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BELGIAN HIGH-GROWTH MONITOR EDITION 2019
YANNICK DILLEN
PROF. HANS CRIJNS
WHO ARE BELGIUM’S FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES?
Report made by the Impulse Centre ‘Growth
Management for Medium-sized Enterprises’ (iGMO)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page 1 INTRODUCTION
Page 3 HIGH-GROWTH FIRMS IN BELGIUM: THE STATE OF AFFAIRS
Page 12 THE VOICE OF GROWTH ENTREPRENEURS
Page 25 WHO ARE THESE HIGH-GROWTH FIRMS?
Page 27 ABOUT THE RESPONDENTS AND THEIR FIRMS
Page 29 THE VIEW OF THE AUTHORS
Page 32 LIST OF EMPLOYMENT HGFs FOR THE PERIOD 2014-2017
ABOUT THE BELGIAN HIGH-GROWTH MONITOR
The Belgian High-Growth Monitor is an annual initiative from the Impulse Centre
‘Growth Management for Medium-sized Enterprises’ (iGMO) of Vlerick
Business School, in cooperation with EY and KBC. This report presents the state
of affairs of Belgian high-growth firms by giving an overview of their profile
and characteristics. In addition, it presents the results of a survey of Belgian
growth entrepreneurs.
ABOUT THE IMPULSE CENTRE ‘GROWTH MANAGEMENT’ (iGMO)
The Impulse Centre ‘Growth Management for Medium-Sized Enterprises’ (iGMO)
of Vlerick Business School is a platform for research, open dialogue and networking
for owner-managers of growth-oriented SMEs. The Centre fits within the
strategic mission of Vlerick Business School, which aims to stimulate
entrepreneurship. Founded in 1993, iGMO currently has over 160 active
member-entrepreneurs who periodically gather in research seminars,
workshops and learning visits, both nationally and internationally. iGMO builds on
the support of its prime foundation partners EY and KBC.
BELGIAN HIGH-GROWTH MONITOR 2019
This report is based on data gathered from the Belfirst database of Bureau Van Dijk and on the
analysis of survey results gathered from Belgian entrepreneurs. The conclusions and opinions of the
authors of the report are not necessarily those of Vlerick Business School, EY or KBC. Copyright is
held by Vlerick Business School and the report cannot be used without the permission of Vlerick
Business School and the authors.
Copyright © 2019 Vlerick Business School (Yannick Dillen & Hans Crijns).
All rights reserved.
1
INTRODUCTION
High-growth firms (HGFs) are frequently described as the engine of the Belgian
economy. They create the majority of new jobs and account for an enormous
increase in the total added value that is realised by Belgian private firms.
Therefore, it is crucial to learn more about the characteristics of these HGFs. Who
are these Belgian high-growth firms? Do we find remarkable evolutions in their
profiles? Answers to these questions may be vital for academics, policy makers
and ambitious entrepreneurs. The Belgian High-Growth Monitor aims to provide
these answers by analysing the subset of HGFs in Belgium for the most
recent period and by surveying a group of Belgian growth entrepreneurs.
HGFs are defined as companies that have achieved annual growth rates of at
least 20 per cent per year in employees or added value, over a period of
three years. Firms need to have had at least ten registered employees at the
start of the analysed three-year period.1,2 Hence, micro-firms are excluded from
the analysis. Our data were obtained from the Bel-first database of Bureau Van
Dijk, which contains financial information for all Belgian firms for the period 2009-
2017.3
Number of employees and added value will be considered as growth measures. As
a consequence, we will analyse two different subsets of high-growth firms. First,
employment HGFs are defined as those that have realized high-growth in terms
of full-time equivalent employees working for the company. Second, added value
HGFs are defined as those that have experienced a period of rapid growth in terms
of added value. Added value figures have important social implications, because
the sum of all added value figures is a building block of the country’s domestic
product. Hence, the two growth measures that are taken into account both have
an impact — directly or indirectly — on the prosperity of a region, as strong
employment growth entails job creation, and strong added value growth enables
an increase in GDP.
1 The OECD definition of an HGF considers turnover instead of added value as a growth measure. In Belgium,
however, most firms do not have an obligation to publish turnover figures. Hence, in our analysis, added value is chosen as an alternative growth measure as it makes up the difference between the total sales revenue and the total cost of components, materials, and services purchased from other firms within a certain period (usually one year). Belgian firms have an obligation to publish added value figures, which can be retrieved from section 9800 of their annual accounts. 2 Excluded from the analyses are firms without a lucrative purpose (in Dutch abbreviated as ‘V.Z.W.’, in French
as ‘A.S.B.L.’) and public-sector companies. 3 Bureau Van Dijk, Bel-first: Financial Reports and Statistics On Belgian and Luxemburg Companies,
https://www.bvdinfo.com/en-us/our-products/data/national/bel-first.
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In our analysis, we will look for evidence if the net employment growth in
Belgium is generated by a relatively small group of rapidly growing
companies, the so-called ‘Gazelles’. According to Birch (1979) 4 these firms are
generating most of the new net jobs in the economy. David Birch estimated that
the gazelles, around 4% of the population of American firms, accounted for 70%
of all new jobs. Next to these Gazelles stand on the one hand a group of large
firms, called the ‘Elephants’, that created only few new jobs and on the other
hand the ‘Mice’, the vast majority of all firms that aim to remain small and
contribute only marginally to employment growth. A ‘Gazelle’ or high-growth firm
is less associated with the size of a firm as we can find ‘Gazelles’ from nearly all
sizes. However, on average, small firms are overrepresented in a subset of HGFs,
but the few large HGFs are important as they are major job contributors in absolute
terms.5 In this report, we will analyse the characteristics for subsets of Belgian
high-growth firms.
The report consists of three parts. To start, it gives an overview of the profile
and characteristics of the subset of high-growth firms in Belgium, focusing on
2014-2017, the most recent three-year period available. Thereafter, the
main results of the annual Vlerick Growth Survey are presented, including the
responses of 83 Belgian CEOs of growth firms. A variety of topics were covered in
this survey, ranging from the most important barriers and enablers of growth
through to the HR, innovation and digitization policies that are being applied. At
the end of the report, an alphabetical list of the 822 Belgian high-growth
firms for the period 2014-2017 can be found (with number of employees adopted
as the growth measure).
4 Birch, D. (1979), The Job Generation Process, MIT Program on Neighbourhood and Regional Change, MIT, Cambridge 5 Henrekson, M. & Johansson, D. (2010), ‘Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the evidence’, Small Business Economics, volume 35 (2), p. 227-244
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HIGH-GROWTH FIRMS IN BELGIUM:
THE STATE OF AFFAIRS
HOW MANY HGFs DO WE HAVE?
Table 1 gives an overview of the evolution of the number of employment HGFs and
added value HGFs over the last nine years. The percentage of HGFs remains
relatively stable across the six periods of analysis.
The relative number of employment HGFs ranges from a low of 3.15% for the
period 2012-2015 to a high of 3.57% for the period 2009-2012. For the most
recent period, 2014-2017, 3.48% of Belgian firms with at least ten employees
qualified as high-growth in terms of employment.
The percentages for the subsets of added value HGFs are slightly more volatile,
ranging from a low of 5.91% in the period 2009-2012 to a high of 6.94% in the
most recent period 2014-2017.
Hence, we can discover a positive trend with respect to the percentage of HGFs in
our economy. The relative number of employment HGFs has been on the rise for
several years, resulting in the highest percentage since the period 2009-2012, and
the percentage of added value HGFs has now reached its highest level since the
start of our calculations.
DO HGFs SUSTAIN THEIR GROWTH?
The percentages that were presented in the previous section show only a small
minority of firms are able to achieve a high-growth status. However, persisting as
a HGF might be even more difficult. With this in mind, we analysed the subsets of
employment HGFs for six overlapping periods (from the period 2009-2012 to 2014-
2017) (see Figure 1).
2009-
2012
2010-
2013
2011-
2014
2012-
2015
2013-
2016
2014-
2017
Total number of firms
(>10 employees) 23,867 24,262 24,930 24,633 22,442
23,654
Number of
employment HGFs 853 835 799 775 744
822
Number of added value HGFs 1,410 1,616 1,507 1,530 1,532
1,641
Relative number of
employment HGFs 3.57% 3.44% 3.20% 3.15% 3.16%
3.48%
Relative number of added value HGFs 5.91% 6.66% 6.04% 6.21% 6.83%
6.94%
Table 1: Evolution in the number of HGFs from 2009 to 2017
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Figure 1: Overview of the overlapping analysed HGF subsets
This analysis revealed that 2,791 Belgian firms qualified as employment HGFs
between 2009 and 2017. Of this group, 1,560 firms (55.90%) were identified as
an HGF in only a single period. The majority of the employment HGFs can
therefore be identified as one-shot HGFs. Table 1 shows that only a limited
number of firms were able to remain as an employment HGF for more than three
periods, and that only 11 Belgian firms were able to maintain their HGF status for
the entire analysed period.
