The Pon family runs one of the most successful transportation empires in the Netherlands, Pon Holdings, which is the largest automobile importer and bicycle manufacturer in the country. The family’s patriarch, Mijndert Pon, started a shop that sold sewing machines, household articles and tobacco goods in Amersfoort in the late 19th Century. He would eventually expand the business to sell what would soon become the company’s flagship product – bicycles. Beginning in 1920, Pon sold Opel and motorised bicycles and later expanded to sell Ford automobiles and Continental tires. In 1931, Mijndert Pon’s two sons, Ben and Wijnand, took over the shop and renamed it Pon’s Automobielhandel. By 1947, the Pon family had grown their empire to become the country’s top Volkswagen importer for the Netherlands. The following year, they began importing Porsches. Ben’s son, Ben Pon Jr., made his name as a Formula 1 race car driver, as well as an Olympian in clay pigeon shooting in Munich in 1972. He would go on to launch Pon Holdings BV in 1980, which has since gone on to distribute such brands as Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Škoda, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti and Porsche. Wijnand Pon founded Koepon, which operates dairy farms in the Netherlands, Canada, Germany and Poland. Wijnand Pon’s net worth is estimated to be $2.2 billion.
