Milestones

Tessenderlo Group and Picanol Group into a single industrial group

On July 8, 2022, Tessenderlo Group and Picanol Group announced their intention to simplify and increase the transparency of the group structure of both companies, with a view to combining them into a single industrial group, with a single stock exchange listing and a single board of directors. As a result of this transaction, Picanol Group became a business unit of Tessenderlo Group with effect from January 2023.

Picanol Group to build new head office in Ieper

The new building will house 450 employees and it will be erected on the company's current site. The architectural design of the new headquarters - which will be shaped like a weaving shuttle - reflects Picanol's rich weaving machine manufacturing history. The building will have a floor area of 20,000 square meters. With this project, Picanol Group is ensuring the sustainable anchoring of the group in Ieper.

Tessenderlo Group acquires T-Power

In April 2018, Tessenderlo Group, one of the founding partners of T-Power, announces that it will acquire the remaining 80% of the shares of T-Power. As a result of the transaction, which is completed on October 2, 2018, Tessenderlo Group now owns 100% of the shares.

Tessenderlo Chemie officially becomes Tessenderlo Group

Tessenderlo Chemie undergoes a change of name on June 6, 2017 to officially become Tessenderlo Group – a name that reflects the brand image that the company has been developing over the past 20 years or more and follows the rebranding of the group that took place several years ago

Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc. launches Crop Vitality™ in the US

Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc. is primarily a US fertilizer company. In 2013, it will enhance its image by bringing its products together under one brand: Crop Vitality. The brand also becomes a new business unit within Tessenderlo Group.

Tessenderlo is back in Belgian hands

In the summer of 2013, SNPE and Picanol Group (Euronext: PIC) announce that they have signed a binding agreement for the sale of SNPE's stake in Tessenderlo to Picanol Group. Under the direction of Luc Tack, Picanol Group thus becomes the main shareholder. As a result, Tessenderlo Group will once again be in the hands of a Belgian group.

TKI established NovaSource®

In 2005, Tessenderlo Kerley, Inc. (TKI) founds NovaSource®, a business unit dedicated to crop protection. Over a period of ten years, NovaSource expands by taking over its competitors' products.

Creation of T-Power

Tessenderlo Group turns its attentions to the energy market in 2005 with the T-Power joint venture, which involves a new gas-fired thermal power plant being built on the Tessenderlo (Belgium) site itself – a lengthy endeavor that would establish Tessenderlo Group as a player in the Belgian energy market.

A global player in gelatin

Tessenderlo Group subsidiary PB Gelatins becomes a global player in the gelatin market in 2003, branching out of Europe to expand its operations in both North America and South America with the takeover of two factories in the United States and Argentina.

DYKA develops its operations in Europe

DYKA expands its operations in Poland and France in 2001 but, more importantly, it buys out British firm John Davidson Pipes Ltd., one of the leaders in the British synthetic pipe market.

Kerley, a pioneer in liquid fertilizer production

As part of its ongoing expansion, in 1995 Tessenderlo acquires Hickson-Kerley, Inc., a company that makes sulfur by-products for the liquid fertilizer and non-iron mineral treatment sectors and an innovator in the North American market.

Expansion in China

Picanol further expanded in China. With the establishment of the joint venture Suzhou Picanol Textile Machinery (STM), 60 % owned by Picanol, Picanol started producing textile machinery in China.

The origins of Dijka

Tessenderlo buys out DYKA, formerly known as Dijka, in the late 1980s and in doing so gains access to the Dutch company's over 100 years of experience and unique family expertise and takes its operations to an international level in 1987.

PB Gelatins acquires Etablissements Caillaud – later to become Akiolis

Établissements Caillaud was taken over by Tessenderlo subsidiary PB Gelatins in 1986 with a view to guaranteeing a supply of high-quality bones, but beyond this raw material alone, the Belgian group discovered a rendering operation that the Caillaud family had set up in the 1940s.

PCUK Loos-Lez-Lille: over 150 years of experience

PCUK Loos-Lez-Lille joins Tessenderlo in October 1983. In 1825, Frédéric Kuhlmann, a leading French chemist, opened a sulfuric acid plant along the Deûle canal in Loos, near Lille. Turning fortunes around at the Lille plant represents a major challenge for Tessenderlo.

The birth of Tessenderlo Chemie and PB Gelatins

The EMC’s (Entreprise Minière et Chimique) Belgian operations underwent a major restructuring in 1972 that directly affected Produits Chimiques de Tessenderlo (PCT), its composition and its very identity. Not only does it get a new name, but it is also restructured, forming the basis for the Tessenderlo Group we know today...

Creation of Limburgse Vinyl Maatschappij (LVM)

Produits Chimiques de Tessenderlo shows just how creative it can be in the late 1960s when the company decides to produce VCM from hydrochloric acid, founding the VCM subsidiary Limburgse Vinyl Maatschappij (LVM) in partnership with DSM and Produits Chimiques du Limbourg in 1969.

Pont-Brûlé and the Duché family: gelatin and chemicals

Produits Chimiques de Tessenderlo has the opportunity to buy out Pont-Brûlé, the chemicals and gelatin company in 1964, having been founded in Vilvoorde in 1900. PCT becomes the majority shareholder in the future PB Leiner - a strategic decision that would give PCT a springboard into the gelatin market.

The beginning of Picanol

In 1936 , the Belgian industrialist Charles Steverlynck set up the company Weefautomaten Picañol NV. The first weaving machine was based on a design from the Spanish engineer Jaime Picañol.

Creation of Produits Chimiques du Limbourg (PCL) - the future Ham-based factory

On October 23, 1929, long-term partners Produits Chimiques de Tessenderlo (PCT) and the Alsace Potassium Mines (MDPA) embark upon a new adventure, establishing a brand-new factory - Produits Chimiques du Limbourg - in Kwaadmechelen.

Produits Chimiques de Tessenderlo: Nestor Sevrin’s vision

Produits Chimiques de Tessenderlo was the brainchild of one man: Nestor Sevrin. The industrialist, along with his father, Émile Sevrin, and some other entrepreneurs acquired the chemical plant in Tessenderlo - Usines François Raynaud in 1919 - driven by a desire to establish a brand-new company. This date would mark not only the birth of Produits Chimiques de Tessenderlo (PCT) but more importantly the beginnings of Tessenderlo Group.