Number of periods qualified as an employment HGF
Absolute number of HGFs that were qualified x times
as an employment HGF
Percentage of total number of
employment HGFs in period 2009-
2017
1 out of 6 periods 1,560 55.90%
2 out of 6 periods 727 26.05%
3 out of 6 periods 382 13.69%
4 out of 6 periods 83 2.97%
5 out of 6 periods 28 1.00%
6 out of 6 periods 11 0.39%
Total 2,791 100%
Table 2: Overview of the overlapping analysed HGF subsets
For the group of added value HGFs, we performed the persistence check in a
slightly different way. In this case, we analysed the overlap between the most
recent subset of added value HGFs and the previous subsets. It emerged that 36%
(i.e. 590 firms) of the added value HGFs for the period 2014-2017 were also
present in the subset for the period 2013-2016. This percentage gradually drops
to 4% when comparing the 2014-2017 subset to the 2009-2012 subset.
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Number of added value HGFs in the period 2014-2017 1,641 100%
Number of added value HGFs that were an HGF in both the periods 2013-2016 and 2014-2017 590 36%
Number of added value HGFs that were an HGF in both the periods 2012-2015 and 2014-2017 267 16%
Number of added value HGFs that were an HGF in both the periods 2011-2014 and 2014-2017 140 9%
Number of added value HGFs that were an HGF in both the periods 2010-2013 and 2014-2017 133 8%
Number of added value HGFs that were an HGF in both the periods 2009-2012 and 2014-2017 69 4%
Table 3: The persistence of high-growth for added value HGFs
HOW MANY JOBS AND ADDED VALUE DO HGFs CREATE?
High-growth firms are commonly known as the engines of job creation. For
employment HGFs such a statement might seem rather obvious, as these firms
are identified based upon growth in their average number of employees.
Nonetheless, the number of jobs created by this group of firms is striking.
Table 4 shows the net number of jobs created by employment HGFs from 2009 to
2017, alongside the total number of jobs generated by all Belgian firms with more
than ten employees. It shows that, in five out of the six analysed periods, the
subset of employment HGFs generated more jobs than the overall amount
generated by all firms with at least ten employees. Only in the most recent period
was the number of jobs generated by employment HGFs (45,947 jobs) less than
the total increase (68,549 jobs). Nonetheless, even in this period, HGFs
accounted for 67 per cent of the total number of jobs generated by all
Belgian firms with at least ten employees.
Table 4: Job creation by employment HGFs
Total number of employees for the subset of employment HGFs in the first year of the high-growth period (1)
Total number of employees for the subset of employment HGFs in the final year of the high-growth period (2)
Net jobs generated by employment HGFs in the high-growth period (2) – (1)
Total number of jobs generated by all firms (> 10 empl.) in the first year of the reference period (3)
Total number of jobs generated by all firms (> 10 empl.) in the final year of the reference period (4)
Net jobs generated by all firms (>10 empl.) in the study period (4) – (3)
2009-2012
39,707 94,976 55,269 1,440,913 1,493,511 52,598
2010-2013
33,017 87,331 54,314 1,483,715 1,508,288 24,573
2011-2014
27,859 75,650 47,791 1,541,335 1,531,351 -9,984
2012-2015
27,978 73,256 45,278 1,425,581 1,438,837 13,256
2013-2016
36,592 83,775 47,183 1,470,498 1,490,922 20,424
2014-
2017 32,538 78,485 45,947 1,433,260 1,501,809 68,549
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Figure 2 graphically represents the amount of net jobs that are generated by the
subsets of employment HGFs (dark green line) and the net jobs generated by all
firms with at least ten employees (light green line) from 2009 to 2017. It appears
that the amount of jobs generated by the subsets of HGFs – notwithstanding that
they are always composed of a large proportion of different firms – is very stable.
It ranges around the amount of 50,000 jobs. The light green line is fluctuating
much more, going from a decrease of almost 10.000 jobs for the period 2011-
2014 to an increase of nearly 70,000 jobs in the period 2014-2017. Hence, we can
conclude that the group of HGFs are a stable factor that is - especially in times
when the total job creation is decreasing (like the periods 2010-2013 to 2013-
2016) – able to generate a roughly the same amount of jobs in every three
year period.
Figure 2: job creation by ‘employment HGFs’ and ‘all firms’
Looking at the subset of added value HGFs (see Table 5), the same logic holds
when discussing their contribution to the total increase in added value. For the
period 2014-2017, the group of added value HGFs accounts for 59% of the
total increase in added value generated by Belgian firms with at least ten
employees (i.e. 10,62 billion EUR generated by the added value HGFs versus a
total increase of 17,95 billion EUR). In this period the added value HGF subset
generated 10.6 billion EUR — by far the highest increase in net added value when
compared to previous periods.
55.269 54.31447.791 45.278 47.183
45.94752.598
24.573
-9.984
13.256 20.424
68.549
2009-2012 2010-2013 2011-2014 2012-2015 2013-2016 2014-2017
NET JOB CREATION OVER TIME Number of
jobs created
period
HGFs
All firms
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Table 5: Added value creation by added value HGFs
IN WHICH INDUSTRIES ARE HGFs MOST PREVALENT?
Table 6 shows the industries in which high-growth firms are active. Traditional
and labour-intensive industries such as construction, manufacturing and retail
show a clear under-representation of high-growth firms. For instance, nearly 15
per cent of firms with at least ten employees have their main activity in the
construction industry, whereas only 9 and 10 per cent respectively of employment
HGFs and added value HGFs are active in this industry.
Knowledge-intensive service industries, such as the IT and communication
sectors, typically show an over-representation of HGFs. Firms that perform
administrative and support service activities are also more likely to be in a high-
growth category. Compared to the previous analysed period (2013-2016), the
over- and under-representation of HGFs in certain industries is now less striking,
leading to a convergence towards the overall percentage of firms in each sector.
Total added value generated by the subset of added value HGFs in the first year of the high-growth
period, in EUR (1)
Total added value generated by the subset of added value HGFs in the final year of the high-growth
period, in EUR (2)
Net added value generated by added value HGFs in the high-growth period, in EUR (2)-(1)
Total added value generated by all firms(>10 empl.) in the first year of the reference period, in EUR
(3)
Total added value generated by all firms (>10 empl.) in the final year of the reference period, in EUR
(4)
Net added value generated by all firms in the study period (>10 empl.), in EUR (4)-(3)
2009-2012
5,897,692,993 14,091,670,160 8,193,977,167 124,257,404,000 138,617,069,000 14.359.665,000
2010-2013
5,058,993,697 12,192,311,480 7,133,317,783 136,948,115,000 142,662,907,000 5.714.792,000
2011-2014
4,632,267,956 11,156,900,580 6,524,632,624 141,032,422,000 144,472,465,000 3.440.043,000
2012-2015
4,600,153,363 11,965,873,440 7,365,720,077 133,245,485,000 140,525,965,000 7.280.478,,000
2013-2016
5,697,114,282 14,572,206,078 8,875,091,796 136,006,296,600 145,112,363,000 9.106.339,400
2014-2017
7,637,020,945 18,261,646,820 10,624,625,875 135,115,415,300 153,066,049,400 17.950.634,100
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Table 6: Industry classification (based on NACE-BEL 2008 classification)
WHERE ARE HGFs LOCATED?
The province of Antwerp and the Brussels-Capital region show a clear over-
representation of both employment HGFs and added value HGFs (see Table 7).
In all other provinces, there are fairly limited differences between the relative
number of firms that are located in a province and the relative number of HGFs.
Industry breakdown Number of
firms (>10 empl.) in this industry
Number of employment HGFs in this industry
Number of added value HGFs in this industry
Relative number of firms (>10 empl.) in this industry
Relative number of employment HGFs in this industry
Relative number of added value HGFs in this industry
(NACE Rev. 2 sections)
A. Agriculture, forestry and fishing
243 10 17 1.03% 1.22% 1.04%
B. Mining and quarrying
49 0 4 0.21% 0.00 0.24%
C. Manufacturing 4,237 92 290 17.91% 11.19% 17.67%
D. Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
38 2 4 0.16% 0.24% 0.24%
E. Water supply, sewerage, waste management
170 6 19 0.71% 0.73% 1.16%
F. Construction 3,525 72 176 14.90% 8.76% 10.73%
G. Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles
6,436 161 368 27.21% 19.59% 22.43%
H. Transportation and storage
1,856 72 122 7.85% 8.76% 7.43%
I. Accommodation and food service activities
1,156 46 74 4.89% 5.60% 4.51%
J. Information and communication
861 85 125 3.64% 10.34% 7.62%
K. Financial activities and insurance
428 19 43 1.81% 2.31% 2.62%
L. Real estate activities
282 6 17 1.19% 0.73% 1.04%
M. Professional, scientific and
technical activities
1,699 89 156 7.18% 10.83% 9.51%
N. Administrative and support service activities
1,400 112 147 5.92% 13.63% 8.96%
O. Public administration and defence
11 0 0 0.05% 0.00% 0.00%
P. Education 54 2 4 0.23% 0.24% 0.24%
Q. Human health and social work activities
720 37 48 3.04% 4.50% 2.93%
R. Arts, entertainment and recreation
216 6 17 0.91% 0.73% 1.04%
S. Other service activities
258 5 10 1.09% 0.61% 0.61%
T. Activities of households as employers
15 0 0 0.06% 0.00% 0.00%
TOTAL 23,654 822 1,641 100% 100% 100%
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Only in the provinces of Liège and Hainaut do we encounter a clear
underrepresentation of HGFs.
