’s belief in responsibility, dignity, and sustainable contribution. They also give younger owners a sense that the enterprise stands for something beyond commercial success.

Lesson 3: Separate Operating Risk from Family Capital

The creation of COFRA as a strategic holding structure allowed the family to manage risk with precision. C&A’s volatility no longer defined the family’s financial future. Instead, diversified assets in private equity, real estate, renewables, and sustainable food carried the enterprise forward. This structural separation protected the capital base and made it possible to modernise the retail business without threatening the wider portfolio. 

For other families, this shows the importance of separating the sentimental weight of a legacy business from the financial needs of the ownership group. A holding structure or family office can ensure that long-term wealth survives even when one part of the enterprise faces pressure.

Lesson 4: Institutionalisation Enables Long-Term Scale

The decision to open the €35 billion asset base to external investors illustrates a critical point: some ambitions cannot be met through internal funding alone. Reaching institutional scale requires the systems, transparency, and discipline that accompany external capital.

For the Brenninkmeijers, this step is intended to strengthen the enterprise. It is designed to widen financial options, ease the strain on internal liquidity, and give the group scope to grow in areas that demand larger pools of capital. While the long-term effects will unfold over time, the aim is clear: to build a structure that supports continuity and helps protect the family’s identity as the organisation becomes larger and more open.

A Family Enterprise Redefined for the Next Century

The Brenninkmeijer enterprise stands as an example of how a family can preserve unity, purpose, and commercial strength across six generations by continually adjusting its governance. What began as a tightly held retail business run by a small inner circle has grown into a global investment group supported by a professionalised holding structure, a sophisticated family office, and a clear moral framework guiding both profit and philanthropy.

The 2025 decision to open the asset base to external capital marks another decisive moment. While it reduces the absolute privacy that defined the early generations, it reinforces the structures needed to keep the enterprise resilient. With more than 500 owners, rising capital needs, and a global footprint, institutionalisation is not a departure from the past but a continuation of the family’s long-standing preference for measured, responsible evolution.

The Brenninkmeijer story also illustrates that stewardship has to be renewed. Each generation must choose how to guide the enterprise they receive. The choices this family has made offer a thoughtful model for other large, multi-branch families seeking not only to preserve their assets but to preserve their cohesion and identity as well.

Disclaimer: This article is a case study based on publicly available information and is intended for educational and informational purposes only. The analysis and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not constitute factual claims about the private lives or intentions of the individuals discussed. The use of any copyrighted material is done for the purposes of commentary and criticism and is believed to fall under the principles of fair use. All images are used with attribution to their known sources.

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