As fourth-generation owners, Luc, Christian and Pierre Vandeputte developed the company founded by their great grandfather in a way he would certainly have approved. Still based in Mouscron (a small town in the west of Belgium) and still operating in the linseed sector, the three brothers developed the family company to best exploit the properties of linseed. As well as producing linseed oil (1876), the company also produced soap (1950) and liquid detergents (1987).
A world leader in the production of linseed oil (by mechanical pressing) and well known across Europe for soaps and detergents, in 2000 the family decided to diversify their business portfolio by creating a new company, Vandeputte Oléochemicals. The main activity of this company was to develop, perfect and produce new polymers from linseed oil.
The challenge for the Vandeputte brothers was substantial: how to create, from an essentially low-tech, traditional industrial business a new company aimed at developing and marketing innovative and technological products.
Written by Bernard Surlemont, Fabrice Pirnay and Emilie Vandermeiren from the University of Liège. Download case and teaching note at www.thecasecentre.org or request them from F.Pirnay@ulg.ac.be.