If we compare these results with the findings of last year’s report, we see more or
less the same trends continuing. However, the over-representation of HGFs in
Brussels has decreased slightly, as has the over-representation of added value
HGFs in the province of Antwerp. The over-representation of Antwerp-based
employment HGFs increased by one percentage point. The province of Flemish
Brabant shifted from an over-representation of employment HGFs of two
percentage points to an under-representation of one percentage point. In West
Flanders, there is still a small under-representation of employment HGFs (1.5
percentage points), but compared to the under-representation of 4.2 percentage
points in the previous period, this represents an upward trend.
Breakdown by province
Total number
of firms (>10 empl.)
Employment HGFs
Added value HGFs
Relative number
of firms in this region
Relative number of employment HGFs in this region
Relative number of
added value HGFs in this region
Antwerp 4,630 200 349 19.57% 24.33% 21.27%
Limburg 1,983 64 130 8.38% 7.79% 7.92%
East Flanders
3,251 108 222 13.74% 13.14% 13.53%
Flemish Brabant
2,087 62 146 8.82% 7.54% 8.90%
West Flanders
3,202 99 191 13.54% 12.04% 11.64%
Brussels-Capital Region
2,619 138 259 11.07% 16.79% 15.78%
Namur 695 15 34 2.94% 1.82% 2.07%
Liège 1,996 44 112 8.44% 5.35% 6.83%
Luxemburg 404 8 23 1.71% 0.97% 1.40%
Hainaut 1,941 47 113 8.21% 5.72% 6.89%
Walloon
Brabant 846 37 62 3.58% 4.50% 3.78%
Total 23,654 822 1,641 100% 100% 100%
Table 7: Geographical distribution (provinces)
On a regional level, the strong over-representation of Brussels-based HGFs
is striking (see Table 8). Whereas the presence of HGFs in Flanders appears to be
in line with the overall percentage of Flanders-based firms with at least ten
employees, the region of Wallonia shows a clear under-representation of both
employment HGFs and added value HGFs.
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Breakdown by region
Total
number of firms (>10 empl.)
Employ-ment HGFs
Added value HGFs
Relative
number of firms in this region
Relative
number of employment HGFs in this region
Relative number of
added value HGFs
in this region
Flanders 15,153 533 1,038 64.06% 64.84% 63.26%
Brussels-Capital Region
2,619 138 259 11.07% 16.79% 15.78%
Wallonia 5,882 151 344 24.87% 18.37% 20.96%
Table 8: Geographical distribution (regions)
DO HGFs MAKE A PROFIT?
On average, the relative number of employment HGFs with a positive EBITDA
is in line with the overall percentage of firms with at least ten employees that
show positive EBITDA figures. It appears that the period of high-growth had a zero
or only very limited effect on the percentage of employment HGFs with a positive
EBITDA (see Table 9). For the subset of added value HGFs, however, we encounter
a sharp increase in the relative number of firms that realise a positive EBITDA. For
this group of HGFs, the high-growth period clearly had a positive effect on EBITDA
figures, notwithstanding that there were clearly less added value HGFs with a
positive EBITDA at the start of the high-growth period.
Percentage of firms that had a positive EBITDA in 2014 90.91%
Percentage of firms that had a positive EBITDA in 2017 90.08%
Percentage of employment HGFs with a positive EBITDA in 2014 91.00%
Percentage of employment HGFs with a positive EBITDA in 2017 90.75%
Percentage of added value HGFs with a positive EBITDA in 2014 76.79%
Percentage of added value HGFs with a positive EBITDA in 2017 93.36%
Table 9: Profitability of HGFs
HOW LARGE ARE HGFs?
By applying the OECD definition of a high-growth firm, we exclude all firms with
less than ten employees from our calculations. Hence, the average size of the HGFs
that are reported in Table 10 might seem rather high, as HGFs are frequently
associated with young, small scaleup companies. The average employment HGF
employed nearly 40 people at the start of the high-growth period and 95 at
the end of this three year period. Added value HGFs were — on average —
somewhat larger at the start of the high-growth period, but clearly smaller than
employment HGFs at the end of the high-growth period.
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Table 10: Size of high-growth firms
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. With number of employees as the growth criterion, 3.48% of all
Belgian firms (with at least ten employees) qualified as a high-growth firm in the period 2014-2017. This percentage is a slight increase compared to the previous period 2013-2016 (3.16%).
2. With added value as the growth criterion, 6.94% of all Belgian firms (with at least ten employees) qualified as a high-growth firm in the
period 2014-2017. This is the highest relative number when compared to the previous 5 three-year periods.
3. In the period 2009-2017, more than half of the firms that became ‘high-
growth’ (in terms of employment growth) only remained a high-growth firm for one period of three years. Hence, high-growth is difficult to
achieve, but even more difficult to sustain. 4. High-growth firms are responsible for the vast majority of job creation
in our economy. A fairly small group of HGFs — 3.5% of the total number
of firms — account for 67% of the total amount of jobs that are generated in Belgium by firms with at least ten employees.
5. The net added value that is generated by all high-growth firms is a good proxy for their contribution to overall welfare in a region (as added value is the building block of GDP). With this in mind, we can state that high-growth
firms are the engine of Belgium’s GDP growth, as the group of 1,641 added value HGFs for the period 2014-2017 was responsible for 59% of
the total increase in added value realized by firms with at least 10 employees.
6. High-growth firms are clearly over-represented in knowledge-intensive
service industries (such as IT and communications) and under-represented in the more traditional and labour-intensive industries such
as construction and manufacturing. 7. The Brussels-Capital region and the province of Antwerp are the
hotspots for high-growth firms. The more urban regions appear to attract the most HGFs.
8. More than 9 out of 10 high-growth firms had a positive EBITDA at the
end of the high-growth period. Hence, rapidly growing in terms of employees or added value does not seem to negatively affect profits.
9. Most Belgian high-growth firms had less than 100 employees at the end of the high-growth period.
Employment HGFs ('14-'17)
Added value HGFs ('14-'17)
Average number of employees in 2014 39.60 45.50
Average number of employees in 2017 95.48 73.47
Relative number of firms with workforce between 18-49 employees in 2017 58.27% 71.12%
Relative number of firms with workforce between 50-249 employees in 2017 34.67% 22.97%
Relative number of firms with more than 250 employees in 2017 7.06% 5.91%
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THE VOICE OF GROWTH ENTREPRENEURS
In September 2018, a survey was sent out to the members of the Impulse Centre
‘Growth Management for Medium-sized Enterprises’ (iGMO). Eighty-three
entrepreneurs completed the survey, in which a wide variety of growth-related
topics were covered. However, not all of them have shown the high-growth rates
over the past three years that are stipulated by the OECD definition. Nevertheless,
the survey gives us useful insights into the characteristics of growth firms. We
compare the results with last year’s Belgian High-Growth monitor.
WHAT ARE THE DRIVERS OF BUSINESS GROWTH?
Taking Ansoff’s growth strategy matrix as a starting point, Figure 3 shows that
39% of the surveyed growth entrepreneurs stated that they mostly adopt a
product development strategy, which aims to sell new products and services in
a market in which the firm is already active. This percentage is in fact slightly
higher than last year’s result (36%). The difference between the second most
popular growth strategy — market penetration (30%) — and the third most
popular strategy — market development (26%) — becomes smaller when
compared to the previous year. A diversification strategy, where firms move to sell
new products or services in new geographic markets, clearly remains the less
commonly chosen strategy with a mere 5% of entrepreneurs opting for this.
Figure 3: Growth strategy
Figure 4 shows all the actions performed by growth entrepreneurs with the aim of
increasing turnover. Clearly the most common action undertaken was the
introduction of new products and/or services, which is in line with the most
commonly chosen growth strategy.
26%
39%
30%
5%
21%
36%34%
9%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
Selling existingproducts/services in
new markets
Selling newproducts/services in
existing markets
Selling existingproducts/services in
existing markets
Selling newproducts/services in
new markets
GROWTH STRATEGY
2018 2017
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Compared to the results of the previous year, it appears that taking over other
players in the industry has become a very common option (from 30% to 40%).
Creating partnerships (42%) and increasing marketing efforts (40%) also
remain very popular. Increasing prices has also become an increasingly popular
action, rising from 24% in 2017 to 35% in 2018.
Figure 4: Actions undertaken to increase turnover
WHAT IMPEDES FUTURE GROWTH?
There is nothing new under the sun when looking at the most prevalent growth
barriers. Finding and attracting the right people seems to be by far the biggest
barrier (75%) that impedes firms from growing faster, followed at some distance
by increased competition (25%, compared to 20% in 2017) and the lack of
management capacities (25%). The latter might be surprising, as one out of
four entrepreneurs consider the management capacities present in the firm as an
important barrier for future growth, meaning that a quarter of the CEOs find that
the level of managerial skills in their organisation is not sufficient to manage the
firm as it increases in size.
42%
71%
35%
2%
40%
23%
40%
18%
40%
67%
24%
4%
47%
24%
30%
32%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Setting up partnerships with other firms
to facilitate market entry
Introducing new products/services
Increasing prices
Decreasing prices
Increasing marketing efforts
More efforts on selling through digital
channels
Taking over other players in the sector
Setting up new distribution channels
ACTIONS UNDERTAKEN TO INCREASE
TURNOVER
2017 2018
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Figure 5: Growth barriers
ARE FINANCIAL RESOURCES EASY TO FIND?
