Important dates for Sio Factory

1938 Sio was founded.

June 12, 1939 Vroomshoop factory officially opened with 12 employees.

July 26, 1949 Newspaper article states number of employees has grown to 75. Exports to Switzerland, Belgium, and England.

1950 Rokus van Blokland and Corry Mobach began designing for Sio.

December 1954 Newspaper article states there are 85 employees.

1959 Sio's first exhibition stand in Nuremberg at the Wieselerhaus.

1969 Tubantia newspaper article from February 22, 1969 reports there are 160 employees, 80 of whom are in Vroomshoop. Sio is the largest wooden toy factory in the Netherlands. A new production hall is built for 1 million guilders. Half of the toys made in Vroomshoop are exported to almost all of the Western European countries, as well as the United States, Canada, and some African countries. Sio even has its own computer.

November 13, 1972 Sio is sold to DCM (Dunbee-Combex-Marx).

January 13, 1977 Schuco is bought by DCM.

December 6, 1977 Farewell to directors Mertens and Bronckhorst.

January 6, 1978 Farewell to director Uilenreef.

February 20, 1980 DCM goes bankrupt.

May 1980 Sio is taken over by Spear.

1982 Production is moved to Homas in Assen.

September 1, 1982 Factory hall in Vroomshoop burns down, including recently purchased modern pad printing machines for the new Sio Montage products.

1982 Sio is taken over by former manager of Hensbergen, with office and production back in Assen.

1983 february The 1972 stand was build up at the Nurmberg Toy Fair, as before!

July 31, 1984 End of employment for Rokus and Corry.

1986-1989 Sio is called Sio Etten-Leur from January 1986 to July 1989, then Borka Etten-Leur.

January 1, 1990 Borka stops Sio trading activities.

NB! Pages Sio Vroomshoop

The site rvbcvbm.com is a 'digital exhibition' featuring designs and original work by Rokus and Corry van Blokland Mobach.

The pages about the factory are not a 'comprehensive biography' of Sio. The pages contain information from our archive about the factory, which we aim to make accessible to everyone.

If you have additional information, photos, or documents, you can contact us at the email address: siodesigners(at)gmail.com.