The first honorary citizens of Ieper

28 November 1954 is truly memorable in the history of the Picañol company, as it was the day that saw Picañol celebrate in style. The small company that started business before the Second World War had gradually become a world player. The number of employees had already increased to 700, meaning that Picañol made a significant contribution to employment in the region of Ieper. The festivities started with an assembly at the company buildings of management and employees. With the Picañol Brass Band leading the way, those gathered left in procession for the cathedral to attend the jubilee mass. First, a floral wreath was placed at the monument of the fallen. Then the delegation was received at the city hall, where 41 people were decorated. The merit of the two pioneers of 'weefautomaten Picanol NV', had not gone unnoticed by the city council. They were very much aware of what our company had meant for the city. Thus, as a token of appreciation, Karel Steverlynck and Jaimé Picañol were appointed the first honorary citizens of the city of Ieper, and they were not even natives of Ieper.

Success on the other side of the Channel

Gradually, Picañol also started to establish itself in the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding the British government's strong import restrictions and a 14% import tax, Picañol managed to convince several British customers of the quality of its products, thanks to excellent test results. In particular, its willingness to adapt the looms to the customer's needs, proved to be a convincing argument. Once the requirements of the ‘British Cotton Board’ could be met as well, it really opened up the floodgates. To meet these requirements, it had to be demonstrated that the product of the foreign supplier was of superior quality to their own domestic product. Following comparison with the loom of British manufacturer Northrop, the British ‘Ministry of Commerce’ eventually lifted the import duties for the United Kingdom. Even before the end of 1962, approximately 3,000 Picañol looms were running in the United Kingdom. The special designs and the high performance of the looms even resulted in the President ending up on the 5-pound notes of Northern Ireland.

Advanced Service

The choice of Nijverdal-Ten Cate for the President looms and the corresponding service made a huge impression on other potential buyers, leading to new contacts. New sales areas for the President looms were easily found, not only in Turkey and Egypt, but also in France and Germany as well. Gradually, the sales area also extended to countries in Africa. In 1953, the comprehensive installation of the President weaving machines began at the Utexleo firm in what was then the Congo. The increase in sales forced the production capacity to be increased. In order to have the delivered machines perform at the highest possible efficiency, Picañol chose to set up a training center for specialized technicians from all over the world. They are trained in Ieper in assembling and adjusting the looms. Once they have fully mastered the profession, they return to their countries to start up the newly supplied machines on-site and to perform the maintenance on them. Even nowadays Picanol puts great effort into keeping its field technicians up to date on the latest technological changes in the machines. Among other things, several internal seminars or 'mechanics days' are organized every year.

Social fund

In order to be able to help employees in cases of 'social misfortune and problems', the company established a social fund. This fund originates from the company football team, known to everyone as W.A.P. Sport. With it, Bernard Steverlynck and Roger Bolle lay the foundation for what would become the Social Fund. Up until 31 December 1952, the football club financially helped and supported ill or injured employees during their period of inactivity. By purchasing a membership card from the Social Fund, the employees were entitled to compensation in cases of illness or misfortune, in accordance with the cash position in those days. With the help of some progressive employees, the statutes were established in 1952. Under the supervision of Management and the Works Council, Management Council 'De Dageraad' was established. On 9 January 1953, the first meeting was held, with Director-General Maurice Huvelle as its first President. In view of the fact that Mr. Huvelle was spending a lot of time abroad, the presidency was taken over by Jan Elebaers in February. Due to the contributions of its members and management the Social Fund could provide relief in the event of illness, accidents, death or other family events, such as weddings or births, to several associations. The Social Fund also contributed to the employees enjoying their well-earned pensions after their years of service.

The Picañol sports day

On August 17 1952, the first ever Picañol sports day was held. There were three sporting events - basketball, athletics and football. It all started with an 'idea' from a few members of the Party committee. It was not called a 'celebration day' at the time, but it would literally become one later on. It was basically a large-scale sports event, which the people started calling 'Straight through Ieper'. Whilst you will not find any of this back in the program of the original Sports day, such imaginative ideas ultimately led to other inspiring ideas. The 'idea' was submitted to the Party committee, and at the end of the meeting, it had been firmly established: Picañol would get its first Sports day. Eventually, this grand event was successfully organized in cooperation with the city council, the Bekaert company, the football clubs of K.V.C.S. Ieper, White Star Ieper and W.A.P. Sport Ieper, the Athletics and Basketball club Athlon, and the Picañol Brass Band. The first Picañol sports day was not only a first for the company, it was also the first of its kind in our country. To make it even more unique, the event also saw the debut of Athlon as a basketball team. The team played pretty well against Bekaert, its neighbors from Zwevegem. The first two quarters were very tight, and at times Athlon was able to give their opponents a bit of a scare. Unfortunately, the second half of the game saw the team collapse a little, resulting in a 14-24 score, which everyone agreed was ultimately quite flattering. Nevertheless, the performance proved to be the start of a promising future for the team. In the afternoon, the Athlon-athletes took appropriate revenge by beating Cercle Ieper and Bekaert following a superb contest. There was also a football match afterwards: White Star Ieper played Cercle Ieper for the Picañol cup. As the match ended with honors even, it was agreed that both White Star and Cercle would keep the cup for 6 months each. The first Picañol sports day was attended by approximately 1,500 people.