Finding the financial resources to boost further growth appears not to be a
major barrier, as merely 19% of entrepreneurs stated that financing constraints
might, to a certain extent, hamper the future expansion of the firm. Eighty-one
per cent of the CEOs indicated that they experienced no real financing
constraints, which is eleven percentage points more than the result of 2017.
Hence, the conditions to attract financing appeared to be even more favourable in
2018 than in 2017.
Figure 6: Financing constraints
11%
16%
75%
25%
10%
25%
22%
4%
14%
12%
76%
20%
7%
23%
22%
7%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Financing the growth
Change in market situation
Attracting the right people
Increased competition
An inadequate growth strategy
Lack of management capacities
An inadequate internal structure
Fiscal and regulatory barriers
GROWTH BARRIERS
2017 2018
6% 13%
81%
10%20%
70%
0%
50%
100%
Yes To a certain extent No
DID FINANCING CONSTRAINTS
PREVENT THE FIRM FROM GROWING FASTER?
2018 2017
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DO THEY HAVE FUTURE GROWTH AMBITON?
One out of ten entrepreneurs stated that they no longer have the ambition to grow
their firm. Two out of three entrepreneurs have future growth ambitions
and have captured these ambitions in formal growth plans. The relative number
of entrepreneurs that aim for more growth but who have not captured this in
growth plans has decreased by 12 percentage points, from 35% in 2017 to 23%
in 2018.
Figure 7: Future growth ambition
WHAT ABOUT THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT?
Three top priorities emerge when the entrepreneurs were asked about the role of
the Belgian government in stimulating growth entrepreneurship: (a) a more
flexible labour market (72%), (b) less regulatory and legal obligations
(57%) and (c) lower tax levels (47%, compared to 59% in 2017). The other
possible options presented in Figure 8, such as providing growth capital or
increasing the amount of subsidies, were not considered crucial by the clear
majority of the surveyed entrepreneurs.
10%
67%
23%
5%
60%
35%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
No Yes, and this is
captured in formal
growth plans
Yes, but this is not
captured in formal
growth plans
2018 2017
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Figure 8: The role of the government in supporting growth firms
WHAT ABOUT HUMAN CAPITAL?
As indicated in figure 5, attracting the right employees is considered to be the
biggest hurdle for further growth. Figure 9 confirms these statements, as only 3%
of respondents indicated that they had no difficulties in recruiting new people
(compared to the closest competition). However, the percentage of firms that
could not fill vacancies remained fairly low (8%). This might also indicate
recruiting suboptimal profiles, as firms are forced to opt for lower quality
candidates.
Figure 9: Difficulties attracting the right employees
4%
11%
4%
7%
57%
47%
72%
1%
6%
7%
16%
65%
59%
76%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
No actions
Increase the amount of subsidies
Provide growth capital
Create a pool of coaches who can
advise growth firms
Decrease the amount of regulation and
legislation
Decrease taxes
Make the labour market more flexible
WHAT SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT DO TO
STIMULATE GROWTH FIRMS?
2017 2018
3%
24%
37%
26%
8%
4%
24%
38%
26%
8%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
No difficulties
Little difficulties
Quite a lot of difficulties
Many difficulties
So many that vacancies were not
filled in
HOW MUCH DIFFICULTY DID YOUR FIRM
HAVE IN ATTRACTING NEW PEOPLE COMPARED TO YOUR CLOSEST
COMPETITORS?
2017 2018
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ORGANIC OR EXTERNAL GROWTH?
In 2018, acquiring other firms became more popular than the previous year. Figure
4 already indicated that M&A transactions are more and more indicated as
an action that was undertaken and led to greater turnover. Figure 10
confirms this trend with now almost half (48%) of the surveyed growth firms
having acquired a firm in the last three years, compared to 40% in 2017. If we
look at the entire history of the growth companies that are present in our sample,
it reveals that more than 8 out of 10 firms (81%) have taken over another firm at
some point (Figure 11).
Figure 10: M&A activity in the previous three years
Figure 11: M&A activity in the past
48%52%
40%
60%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Yes No
DID YOUR FIRM TAKE OVER
ANOTHER FIRM IN THE PAST THREE YEARS?
2018 2017
81%
19%
DID YOUR FIRM TAKE OVER
OTHER FIRMS IN THE PAST?
Yes No
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HOW ‘INTERNATIONAL’ ARE BELGIAN GROWTH FIRMS?
About one out of five growth firms do not export any of their products or
services (21%, compared to 22% in 2017). However, we can witness a trend that
the firms that do export their products outside Belgium are exporting more as
a ratio of their total turnover. For 40% of the surveyed growth firms, more than
60% of their realised turnover is the result of export; this percentage has grown
from 30% in 2017. Looking at the distribution of the percentages in Figure 12,
Belgian growth firms either export nothing (or only a very limited amount of their
turnover), or they are realising the clear majority of their turnover outside
Belgium.
Figure 12: Export behaviour
When looking at the export behaviour in continents other than Europe (Figure 13),
it becomes clear that nearly half (47%) of the analysed growth firms do not
sell their products or services outside Europe. Merely four percent of the firms
are ‘truly global’ firms, exporting more than 40% of their turnover outside Europe.
Figure 13: Export behaviour outside the Europe
21%
12%
15%
7%5%
18%
22%22%
19%
12%
9%8%
14%16%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
0% 1%-10% 10%-20% 20%-40% 40%-60% 60%-80% 80%-100%
PERCENTAGE OF TURNOVER THAT
RESULTS FROM EXPORT
2018 2017
47%
28%
7%
14%
4%0% 0%
51%
19%
12% 11%
4% 2% 1%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0% 1% - 10% 10% - 20% 20% - 40% 40% - 60% 60% - 80% 80% - 100%
PERCENTAGE OF TURNOVER THAT RESULTS
FROM EXPORT OUTSIDE EUROPE
2018 2017
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HOW ‘INNOVATIVE’ ARE BELGIAN GROWTH FIRMS?
63% of the respondents indicated that they believe their firm is more
advanced when it comes to innovation than their closest competition, with
only 11% stating that they are less innovative than the competition. Although
these answers are based on the self-perception of CEOs of growth firms, we might
assume from the result that Belgian growth firms are doing well when it comes to
innovation.
Figure 14: Innovation capacity
Figure 14 shows that most CEOs of Belgian growth firms see that their firms
are doing well when it comes to innovation. However, another important
aspect concerns the speed at which these firms can innovate. Therefore, Figure 15
shows us the average time period that growth firms need to go from identifying
an opportunity in the market to entering the market. Twenty-one per cent of
the surveyed firms can come up with an innovative solution in less than 6 months
after having identified an opportunity. The clear majority (37%) stated that it takes
between half a year and a year, with another 15% pointing to the presence of
an annual cycle, thereby indicating that they have a more or less systematic
approach to cope with opportunities that emerge in the external environment.
1%
10%
26%
45%
18%
2%
7%
32%
44%
15%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
We are clearly
underperforming
We are lagging a
bit behind
We are equally
strong
We are sligthly
more advanced
We are clearly
more advanced
HOW DOES YOUR FIRM PERFORM WITH RESPECT
TO INNOVATION CAPACITY COMPARED TO THE CLOSEST COMPETITORS?
2018 2017
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Figure 15: From opportunity to market entry
HOW ‘DIGITAL’ ARE BELGIAN GROWTH FIRMS?
Seventy-two per cent of the surveyed growth entrepreneurs believe that their
firm is at least equally as strong as the closest competitor when it comes
to digitisation. Compared to the results of 2017, however, the relative number
of CEOs that think that their firm is lagging behind has increased from 20% to
26% (Figure 16).
Figure 16: Digitization efforts
When the growth entrepreneurs were asked how they are coping with digitally
transforming their businesses, for 31% of them the preferred solution is assistance
from consultants and specialised digital agencies. Another third of
respondents reported that they are focusing on partnerships with start-ups or
established firms in order to facilitate their digital transformation. Only 28% of
the growth firms considers itself strong enough to handle digital transformation on
its own without reaching out to other parties (Figure 17).
21%
37%
15%
18%
6%
3%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Less than 6 months
6 to 12 months
We have an annual evaluation cycle
Between 12 and 18 months
Between 2 and 3 year
Longer than 3 year
FROM IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES TO
MARKET ENTRY
3%
26%
35%31%
6%3%
20%
39%
28%
11%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
We are clearlyunderperforming
We are lagging abit behind
We are equallystrong
We are slightlymore advanced
We are clearlymore advanced
HOW DOES YOUR FIRM PERFORM WITH RESPECT
TO DIGITISATION EFFORTS COMPARED TO THE CLOSEST COMPETITOR?
2018 2017
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Figure 17: Coping with digital transformation
Somewhat related to these digitisation efforts is the amount of products and
services that are being sold online. Although it might not be feasible for all B2B
firms in our analysis to sell their products online, the survey reveals that more
than half of the firms (57%) are not realising any turnover via online sales.
However, this is already 6 percentage points lower when compared to the results
from 2017. Hence, we might deduce from Figure 18 that more growth firms are
starting to sell online, as 36% of respondents indicated that they realise between
1% and 10% of their turnover from online sales.
Figure 18: Online sales
28%
31%10%
23%
3% 5%
HOW DOES YOUR FIRM COPE WITH
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?
