when the company (re)opened on 1 june 1891 it had 124 employees. new work came in slowly at first. the confidence in the old factory had been damaged, and had to be regained by the new factory. it gained some small orders for the navy, but rolling stock manufacture helped the company through the difficult first years. the company also had to spent a lot of money to restore the lack of maintenance of buildings and machinery during the last years of the koninklijke fabriek. a lot of machines were too old and too costly to operate and had to be replaced. the complex also required multiple connections to the railroad system. in 1893 j.t. cremer was approached to found a new shipyard, which became the nederlandsche scheepsbouw maatschappij. it meant that the company lost the slipways in which so much had been invested. however, it gained a neighbor that was much better in building ships, and required a steady stream of ship engines.