The furniture and chairs factory UMS by F. Loeb on the Oosterkade was in dire need of an expansion. He bought the bankrupt Holland company in 1918 en expanded it gradually in the years to come. They chose the best wood for their product in Eastern Europe and they worked with a unique drying procedure. By 1929 the company already had 200 employees.
The 2nd World War caused a total dismantle of the company. The reconstruction went hand-in-hand with a booming restart when they introduced the “apply” formula: the customer assembled the furniture from serial produced parts.
The modern design, good quality and flexible application within a compact product assortment were enough to distinguish themselves. They managed to survive the “cutthroat” competition as the collection seemed much bigger than it really was.
For designing the expansion of the company, they asked architects such as Albert Kool of the Amsterdam School (1929). During the most invasive reconstruction in 1957, two shell-shedhalls (the halls with the saw-shaped roofs) were constructed and the road was moved to the east.