Lucas Bols to a stream. By 1612 the city's walls had expanded to encompass the distillery, and the stream was dug out into a canal called the because of rose nurseries in the area. Around the same time, a new stone building was constructed to house the distillery. The first official mention is in 1640 in Amsterdam town papers, where "Pieter Jacobszoon Bols" is documented as operator of "t Lootsje" on the "Rozengracht". Lucas Bols was born in 1652. His era corresponded with the Dutch golden age, when the Netherlands were a colonial power, and led the world in international commerce. The
Lucas Bols boosted its operations in Italy in 1990, buying up Ottavio Riccadonna, adding that company's Spumante and Ricadonna brands. By 1993, competition and consolidation in the industry had become cutthroat. Heineken decided to retrench to its beer business, and sold off its stake in the joint venture for 58.6 million guilders. Dutch foods giant Royal Wessanen and Bols saw a natural fit for horizontal integration, and a merger was completed into a new company: Bols Wessanen. From the beginning, integrating the two lines of business was difficult, and so led to profit pressures. The 1995 annual stockholders meeting was contentious and