In 1924 the retail shop became a wholesale company of which Mr. Elbert Gubbels, the father/grandfather of the present owners, was the founder. This wholesale business grew steadily and imported pipes from various countries as there were no factories of briar root tobacco pipes in the Netherlands. The most important suppliers came from France and England.

When the Second World War broke out, this trade ended and a period of five years began in which one could hardly operate in business at all. During his period of forced rest Mr. Elbert Gubbels had a notion to become independent of foreign suppliers and he drew up plans to start his own production of tobacco pipes.

In 1946 he launched production at the premises of Godsweerdersingel 20 in Roermond with a couple of new machines and a few workers. He hired a few foreign specialists and considered himself to commence.

Immediately succeeding the war it was very difficult to obtain good  pipes: the import of foreign pipes was limited and the time was ripe for something new. The trust the company had established during the years of wholesaler trading stood by him in the early negotiations. It soon became obvious that the workshop was inadequate and Mr. Gubbels invested in another building with an area of 900 m2 incorporating a large warehouse where he continued to improve the models and quality of the pipes being produced.

Production grew steadily but it was felt that a brand name was required for further expansion of the business. The time involved in getting a new brand established was lengthy so Mr. Gubbels bought a small company in Amsterdam which had all the rights to the brand BIG BEN and was also well established in other countries. The products could be marketed in all European countries, the U.S.A., Canada and many other countries, and nowadays our products can be found in almost every country world-wide.

In December 1972 the company opened new premises in Roermond at Keulsebaan 505 and with the official opening by the Governor of the Province, the company was, on behalf of the Dutch Queen, granted the title "Royal" so that its official name became:

Elbert Gubbels & Sons, Royal Dutch pipe-factory.

In honour of this title, a new brand of pipe was designed "Royal Dutch". This brand was also created, to negate the belief that Big Ben was of English origin.

At that time, there were only two briar root pipe factories in the Benelux-countries: Messrs. Gubbels in the Netherlands and Messrs. Hillen in Belgium. When the latter encountered difficulties in 1980, Messrs. Gubbels bought the company together with its brand "Hilson" which was a well established brand especially in Germany, and E. Gubbels & Zn. B.V. is presently the only briar root pipe factory in the Benelux-countries.

We devote the utmost care to all the pipes that are made in our company. They are made out of the finest briar root by our qualified personnel who cherish every pipe that leaves our company.