Monday 15 July, Co van Es passed away at the age of 59.
Co's entrepreneurial career started in 1982, when he took over his father's garage. He did this until 1991, but he wanted to go into logistics. Based in Rijsenhout, close to Aalsmeer, a transport company in floriculture was an obvious choice. A.A. van Es Transport was born, together with his brother Bert. Growing from 1 to 60 trucks and almost 200 staff, the company was sold in 2009. After a brief stop as co-owner at Flowerport Logistics, as an air cargo handler of flowers, fruit and vegetables, Co took time to think about what his next business would be.
Intrigued by logistics and touched by overseas operations, he decided to enter the sea container transport business. First as an intermediary between freight forwarder and customer, then founding Milestone Fresh in 2012, together with Juri Falandt.
Over the years, Milestone Fresh has grown into a leading name in overseas transport of flowers, plants, fruit and vegetables. In 2021, it decided to merge with Shypple, in order to be future-ready as a digital forwarder. Co remained involved in this until his last weeks, although he said goodbye in December 2022 due to illness, he never really let go and was involved with the company, colleagues and customers until the last moment. After all, Co's work and being an entrepreneur was his identity and pride.
Click here to download the obituary.
Omar Moghrani, who joined as a shareholder of Milestone Fresh in 2017, wrote the In Memoriam: "It was with great sadness that we as a family said goodbye to Co van Es last Monday, sadness for his passing and also great gratitude for his life.
Co was many things to me, a boss, companion, friend, uncle and above all a second father, a man out of thousands. The best thing about Co is that he was exactly the same person in all these roles, never pretending to be different, Co was as he was, himself. He taught us to be generous, to be loyal, to speak up, to keep your word, to be ready for others, to be disciplined, to never give up, to enjoy life and to believe that the day will come when we will see each other again.
We know that Co was a special person to many, some have known him for a long time, others for a shorter time, he always made an impression. We would therefore like to give you the opportunity to say goodbye to Co, this can be done during the condolence and/or during the church service. Co's great wish was for the church to be filled with beautiful flowers and full of people to honour his life. Therefore, once again the cordial invitation to pay him this honour.
Dear Co,
It was a beautiful journey and a great honour to have known you and been able to hang out with you, we will never forget you, and you will always travel with us in our hearts.
Thank you for everything and see you soon."