Until then, the Omnium sales area was limited to the geographic region that was relatively close to Ypres: besides Belgian firms, customers included a couple of small-sized weavers in the north of France and a few companies in the Netherlands and Germany. The time seemed right for convincing larger weaving companies of the quality of the products, and with that in mind, Picañol signed up for its first participation at the international Hannover trade fair in 1947. Despite the small scale of that particular show, it did result in a small geographic extension of Picañol’s sales area. However, the very large buyers still remained out of reach. The 1948 annual trade fair in Utrecht marked the company’s first successful steps into the Dutch market. Led by General Manager Maurice Huvelle, the sales team visited as many potential clients as possible to convince them of the quality of the Picañol weaving machines. Their efforts involved considerable inventiveness and perseverance. Machine documentation was still very limited and computers had obviously not been invented yet. All drawing had to be done by hand, making it a time-consuming affair. In 1949, Picañol employed 400 staff, who in turn delivered six weaving machines per day.
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