The Drankenhandel owes its origin to the sinking of the American steamship “West Aleta”. This ship sank on its maiden voyage on February 12, 1920 north of Terschelling. The founder of the company Jan Kooijman bought part of the cargo, which consisted of 35,000 barrels of wine, among other things, and started a wine trade with it in Harlingen (on Terschelling there would have been no bottle of wine to be sold in the first few years). When the Terschellinger Elektriciteits Maatschappij was founded and electric power became available on Terschelling, he moved the company to Terschelling. First to Baaiduinen, where initially lemonade gaszeuses were also manufactured, and later to Kinnum, where it flourished as a complete liquor store. On May 27, 2008, the company moved to the business park in West-Terschelling.