We are doing this on our own
We collaborate with consultants and/or digital agencies
Through partnerships with start-ups
Through partnerships with established firms
Other
We do not focus on digital transformation
57%
36%
4% 3% 0% 0% 0%
63%
33%
3% 1% 0% 0% 0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
WHAT PERCENTAGE OF TURNOVER CAME
FROM ONLINE SALES?
2018 2017
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HORIZONS OF GROWTH
In their bestselling book on business growth, The Alchemy of Growth, Baghai,
Coley and White state that firms must have a continuous pipeline of
business-building initiatives in order to keep the firm on the growth trajectory.8
If a firm wants to achieve sustained growth, they should master “three horizons”
of growth. The main idea is that once a business and its revenue streams mature,
they should have other streams ready to take the place of the current core
business (i.e. Horizon 1). Those other streams may be the result of innovations
around the core business (i.e. Horizon 2), but also from entirely new business
lines (i.e. Horizon 3).
In essence, Horizon 1 comprises the current core business, accounting for the clear
majority of the firm’s profits and turnover. This is needed to fuel the initiatives
taken in Horizons 2 and 3. In Horizon 2, resources are devoted to emerging
businesses that are adjacent to the core business. Horizon 3 comprises those
initiatives that may be quite far away from today’s core business but have been
planted as seeds for the future. Overall, it will become critical to manage the
three horizons concurrently, not sequentially.
Therefore, it is essential that growth firms devote their time and resources
effectively between these three horizons. In the survey, we asked the
respondents to indicate how much of their time is allocated to each of the horizons.
As the questions were asked separately, it was possible for the total percentage to
be higher than 100. This was done on purpose, so as not to force respondents to
manipulate the percentage to a total of 100; we wanted the answers to reflect the
general feelings they held about the time their firm devotes to each type of project
and business line. In fact, Figure 19 sums up to 116%, revealing that the
entrepreneurs are — on average — overestimating the time that is devoted to all
three horizons.
As a rule of thumb, it is often suggested that firms should follow a 70/20/10
rule. Seventy per cent of time and resources should be spent on current core
business activities, 20% should be dedicated to supporting emerging business
from Horizon 2, and the remaining 10% should be devoted to the creation of
genuinely new businesses. From Figure 19, and taking into account the higher total
percentage of 116%, it is apparent that the Belgian growth firms are spending
disproportionately more time on initiatives that fit within Horizon 2.
8 M. Baghai, S. Coley, and D. White, The Alchemy of Growth: Practical Insights for Building the Enduring Enterprise (New York: Basic Books, 1999)
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Figure 19: Three horizons of growth
KEY TAKEAWAYS
1. A product development strategy, where the firm sells new products or services
in existing markets, remains the most important growth strategy. Selling new
products and or services is also clearly the most commonly undertaken action
to increase turnover. This points to the importance of innovation capacities
within the firm, as the creation of promising new products and services seems to
be at the core of further growth.
2. Recruiting the right new employees remains by far the most important
growth barrier, as three quarters of the surveyed entrepreneurs stated that not
finding skilled people for vacant jobs hampers the growth of the firm.
3. Access to financial resources that are needed to fuel the growth of the firm
is not perceived as an important growth barrier. Apparently, this has become
even less of an issue for the growth entrepreneurs; in 2017, 70% of the surveyed
growth entrepreneurs stated that financing constraints did not prevent the firm
from growing faster, increasing to 81% in 2018.
4. The M&A activity of the analysed growth firms increased from 2017 to 2018.
When asked about the most common actions that were undertaken to increase
turnover, 40% of the entrepreneurs answered that they took over other players in
the industry (compared to 30% in 2017). Moreover, it is shown that 48% of the
firms have acquired a competitor in the previous three years; in 2017, the
percentage was only 40%.
5. Creating more flexibility on the labour market should be the absolute
number one priority for the government when aiming to stimulate growth among
firms. Increasing the availability of subsidies is not considered important.
6. Belgian growth firms are exporting mainly in Europe and not in other
continents. Sixty-seven per cent of the analysed growth firms are generating at
least 10% of their turnover from exporting, but only 25% are generating at least
66%
34%
16%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Horizon 1 Horizon 2 Horizon 3
TIME DEVOTED TO
THREE HORIZONS
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10% of their turnover outside of Europe. Hence, Belgium has only a few truly
global growth firms.
7. The introduction of new products and services is found to be the most popular
action undertaken to increase turnover. Therefore, it is crucial that firms are able
to rapidly take new products to the market. With this in mind, the survey reveals
that 73% of the growth firms bring new products or services to the market in
less than one year from the moment of spotting an opportunity.
8. Only 5% of the growth firms are not focusing on digitally transforming
the business, and only 28% are coping with the digital transformation process
on their own (meaning that they do not collaborate with other parties, such as
digital agencies or start-ups).
9. 57% of the growth firms are not selling their products or services
online. However, this percentage has dropped from 63% last year.
10. Growth entrepreneurs are spending a lot of their time and resources on
strengthening their core business (Horizon 1), but are also clearly aware of
the importance of looking for adjacent businesses (Horizon 2) and totally new
projects that could boost the firm’s growth further in the future (Horizon
3).
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WHO ARE THESE HIGH-GROWTH FIRMS?
Numbers and graphs are interesting, but in the end, it is the company and the
entrepreneur and his team behind these figures that make growth happen.
Therefore, in order to give an idea of the different types of firms that qualify as
high-growth firms in the period 2014-2017, and of the CEOs that completed the
survey, we present three short testimonials of Belgian HGFs that are members
of iGMO.
“Skylux: aiming for high-growth in customer satisfaction”
“Our ultimate goal is not to realize high-growth in terms of employees or
turnover, but to achieve growth in customer satisfaction. Therefore, we aim
not to grow too fast as this could lead to growing pains for our organization which
may lead to lower customer satisfaction. Therefore, the most important challenge
is to balance healthy growth and customer satisfaction”, says Jean Glorieux
(photo).
“Revive: purpose-driven people that go for sustained growth”
One of the 820 employment high-growth firms for
the period 2014-2017 is the Kortrijk-based
company Skylux. The producer of skylights and
barrel vaults, formerly known as AG Plastics,
generates a revenue of 70 million EUR and employs
250 people. Today, Jean Glorieux, the grandson of
the founder Albert Glorieux is leading the third-
generation family firm.
Skylux’ main growth driver over the past few years has been
a continuous investment in R&D and digitisation. “This has
led to the development of new products and the optimization
of existing products. In doing so, we partnered with technical
consultants who could leverage our existing in-house
knowledge. Furthermore, we are looking for innovations in
other industries which can inspire our R&D-teams to develop
products that respond to what the end-consumer really
expects.”, says Jean.
Revive, founded in 2009, considers itself as an outsider
amongst project developers. They have established a clear
niche in their sector by focusing on the reconversion of strongly
contaminated sites in urban areas. They have realised high-
growth rates for several years by making a distinctive choice
for this type of niche project.
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“Tobania: intrapreneurial managers to boost our growth”
Founder and CEO Nicolas Béarelle (photo) states that Revive takes advantage of
a number of barriers to entry that have been built in previous years: “We started
from a strong capital base and did a lot of effort to make our brand visible
in the market. Revive is a purpose-driven firm: by focusing on contaminated
areas, we want to achieve added value for the entire neighbourhood. By having
this philosophy, it became easier to attract high-quality people that were driven
by the same intrinsic values and that have no ‘short-term mindset’. All this has
helped us to create a positive image and credibility with our stakeholders.”
In less than ten years, Revive’s turnover has grown
exponentially. “Today, we come at a point where we see
that the Belgian market has become too small for further
expansion as a niche player. Therefore, we try to broaden
our current offering in the existing market by focusing
on ‘housing-as-a-service’ and to enter new foreign
markets with the initial niche strategy that we have
applied in our home market.”, concludes Béarelle.
Tobania has grown into one of the largest business consulting and
IT companies in Belgium with a turnover of 85 million EUR in 2017
and 900 consultants (of which 600 employees, the so-called
‘Tobians’). CEO Lode Peeters: “Our organisational structure is
decentralized. Therefore, our top managers are given an
extensive degree of freedom to be an entrepreneur themselves,
within the business unit they control. They design their own
strategy and have end-to-end responsibility for sales, business
development, delivery and recruitment and management of
talent.”
“We have a strong management team. On the one hand, there are the relatively
young and highly talented managers who have been given the chance to grow
internally towards positions within Tobania with a high responsibility. On the
other hand, we recruited talent to give us a fresh look on the business. The sum
is that they all have relevant management experience, but we continue to coach
and train them on the job. Contrarily, this brings the advantage that they are
non-judgmental and eager to learn and willing to give the best of themselves
every day. This leads to a very dynamic and entrepreneurial environment.
And since the summer of 2016 we decided to strengthen the corporate
management layer with the aim to guide and service our management team in
an even better way with for example marketing and communication facilities,
sales strategies, budget control, legal and personnel advice.”, states Peeters.
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ABOUT THE RESPONDENTS AND THEIR FIRMS
KEY FIGURES
The surveyed firms have an average annual turnover of 120 million EUR, with
a median of 50 million EUR. They employ 529 FTEs on average, with a
median of 190 FTEs. The mean of all EBITDA figures is 13.6 million EUR,
with a median of 5 million EUR. Hence, it is clear that the growth firms that we
have analysed are mature firms and surely not to be thought of as a group of
young start-ups.
