Founded in 1888 and run by four generations of one family.

Hooghoudt began in Groningen in 1888. Dutch Wikipedia says the distillery was founded that year as a family business by Hero Jan Hooghoudt, a baker, and that from 1898 the business was carried on by his wife, Grietje. English Wikipedia gives the same founding year and founder. NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster, put the company’s time in the city at 137 years when it reported on its future in July 2025.

The family name has its own Groningen meaning. Dutch Wikipedia traces it to the hooghout or hoogholtje, the high wooden footbridges that cross the city’s canals, and says the company had one built at its later premises. For many years the distillery worked from the Nieuwe Ebbingestraat in the city centre, Dutch Wikipedia says, before moving at the end of the twentieth century to a new complex on the Euvelgunne business estate. In 1989, according to the same source, the new building was officially opened and the company received a royal distinction.

The brand was also built in bars. Dutch Wikipedia says the Proeflokaal Hooghoudt on the Zuiderdiep served for many years as a tasting room and marketing venue, that the tastings later moved to a café-style space at the distillery, and that Café Hooghoudt on the Grote Markt has ties to the company. English Wikipedia links the name to a tasting room and café in Amsterdam, Herberg Hooghoudt on the Reguliersgracht. The business stayed in the family through four generations: Dutch Wikipedia names Hero Jan Hooghoudt senior, Hero Jan Hooghoudt junior and Bert Hooghoudt, and NOS reported in November 2025 that Bert and Louise Hooghoudt were the fourth generation to lead the company. Its director by 2025 was Martin Strijtveen, NOS reported.

Double grain genever, Beerenburg and a store of whisky.

Hooghoudt is best known for its jonge dubbele graanjenever — young double grain genever — the product NOS singled out in its 2025 reports on the company. English Wikipedia explains that the Dutch split between young and old genever is a matter of distilling style rather than age: jonge genever may contain no more than 15 percent malt wine, oude genever at least 15 percent, and a genever made only from grain and malt is labelled graanjenever. The same article lists Groningen among the Netherlands’ jenever cities, with Hooghoudt as its distillery.

Around the genevers sat a wider northern range. Dutch Wikipedia lists young and old jenever, Beerenburg, zachtbitter, apple and berry jenevers, citroenbrandewijn, a drink called Fladderak, vodka and a vieux, alongside non-alcoholic fruit syrups. One bottle reached the international packaging press: The Dieline featured Hooghoudt Rich Genever in its beverage packaging section on 11 December 2012, tagging the design blue and white in glass and introducing Hooghoudt as a well-known family distillery from Groningen.

The distillery also laid down whisky. The Spirits Business reported in April 2026 that Hooghoudt’s remaining casks of single grain whisky, aged from 3 to 29 years in oloroso and Pedro Ximénez sherry casks, were auctioned in January 2026 by the brand’s new owner, and that the Utrecht retailer Must Have Malts bought more than half of them. The oldest casks had been selected in the 1990s by the whisky maker Billy Walker, the magazine said, and the Hooghoudt name will not be used commercially on future releases from them.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all genever names from the Netherlands and Belgium: Rutte, Nolet, Wenneker, Hooghoudt, Filliers, Zuidam and A. van Wees. Genever — also spelled jenever — is the juniper-flavoured spirit of the Low Countries, traditionally distilled from malt wine (moutwijn), and English Wikipedia says modern gin derives from the historical genevers introduced to Great Britain.

The name is protected. English Wikipedia says the European Union protects genever as a geographical indication, with eleven specific types, which may be made only in the Netherlands and Belgium and in small neighbouring areas of France and Germany. The best-known distinction is between jonge (young) and oude (old) genever, which refers to the recipe rather than to age: under the rules Wikipedia summarises, jonge genever may contain no more than 15 per cent malt wine, oude genever at least 15 per cent, and korenwijn between 51 and 70 per cent.

The craft itself has heritage status in the Netherlands. In September 2016 the Dutch Centre for Intangible Heritage, KIEN, added fijndistillatie — fine distillation, in which, KIEN says, genever is distilled from purchased malt wine with juniper berries and herbs — to the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

Genever has its own geography. English Wikipedia names Schiedam, Groningen, Amsterdam and Delft in the Netherlands, and Hasselt, Deinze, Aalst and Liège in Belgium, among the towns known for it, and the brands here are spread across both countries rather than gathered in one place. Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its genever is distilled and how its bottles and labels have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From family firm to La Martiniquaise, and from Groningen to Ghent.

La Martiniquaise has owned Hooghoudt since 2025. NOS reported that the takeover of the small family business by the French drinks group was announced in early May 2025. English Wikipedia says La Martiniquaise was founded in 1934 by Jean Cayard, is based in Paris, and owns brands including Label 5, Poliakov, Saint James and Cutty Sark.

On 23 July 2025 NOS reported that the Groningen production site would close on 31 December 2025 and that production would move to Ghent, Belgium, while the Hooghoudt brand continued; Just Drinks reported the closure the same day. Strijtveen told NOS the company had lost money for three years, partly because consumption was falling, and called the Ghent move the only realistic plan; 29 employees were expected to lose their jobs, and the company hoped to keep supplying local bars and the Groningen student society Vindicat. The last bottle of jonge dubbele graanjenever was filled in Groningen on 18 November 2025, NOS and RTV Noord reported. Strijtveen said the brand was strong and that La Martiniquaise could fund the marketing Hooghoudt could no longer afford. The Spirits Business reported in April 2026 that operations had moved to La Martiniquaise-Bardinet’s distillery in Ghent.

For a design guide, Hooghoudt shows how a brand can carry its city in its name — a family surname that is also a Groningen footbridge — and keep that name after production moves to another country. Compare Bols, the Amsterdam genever house, and Cutty Sark, another La Martiniquaise brand. For this guide we use canal blue, porcelain white and grain gold with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Hooghoudt’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.