A debt of 400 million euros, management weighed down by a war between heirs, a failed shift towards clean energies: all this could only lead the Flemish industrialist Van Hool towards bankruptcy which was declared on Monday April 8, by the commercial court of Mechelen.
At least some 1,450 workers, out of the 2,500 at this manufacturer of buses, coaches and heavy goods vehicles, a former flagship of the Flanders economy, risk losing their jobs if a partial resumption project is planned. The German GRW-Schmitz Cargobull and the Dutch VDL are coming to fruition.
Marc Zwaaneveld, a crisis manager, was appointed on March 11 following the announcement of a restructuring plan for the company founded seventy-five years ago by Bernard Van Hool, in Koningshooikt, in the province of Antwerp. Having flourished for a long time, the group now accumulated a debt of 400 million euros and planned to relocate its public transport division to North Macedonia, with a payroll reduced by three quarters.
Mr. Zwaaneveld, supported by banks and the regional government, worked on a recovery plan, rejected by the Van Hool family.
Flemish Dallas
It has been living a sort of Flemish Dallas since the death of the founder in 1974, a conflict between his eight sons and his two daughters. On Monday, trade unionist Kim Samison said her ” shame “ to have witnessed family quarrels “that should take place at a kitchen table, not a negotiating table”.
Even if the Flemish economy is flourishing and must above all resolve a problem of labor shortage, the bankruptcy of a “historic” company has caused a shock and relaunched the debate on the future of the industry. Politicians and trade unionists are now hoping for a miracle.
Will it come from Guido Dumarey, an industrialist who notably took over the General Motors gearbox factory in Strasbourg in 2013? Associated with ABC Companies, a major supplier to the transportation sector in the United States, he developed a resumption of bus manufacturing that would guarantee the maintenance of 1,000 jobs. CIM Capital, an investment company partly owned by one of the Van Hool sons, has submitted an offer for the takeover of the industrial vehicles department.
Note that bankruptcy could have consequences in France. Van Hool produces, in fact, trambuses, articulated vehicles with which the cities of Rennes and Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) are notably equipped and which combine the advantages of a tramway and the flexibility of a bus. Around twenty copies were ordered for the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games and it is currently unknown whether this production will be ensured.