Karel Steverlynck

Karel Steverlynck was born in Vichte, Belgium, in 1888. After completing secondary school, Karel joined his father’s business and aged only twenty, founded a new weaving company in Vichte. When his father Aloïs died in 1912, Karel – or ‘Mr Charles’ as he was called – was forced to take the lead of the Steverlynck Textile Group. Unfortunately, WWI interfered with the planned company expansion. His weaving companies destroyed during the war, Karel started their reconstruction immediately after WWI. Together with his brother Baldewijn he founded the company ‘Groeninghe Dyeworks’ as well as a number of associated firms in 1919. He also cooperated in the expansion of a textile complex owned by his brother Juul in Argentina in 1928, and in a similar company of his cousin Leonard Steverlynck in Uruguay in 1932. In 1936 he became the general manager of Picanol and he would grow and lead the company to become a global player. Karel Steverlynck died in 1984. In many ways he was the ‘pater familias’ of Picanol and the strategist behind the company’s foundation and growth. Up to this very day, his name lives on in the name of the street where Picanol Group has its head office: at the Karel Steverlyncklaan no. 15 in Ieper.

The actual beginning - what's in a name?

In the midst of a seemingly never-ending crisis, the battle-weary Catalan inventors and Ieper company Vansteenkiste started negotiations over a possible cooperation. Knowing that his brother was far more familiar with the weaving process, Baldewijn Steverlynck asked Karel to take charge of the discussions. For the Steverlynck family, the Picañol invention implied a unique possibility to start producing their own weaving machines. Immediately recognising the opportunities, Karel Steverlynck made sure to patent the unparalleled process for the modernisation of weaving machines together with Juan Picañol. Negotiations finally resulted in the incorporation on 22 September 1936 of the “NV Weefautomaten Picañol” – Picañol Automatic Weaving Machines. The Picañol company was born! However, Picañol the Spaniard never became a priority shareholder - Karel kept that right for himself. The Steverlynck family expressed their thanks by naming the company in Ieper after the Spanish inventor. Until the early 1980s, Picanol would be pronounced as ‘Picanyol’. With the rise of the computer and in view of the fact that many people thought that we were a Spanish or South American company, the ‘tilde’ was removed from the company name in 1987.

Help from Spain

The darkest hour is just before the dawn. In this case the proverbial dawn came from the Spanish city Sabadell, located southwest of Barcelona. Together with Terrassa, Sabadell formed the large textile centre of Spain and it was also the residence of the construction workshop of Salvador Picañol. His eldest son Juan focused mainly on the automation of weaving machines, whereas the youngest son Jaimé was a designer of gears and gearboxes. In 1935, Juan Picañol created the design for an automatic weaving machine. Now all he needed was a partner to develop it. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War made the brothers decide to travel to Flanders to canvass financial resources for the commercialisation of their ideas.

No future for the flax industry

Besides continuing the activities of the Doom-Mahieu company, Vansteenkiste also developed new scutching turbines in Ieper. The purpose of growing fibre flax is the production of textile (linen); cleaning the fibres, or ‘scutching’, is one of the very first processes of transforming flax into textile. Unfortunately, the flax industry was going through a period of global crisis. Vansteenkiste Foundry and Workshops had seen better days and the flax industry no longer held a future. The company's competitors imitated the scutching machine and a fierce battle over patents ensued. On top of it all, Russian flax was offered on the Belgian market at dumping prices and synthetic fibres were becoming increasingly popular. Struggling to survive, Vansteenkiste developed various new machines. The ‘pounding and vapour’ machine for concrete street construction proved to be a success, although it was quickly copied by the competition. Vansteenkiste was facing a losing battle and management struggled with the constant dangers that posed a threat to the company’s continuity.

Entry of the Steverlynck family

On incorporation of the Vansteenkiste Company in 1928, the Steverlynck family obtained a seat on the Board of Directors, which was to be chaired by Baldewijn Steverlynck (1893-1976). Over the years, the Steverlynck family would clearly make their mark on the industrial development of the historically agriculturally dominated region. They already had a rich history of involvement in the textile industry. Together with his sons Aloïs and Adolf, grandfather Jean-Baptiste had in 1877 started a small chain warping factory. Seeking ways to expand the business they were quick to see opportunities for the weaving industry. The establishment of the ‘Steverlynck Bros. Steam Weaving Company’ thus also marked the start of the mechanical weaving process. Being a qualified textile engineer, Baldewijn Steverlynck was already quite familiar with flax. Together with his brother Karel he purchased a dye company in 1920 and transformed it into "Groeninghe Dyeworks", a company specialising in the latest colouring substances that would yield colourfast flax yarns. Thoroughly realising the importance of understanding the qualities of flax, Baldewijn had a more than average interest in the scientific experiments carried out by Constant Vansteenkiste. This led to talks and a subsequent agreement on collaboration, and it was then that the Steverlynck family made their entry into the Ieper business community. They would play a role in the company until this very day, while Baldewijn Steverlynck also became very active in other areas. Together with Lieven Gevaert he founded the Flemish Employers Association in 1924 and was Gevaert's first successor in 1934. In 1928 he was one of the architects of the Catholic Employer's Union for West and East Flanders under Leon Bekaert; in 1934 he co-founded the Kredietbank and would later become its manager.
Picture: Karel, Juul and Baldewijn Steverlynck

