Karel van Eerd
Van Eerd came from a family that owned food wholesalers since the early 20th-century. In 1957, when he was 18 years old, he joined the business at the time his father had to take it easy. He soon took over the management. Van Eerd took over the name "Jumbo" and its formula in 1984 from Jan Meurs. In the mid-1980s there were three Jumbo stores. In 2022, at the time of his death, there were over 700 Jumbo supermarkets, including some in Belgium.