The big breakthrough

The big breakthrough came one year after the ITMA-exhibition in Lille. In 1952, the Royal Textile Factory Nijverdal-Ten Cate, the largest Dutch weaving mill at that time, requested a quotation for 800 looms. This gave Picañol the chance to prove itself against the 'established names' of that time. Thanks to the technical cooperation with Jaimé Picañol and Joseph Vermandere, the special needs of Ten Cate could be fulfilled. Following consultation between the engineers of Picañol and the potential new customer, the loom was reworked, and in a short period of time, a modified President was created. A number of these machines were installed at Nijverdal-Ten Cate on a trial basis, so that they could be tested extensively against those of the competitors. Due to the frequent visits of and the cooperation with the TNO (Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research) in Delft, a special comb-movement was designed. By applying gradual crossing it was possible to give the poplin shirts a special character. Coincidentally, these new machines start with the number 4711, and they are known as the "eau de cologne" series. Based on the test results, Nijverdal-Ten Cate decided to place an order at Picañol for 800 looms. And along with the technical and commercial approach, another unexpected element played a role, namely that both partners speak the same language! By 1961, Picañol had supplied Ten Cate with as many as 2,500 looms.

The ‘clock spring’ affair

In the fifties, Emmanuel Steverlynck wanted to penetrate the important American market at all costs. However, this was no small task. Until then, two national companies had established a firm monopoly position in this market, which had a noticeable effect on prices. When Picañol's breakthrough in the American market occurred, it was partly due to the ‘clock spring’ affair. The largest American competitor, the Draper firm, was willing to do anything to prevent Picañol from selling its looms on American soil. In fact, during one of their efforts, they sued Picañol for infringement of a patent of theirs, deposited in 1952. This patent describes the use of coil springs ('clock springs') for retracting the weaving frames. However, the Bockstael Patent Office was able to demonstrate that Picañol had exhibited such a retraction system at the ITMA-exhibition in Lille (1951), and that consequently this had been preceded by several years of research. Moreover, the Picañol family from Sabadell had already filed a patent on 'the use of coil springs for raising roller blinds' before their arrival in Ieper. Due to the fact that in the meantime Picañol had also filed its own patent for the use of multiple 'clock springs', Draper was never able to market broad and heavy fabric machines.

Foreign relationships

Under the influence of Emmanuel Steverlynck, G. Lietaer and H.B. Hess, privileged relationships were built up with textile manufacturers around the world. To this end, the company founded national agencies in the most important countries to explore the local textile regions. The sales directors set out with their technical and commercial baggage - like true globetrotters - ready to go ‘head to head’ against the fierce competitors. As traveling by plane was not yet common practice, the remote customers were still visited by car. On several occasions, Emmanuel traveled through the Turkish mountains to sell weaving machines, sometimes even without a driver. Thanks to these efforts, he met Mr. Dereoglou, who would later play an important role as a local agent. In that period, Mensucat Central, the leading textile company of Fuad Bezmen in the Turkish capital, became one of the most important Turkish customers. In Germany, which was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War, a significant market became available. Westphalia (the textile region of choice) suffered large shortages of new looms. Meanwhile, in England, where the textile machinery was largely outdated, the county of Lancashire proved to be an especially important sales area. The new President looms were sold there with the help of Mr. Maynard. And while Italy possessed its own loom manufacturers, thanks to the efforts of Franco Rizzi and Emilio Zuppinger, over 10,000 President looms were sold there. Large textile companies, including Bassetti and Standardtella, preferred the Ieper looms. They are resonant names, forever in the memory of the sales representatives. There were also many weaving mills in northern France, and Michel Derville was entrusted with the task of launching ‘Picañol France’ in Tourcoing. At the time, Diedrichs and S.A.C.M. were the major competitors in France. In addition to the textile area in the Vosges, the area of operation of Christian Chevalier, mainly the region of Lyon, was known for weaving silk.