Prehistory: Vansteenkiste Foundry and Workshops

For the actual start of the company we must go back to the year 1928. West-Flanders has always been known for its flax production and if we look closely at the history of the flax industry, we regularly come across the name ‘Vansteenkiste’, probably the most prestigious name in Picanol’s prehistory. The brilliant inventor Constant Vansteenkiste (1869-1948) from Wevelgem stood at the basis of the industrialisation process of Flanders' flax processing industry. His brother Jozef (1879–1943), who was an engineer, turned Constant’s ideas into practical instruments. After WWI, Constant Vansteenkiste spent some time abroad but returned to Belgium when, together with some employees, Jozef bought a large property in Ieper: the foundry Alfred Valcke NV and part of Doom & Mahieu Construction Workshops NV, a manufacturer of gas engines and metal processing machines. The factory was located on the ‘Diksmuidseweg’ in Ieper, now called the Polenlaan. Alfred Valcke was the former owner of a foundry called ‘Fonderie de l’Yser – Fonderie et ateliers de construction’ (Yser Foundry – Foundry and construction workshops). The grounds probably housed an industrial complex before Valcke acquired them, and the full surface of the ‘Fonderie de l’Yser’ was considerably smaller than the later Picanol site. The choice for the Valcke site was a rather logical one; after all, it included a foundry and consequently contained an infrastructure.

Ieper, textile city?

As the city of Ieper (or Ypres in French) has traditionally been linked to textile, it sounds completely logical that Ieper is Picanol’s home base. However, it is in fact more of a coincidence than logical for a loom manufacturer to be based in Ieper. Although the name of the city is still associated with the world famous Ieper textile industry, it is quite hard to find a relationship between the two. In the Middle Ages – around the 13th century – the city indeed enjoyed a leading position in Europe: its successful Ieper cloth was sold all over Europe and beyond, as far as the coastal areas of Asia minor and the northern part of Africa. Yet at the end of the 13th century, the expansive trading area started to shrink. Whereas roughly 2,000 weaving looms were operational in the middle of the century, that number decreased to some 500 around the year 1500 and plummeted to a mere 12 in 1700. Hence at the time of Picanol’s incorporation, Ieper had already been without a textile industry for two centuries. At that point in history, the area around the city was still recovering from WWI. It was in fact a highly isolated agricultural region with few skilled labourers and the textile industry was basically non-existent. That after a silence of more than 200 years Ieper again tied in with an age-old tradition is therefore above all a coincidence. And again, the city would become the centre point for trade to all the corners of the world. Let’s have a look at how history began for Picanol.

75 or 83?

This blog is about 75 years Picanol Group. However, more appropriate would be 83 years. When looking back at our history, 1928 is the first year to appear on the timeline. In that year, the ‘Van Steenkiste Company to Promote Industrialization of Flax Fiber Production, Foundry and Workshops’ was founded, forming the basis for the later Picanol. So why 1936 as starting date for 75 years of Picanol? 1936 is the first year that Picanol (at that time still Picañol, we will come back to this) appeared. On September 22, 1936 the company Van Steenkiste was transformed into "Weefautomaten Picañol NV, marking the birth of the Picanol Group as we know it today.

Blog 75 years of Picanol Group

On this first working day of 2011 we kick off ‘75 years of Picanol Group’ with the launch of two blogs focusing on the history of our group. On 22 September 2011, the Picanol Group will celebrate its 75th birthday. Over the space of seven and a half decades the Picanol Group has developed from a traditional builder of weaving machines to a worldwide supplier of global solutions for the textile and other industries. 75 years in the lead, thanks to innovative technology, during which the Picanol Group has played a pioneering role worldwide in development and production of high-tech weaving machines…

During 2011 we will post several short news items on a regular basis. We will deal with a number of milestones of the rich Picanol history and also focus on distinctive faits divers. The blog will be published in English and Dutch. The Dutch counterpart can be found at http://75jaarpicanolgroup.blogspot.com/