Average Median
Turnover (last
available year, in million EUR)
120 50
FTE (last available year)
529 190
EBITDA (last available
year, in million EUR)
13.6 5
Figure 20: Key figures
ARE THEY FAMILY FIRMS?
Figure 21: Type of firm
87%
13%
FIRM TYPE
Family firm Non-family firm
Tobania was created after the merger between Tobius and
Saga in 2015. “One of the barriers we currently face in
order to grow faster is the availability of financial
resources needed for new acquisitions. Apparently,
investors first want to see if the merger is a success before
they are prepared to finance. I think we come to the prove
now as we have two years of double digit growth.”, says
Lode Peeters (photo).
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DO THEY HAVE A BOARD OF DIRECTORS?
Figure 22: Presence of a Board of Directors
WHO IS THE CEO THAT FILLED IN THE SURVEY?
Figure 23: Profile of the CEO
48%
22%
30%
Yes
No
No, but we have a Board of Advisors
20%
64%
11%5%
Founder
Family of the founder
Externally appointed CEO
Because of of a Management Buy-Our or Management Buy-In
Other reason
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THE VIEW OF THE AUTHORS
THE GROUP IS GROWING AGAIN, BUT …
After four consecutive periods were the number of Belgian employment high-
growth firms was decreasing or stagnating, we now see an increase in the
amount of employment HGFs for the period 2014-2017. Also the number of added
value HGFs finds its highest amount since 2009. However, if we compare the
relative number of employment HGFs in Belgium in the period 2014-2017 – 3,48%
– with the percentage of HGFs in other neighbouring countries like the
Netherlands in the same period – 5,40%9 –, we can conclude that Belgium is
trailing.
A RISE IN M&A ACTIVITY
An increasing number of growth firms have chosen the path of inorganic
growth, meaning that they acquired other firms to make a turnover and/or
workforce leap. This result fits within a general rise in M&A activity. The Vlerick
M&A Monitor10 reports that a continuous surge in the number of transactions has
been witnessed for the past five years. Hence, high-growth firms appear not to be
different than ‘other’ firms when it comes to acquisitions. An important question
may arise if the conclusions that were made about HGFs and their profile
characteristics are still valid if a large amount of the growth should be attributed
to external or inorganic growth. Past research shows11 however, that the
conclusions are similar irrespective of whether organic or inorganic growth is
studied.
SUSTAINABLE GROWTH NEEDS TO BE MANAGED
Very few (eleven) Belgian firms were able to be called an employment high-growth
firm for the entire period from 2009 to 2017. Apparently high-growth is for the
vast majority of firms a temporary phenomenon. However, one potential
recipe for persistent high-growth might be found in the management of
growth horizons. If firms achieve high-growth from the activities that result from
their current core business (i.e. horizon 1), it will be crucial to invest sufficient
time and resources to develop adjacent activities (i.e. horizon 2) in order to
anticipate for the fall-back that might stem from the core business. Moreover, to
anticipate HGFs should also look for completely new and innovative business
opportunities (i.e. horizon 3) that may boost the firm’s growth in the long run.
By balancing the three horizons – for example by devoting 70% of the firm’s
total available time and resources to horizon 1 activities, 20% to horizon 2
activities and 10% to horizon 3 activities – the chances of keeping the firm on
9 Jansen, J. & Luxemburg, M. (2018), ‘Scale-Up Dashboard 2018’, Research report, Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship 10 Luypaert, M. & Spolverato, G. (2017), ‘Vlerick M&A Monitor 2018’, Research report, Vlerick Business School 11 Henrekson, M. & Johansson, D. (2010), ‘Gazelles as job creators: a survey and interpretation of the evidence’, Small Business Economics, volume 35 (2), p. 227-244
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the high-growth track might increase substantially as the pipeline for growth
is filled in a substantial manner.
DIGITAL IS NOT YET THE NEW NORMAL
A ‘digital first’ mentality seems not yet to be the case for most Belgian growth
firms. Compared to 2017, the relative number of CEOs that think that their firm is
lagging behind when it comes to digitization has increased from 20% to 26%.
However, we witness an increase of 6 percentage points in the number of firms
that are selling their products online. Nevertheless, more than half of the firms
remain selling not at all via the internet. Clearly, the there is an untapped potential
for online sales – even in a B2B environment.
OVERCOMING THE PEOPLE BARRIER
Unsurprisingly, the major growth barrier is not being able to attract the right
people. Only 3% of the entrepreneurs report no difficulties in recruiting skilled
employees. The results are similar to these of 2017. This can indicate that there is
a misfit between the supply side of the Belgian labour market and the type of jobs
that Belgian growth firms demand. Growth firms that struggle to find technically
skilled people such as engineers could reach out to urban areas such as Brussels,
Antwerp, Gent or Leuven on order to have access to ‘tech-savvy’ pools of talent
that are frequently based in urban areas. This might also to a large extent explain
why overrepresentations of HGFs are found in Antwerp and Brussels. Firms could
even go one step further and get inspired by many Belgian start-up companies
who find their technical people abroad, and reach out to countries where many
skilled engineers are based (e.g. Portugal, India, …). In a digital world, distance
has become a vague concept.
DO WE NEED A POLICY FOR HIGH-GROWTH FIRMS?
There is no such thing as a typical high-growth firm with a typical growth
trajectory. Rather, many growth patterns may lead to high-growth. As some
firms will grow in a rather traditional way (i.e. by increasing employment and
turnover at the same time), other firms may go for a higher turnover with less
employeesi. Moreover, HGFs are likely to differ in the speed and consistency
of their growth. Some may grow smoothly in the same pace, other may grow in
one or two large steps. Hence, a policy that is specifically targeted to HGFs as a
homogeneous group is likely to have limited effect 12. If policy makers would
identify high-growth firms as an area of priority, it is crucial to acknowledge that
these different patterns will have different implications for reaching policy
goals. A ‘one size fits all’ approach is likely to be suboptimal given these diverging
patterns.
12 Delmar, F. & Davidsson, P. (1998), ‘A taxonomy of high-growth’, Frontiers of Entrepreneurshio Research, volume 18 (1), pp. 343-399
31
Our solution to your specific needs
Our finding that the subset of HGFs is generating a more or less stable amount
of jobs – even in times when the overall population of firms is generating few net
jobs – is an important message for policy makers. It may be tempting to launch
a specific policy targeted towards HGFs as such; this may lead to a higher ‘stable’
amount of jobs that are created by the HGF-subset. Nevertheless, one should have
some precaution. Such a policy may have limited impact as high firm growth is
found to be a temporary phenomenon in the life of a firm. Hence, if the promotion
of high-growth firms is an area of priority, it is important to determine what type
of high-growth firms are the most valuable for reaching specific policy targets.
In addition a generic entrepreneurial policy is crucial for HGFs. It effects the
framework conditions that allow companies to grow such as ease of doing business,
macro-economic stability, a well-developed physical and commercial
infrastructure, R&D facilities, access to finance and training and education.
32
Our solution to your specific needs
APPENDIX: LIST OF EMPLOYMENT HGFs
FOR THE PERIOD 2014-2017
Company Name
Location ! @B CLEAN BRUSSEL
24+ ZWIJNDRECHT
2CC67 MAISIERES
3 T PREFABBETON LOMMEL
4C MECHELEN
A.C.N. IZEGEM
A.I.R.A. CLEANING SERVICES LONCIN
AAK BELGIUM MERKSEM
ABSOLUTE@WORK GISTEL
ABYLSEN BELGIUM BRUSSEL
AC FACILITIES GENK
ACA IT - SOLUTIONS HASSELT
ACTION BELGIUM ASSE
ACTIVE CLEANING SERVICES BRUSSEL
ADIUTUM BRUSSEL
ADM ANTWERP ANTWERPEN
ADVANCE GROOT-BIJGAARDEN
ADVENSYS BRUSSEL
ADVIPRO LILLE
AFAS BELGIUM MECHELEN
AFELIO LIEGE
AG REAL ESTATE PROPERTY MANAGEMENT BRUSSEL
AGIDENS LIFE SCIENCES BURCHT
AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES BELGIUM DIEGEM
AGO CONSTRUCT KORTRIJK
AGORIA REAL ESTATE BRUSSEL
AGRISERT JONCRET
AGRISTO BAVIKHOVE
AGROKOM STADEN
AKKA BELGIUM BRUSSEL
ALARM EN VEILIGHEID VOCHTEN - MYLLE SECURITY MERKSEM
ALDI HOLDING OTTERGEM
ALL SERVICES COMPAGNIE SERAING
ALTAIR GOSSELIES
ALTEN BELGIUM BRUSSEL
ALTISSIA INTERNATIONAL LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
AMARIS CONSULTING BELGIUM BRUSSEL
AMBULANCE FIRST CARE HOUTHULST
AMG BELGIUM THIMISTER
ANANKEI HEVERLEE
ANDRE DE DECKER ET FILS SAINTES
ANTWERP CONTAINER TRANSPORT INTERNATIONAL ANTWERPEN ANTWERPS SPORTPALEIS MERKSEM
API RESTAURATION CUESMES
AQTOR! OOSTAKKER
ARENDO HERENTALS
ARGEN-X ZWIJNAARDE
ARIES CONSULTANTS BIERGES
ARTEBIS BRUSSEL
ASIT BIOTECH BRUSSEL
ASSYSTEM CARE HOLDING BRUSSEL
ATALIAN MANAGEMENT SERVICES BRUSSEL
ATELIER VIERKANT ZANDVOORDE (OOSTENDE)
AUTO TERMINUS BRUGGE BRUGGE
AUTOPARTS FLANDERS GERAARDSBERGEN
AVERNA HASSELT
AVERTIM BRUSSEL
AVIOVISION HASSELT
AXIS ANTWERPEN
AXONE PHARMA BRAINE-L'ALLEUD
AXXI4YOU ANTWERPEN
AZALEES BRUSSEL
33
Our solution to your specific needs
B S X VERREBROEK
BAAC VLAANDEREN BASSEVELDE
BAKKERIJ GIELIS ZICHEM
BAKKERIJ-TEA-ROOM VANALLES & NOGWAT BEERZEL
BARTS POTATO COMPANY VLETEREN
BASALTE MERELBEKE
BASIC-FIT BELGIUM BRUSSEL
BAUCOUBAR BRUSSEL
BAV WOMMELGEM
BBK EXPANSION NAMUR
BE FOOD! BRUGGE
BE NETWORKS MECHELEN
BECHTLE DIRECT NEERPELT
BEKAERTDESLEE INNOVATION WAREGEM
BELCOTEC GEEL
BELFIUS FLERON - VISE VISE
BELFIUS NOORD-BRABANT - BELFIUS BRABANT NORD ASSE BELGISCHE SCHEEPVAARTMAATSCHAPPIJ ANTWERPEN
BELGO HOME CONSTRUCT DUISBURG
BELLE'S POETSBUREAU WAREGEM
BEMATRIX BEVEREN-ROESELARE
BE-MOBILE TECH MELLE
BENVITEC PIPING KRUIBEKE
BENVITEC PLASTICS KOERSEL
BIBLIOPOLIS BRUSSEL
BINHOME BRUSSEL
BIO MINERALS DESTELBERGEN
BIOPLANET HALLE
BISTRO 4 WILRIJK
BJS.SERVICES ESTINNES
BKCS HERENTHOUT
BLAKE & PARTNERS BRUSSEL
BLECKMANN BELGIE KRUISHOUTEM
BNP PARIBAS LEASE GROUP BRUSSEL
BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM ANIMAL HEALTH BELGIUM BRUSSEL BOPLAN GULLEGEM
BOREALIS ANTWERPEN PAAL
BORVAL IEPER
BOSQ MECHELEN
BOUW- EN CONSTRUCTIEWERKEN SWINNEN BALEN
BOUWMATERIALEN DE GROOTE - HOUTBOERKE GENT
BOUWMATERIALEN VAN PELT ZOERSEL
BOUWWERKEN DE RUYCK NINOVE
BOVA ENVIRO+ HEUSDEN (O.-VL.)
BOZARC AARTSELAAR
BRASSE - TEMPS DIFFUSION FROYENNES
BRASSERIE DU GRAND ENCLOS SENSENRUTH
BRASSERIE TROLL & BUSH PIPAIX
BRICOLAGES JARIS GEMBLOUX
BRIGHTNET BRUSSEL
BRYSSINCK SINT-PAUWELS
BUBBLE SINT-KATELIJNE-WAVER
BUILD PARTNER BRUSSEL
BUMACO KOELTECHNIEK ROTSELAAR
BURDOCK CONSULTANTS BELGIUM BRASSCHAAT
BUROCAD PEER
BUSENCO KRUIBEKE
C SYSTEMS HOUTHALEN-HELCHTEREN
C&G OOSTHAM
C. OUTDOOR HASSELT
C.JC.B.M. MONS
C.M.E.CONSTRUCT OREYE
CAMBRE ASSOCIATES BRUSSEL
CAMCO TECHNOLOGIES HEVERLEE
CARE TALENTS KORTRIJK
CAREHO SCHILDE
CARGILL MECHELEN
CARRELAGES GILLET NOVILLE-LEZ-BASTOGNE
34
Our solution to your specific needs
CARTEC BRUSSEL
CASTEL DE PONT-A-LESSE ANSEREMME
C-DEV BRUSSEL
CEMRE BRUSSEL
CENTR'AUTO CHARLEROI GOSSELIES
CENTRE D'IMPREGNATION DES BOIS DE BELGIQUE VIELSALM CERBA HEALTHCARE BELGIUM BRUSSEL
CERTINERGIE VERLAINE
CF PROXY + BRUSSEL
CFE BOUW VLAANDEREN WILRIJK
CGK GROUP GULLEGEM
CHATEAU CHENOIS GESTION BRUSSEL
CHAUFFAGE ELAERTS ET CIE ITTRE
CHEOPS TECHNOLOGY EDEGEM
CHRISTARLAQUE WASSEIGES
CHRISTY HEIST-AAN-ZEE
CIMENTERIES CBR CEMENTBEDRIJVEN BRAINE-L'ALLEUD
CINESCOPE BRUSSEL
CITY ROCK INDUSTRIALS MECHELEN
CITYSERVICE ANTWERPEN ANTWERPEN
CL WARNETON WAASTEN
CLEAN & CO BRUSSEL
CLEANLEASE OEDELEM
CLIMAWEST WEVELGEM
CMAST TEMSE
COACH PARTNERS BRABANT AFFLIGEM
CODE D'OR GENT
CODIPACK OLEN
CODIT LEDEBERG
COMBELL GENT
COMENSIA BRUSSEL
COMET TRAITEMENTS CHATELET
COMPAREX BELGIUM BRUSSEL
CONCRETEMASTERS GENK
CONFLUENCE INTERNATIONAL ANALYTICS LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
CONINCK ET FILS KEUMIEE
CONNECT HASSELT
CONSTRUCTIE DEMYTTENAERE HULSTE
CONSTRUX HULSTE
CONTACT CENTER ALLIANCE ASSEBROEK
CONXION DEERLIJK
COOLBLUE BERCHEM-ANTWERPEN
COOP-APOTHEKEN GENT
CORACO AARSCHOT
CORBIO CORBAIS
COREX PITTEM
CORNEILLIE ASSEBROEK
COSCO SHIPPING LINES (BELGIUM) ANTWERPEN
COSMADE BELGIUM HEIST-OP-DEN-BERG
COUET & ASSOCIES WATERLOO
CRANE REPAIR ANTWERPEN
CREAM CONSULTING BRUSSEL
CRECHE EUROPEENNE BRUSSEL
CRIEE-VAN DE POEL-VERMEULEN-ROOSEMEYERS ANTWERPEN CRISTAL BELGIUM TISSELT
CTG ITS WAVRE
CYMACO WILLEBROEK
D E I HERSEEUW
D&D ISOLTECHNICS RUISBROEK (BT.)
DALEMANS REMICOURT
DANIELI IL DIVINO ANTWERPEN
DARCIS CHOCOLAT ET PATISSERIE VERVIERS
DASSY EUROPE BRUGGE
DATA CENTER KEMPEN GEEL
DATOS WILRIJK
DAUVISTER FRANCORCHAMPS
DAVIDSON BELGIUM LA HULPE
DC RESTO LAARNE
35
Our solution to your specific needs
DCI IT RESOURCES STEKENE
D-DRINKS ZWIJNAARDE
DE CORBIE II MEERHOUT
DE LIFT EKE
DE MACHINE FABRIEK KASTERLEE KASTERLEE
DE MOLEN-GENK GENK
DE RUYTE MILIEU PUURS
DE VLIJTIGE MIER HERENTALS
DE VREESE LOGISTIC PETEGEM-SCHELDE
DE WAAL SOLID FOUNDATIONS LOKEREN
DECAT ENERGY TECHNICS PERVIJZE
DEDIRES ANTWERPEN
DEKEYZER - OSSAER KOEKELARE
DEKKER TRANSPORT SINT-GILLIS-DENDERMONDE
DELBACO KORTRIJK
DELIMEAL BOECHOUT
DEMA - SHOP ROESELARE
DEMOCO GROUP HASSELT
DEMONSTRATE BRUSSEL
DEMTEC SERVICES HASSELT
DEPLOYMENTS FACTORY BRUSSEL
DEPREST TEMSE
DEQUENNE CHIMIE BAUDOUR
DESPRIET GEBROEDERS KORTRIJK
DESTINY ZAVENTEM
DETRY AUBEL
DEVOS GROUP BEKKEVOORT
DEWAE ZELZATE
DICAR KASTERLEE
DICK FRERES TUBIZE
DIENSTENBEDRIJF EASY LIFE WILRIJK
DILITO SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM
DIRECT SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS BRUSSEL
DISTRILED CENTRE ZWEVEGEM
DISTRILOGISTIQUE ZWEVEGEM
DMG GUARDS ZOERLE-PARWIJS
DOCHY GLAS VEURNE
DOCS INTERNATIONAL BELGIUM HEVERLEE
DOMAINE DE CLERFAYT WAUDREZ
DOMUS BERLAAR
DRAGINTRA KAPELLEN
DSV AIR & SEA RUISBROEK (ANTW.)
DUFAM GENT
DW - ACCENT PAAL
DYMOTEC OLEN
DYNALOGIC BELGIUM SINT-KATELIJNE-WAVER
EASY SYSTEMS BENELUX HERENTALS
EASYFAIRS EVENTS SINT-DENIJS-WESTREM
E-BO ENTERPRISES WATOU
ECE BRUSSEL
ECHO BAY MERCHTEM
ECOPHOS LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
ECORYS BRUSSELS BRUSSEL
ECS CORPORATE ZEEBRUGGE
EDC ANTWERPEN
EDMAC EUROPE WILRIJK
EDUARDS TRAILER FACTORY BALEN
EG SERVICES (BELGIUM) EKEREN
EIB INSULATION CONTRACTING SCHOTEN
ELEKTRO SERVICE MOESKROEN REKKEM
ELICIO ZANDVOORDE (OOSTENDE)
ELITE INTERIM BRUSSEL
ELMI MEERLE
E-LOGISTICS HALLE
ELS BELGIUM BRUSSEL
ELUDE DRONGEN
EMZ WERKE MANDERFELD MANDERFELD
EN BORD DE SOIGNES BRUSSEL
36
Our solution to your specific needs
ENGIE ENERGY MANAGEMENT BRUSSEL
EOLY HALLE
EPC BELGIQUE AMPSIN
ERA BENELUX GULLEGEM
ERNST & YOUNG ADVISORY SERVICES DIEGEM
ERTZBERG LEUVEN
ESAS 3SERVICES WILRIJK
ESAS TELECOM PAAL
ESCURO GENT
ESKATRANS OUD-TURNHOUT
ETABLISSEMENTS JORDAN FARCIENNES
ETEX SERVICES KAPELLE-OP-DEN-BOS
ETS MICHEL C.C.S. FROYENNES
EURO CLEAN SERVICES BRUSSEL
EUROBUSSING BRUSSELS BRUSSEL
EUROFINS BELGIUM NAZARETH
EUROFINS FOOD TESTING BELGIUM SINT-ANDRIES
EUROFOOD INTERNATIONAL HASSELT
EUROGARDEN TIENEN
EUROGREEN TONGRINNE
EUROPCAT BRUSSEL
EUROPEAN AND BELGIAN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT BRUSSEL EUROPEAN CAR AUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION SOLUTIONS TIENEN
EUROPEAN COMBINED REEFERS ANTWERPEN
EUROPEAN PROTECTION GROUP PHILIPPEVILLE
EUROPROMOTION WOMMELGEM
EUROSPED BELGIUM SINT-TRUIDEN
EUROTRANSPHARMA BELGIUM HOUDENG-GOEGNIES
EVERLAM MECHELEN
EVOLUSYS AMAY
EXARIS INTERIM BRUSSEL
EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS DUFFEL
EXTRA VERTES WETTEREN
F & F CONSTRUCT ZELE
FAMIFAMENNE MECHELEN
FAST FASHION PARTNERS PAAL
FASTRAL SERVICES FAMILLEUREUX
FEESTARCHITECT CHRIST SCHEPENS DESTELBERGEN
FERMAX BELGIUM GALMAARDEN
FIABILIS CONSULTING GROUP BELGIUM BRUSSEL
FICHRISTI BRUGGE
FINJAN ANTWERPEN
FLANDERS FOOD PRODUCTIONS LOMMEL
FLANDERS LODGE IEPER
FLYING SERVICES LEUVEN
FORCE 8 CORBAIS
FORCE MECHANICS KAPELLEN
FOUBERT IJS SINT-NIKLAAS
FRESH MUSHROOM EUROPE MEER
FRIGOLOGIX LOMMEL
FRUITPACKERS ASSENEDE
FST FUNDERINGSTECHNIEK OUD-TURNHOUT
FUCHSIACTIVITY BRUSSEL
FULL HOME SERVICES WATERLOO
FULL HOUSE IZEGEM
G.L.D. ANTWERPEN
G4S FIRE & SAFETY BRUSSEL
GAMBIT FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS LIEGE
GAMING1 BONCELLES
GARDEC-V.J. ZEEBRUGGE
GCT CONSULTING BRUSSEL
GEBROEDERS GODDEERIS ROESELARE
GEDEON RICHTER BENELUX GROOT-BIJGAARDEN
GEO@SEA ZWIJNDRECHT
GEO-IT BERCHEM-ANTWERPEN
GF CLEANING & FACILITY SERVICES KONTICH
GFK BELGIUM LEUVEN
GHENT HANDLING AND DISTRIBUTION GHD GENT
37
Our solution to your specific needs
GIGEMA SINT-TRUIDEN
GL EVENTS BRUSSELS BRUSSEL
GLOBACHEM SINT-TRUIDEN
GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT BRUSSEL
GLOBAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS BRUSSEL
GLOBIS EREMBODEGEM
GM COMPANY STORES BELGIE MERKSEM
GMI GROUP OEVEL
GO TEMP KORTRIJK
GO4JOBS (ZUID-ANTWERPEN) ANTWERPEN
GOBERT MATERIAUX GHLIN
GOSSELIN FORWARDING SERVICES DEURNE
GRANCO LETTELINGEN
GREEN LIGHT SECURITY BRAINE-L'ALLEUD
GREENFISH BRUSSEL
GREENYARD FRESH SINT-KATELIJNE-WAVER
GRONDREINIGINGSCENTRUM TESSENDERLO HERENTHOUT
GROUP SUERICKX HERENTALS
GROUPE EXPERTISES AUTOMOBILES BRUSSEL
GROUP-F DIENSTENCHEQUES KONTICH
GUDRUN XPERT BRUSSEL
GUESS BELGIUM BRUSSEL
GUSTUS HASSELT
H - SECURITE BRUSSEL
HABOU HAMME (VL.)
HANA GROUP BELGIQUE BRUSSEL
HARIBO BELGIE KONTICH
HAYS KORTRIJK
HEDERA CONSULTING KONTICH
HENRION JARDINS OHAIN
HERFURTH TRAVEL ANTWERPEN
HET RAMENHUIS KERMT
HIGH SECURITY NIL-ST-VINCENT-ST-MARTIN
HISTOGENEX WILRIJK
HOBBY ET HOME SOUGNE-REMOUCHAMPS
HOLZINDUSTRIE PAULS BOVIGNY
HOME CARE SD BRUSSEL
HOME FOR YOU KNESSELARE
HOME MAID DC HOESELT
HOMESEND BRUSSEL
HOORCENTRUM AERTS HERENTALS
HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT ZWIJNAARDE HUUR EEN STUUR GENT
I.R.I.S. SOLUTIONS & EXPERTS CORBAIS
ICOMETRIX WILSELE
IMCYSE LIEGE
IMERYS BELGIUM LA HULPE
IMERYS GRAPHITE & CARBON BELGIUM WILLEBROEK
IMMO TER POEL BRUGGE
IMPACT HASSELT
IMPACT EN EFFECT MOL
INAXTION ANTWERPEN
INDUSTRIAL SERVICE CORPORATION LINT
INFOTHEEK MECHELEN
INGENICO FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS BRUSSEL
INITIO BELGIUM BRUSSEL
INTERGROW AALTER
INTRACTO HERENTALS
INTYS BRUSSEL
INTYS HR BRUSSEL
INUITS BRASSCHAAT
INVENTIV HEALTH BELGIUM BRUSSEL
INVENTIVE DESIGNERS HOBOKEN
IPG IT SOLUTIONS BRUSSEL
IREX VIERSEL
IS4U KONTICH
ISRINGHAUSEN LOKEREN
ITP AGENCY GENT
38
Our solution to your specific needs
ITZU JOBS HASSELT
J. VAN DER ELST AALTER
J.D.-CONSULT KEERBERGEN
J.R. MANANCIAIS CLEANING BRUSSEL
JACOPS DEERLIJK
JAGUAR LAND ROVER BELUX ANTWERPEN
JAWI ANTWERPEN
JEMILA VLAMERTINGE
JET IMPORT LAUWE
JOB EXPERT ZOLDER
JOB TALENT LEUVEN
JOBCONNECTION LEUVEN
JOEFM VILVOORDE
JTC MICRO ELECTRONICS RIEMST
K & C DIVING KALLO (KIELDRECHT)
KAGEBARO LEFFINGE
KALIFORNIA BOECHOUT
KELLEN BRUSSEL
KELLYDELI BRUSSEL
KENNEDY HUNTER BERCHEM-ANTWERPEN
KESTEMONT SINT-MARTENS-LENNIK
KEYWORKS TIENEN
KINLYS GROUP OOIGEM
KOMMA BOARD MECHELEN
KOMONO ZWIJNDRECHT
KRISTOTRANS KEERBERGEN
KRONES LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
KRONOS GROUP BRUSSEL
KRUYSLAND BRUSSEL
KTBA BELGIUM ANTWERPEN
KVG TRANS WILLEBROEK
L&G FRUIT SERVICES ALKEN
L.T.I. NINOVE
LA BUANDERIE THEUX
LA CANOPEE VILLE-POMMEROEUL VILLE-POMMEROEUL
LA GARDE-ROBE MECHELEN
LA PASSERELLE-GRANDHAN GRANDHAN
LA PILERIE MOMIGNIES
LABO. PHARMACEUTIQUES TRENKER THINES LANGE CHRISTIAN SCLAYN
LANNUTTI MORNIMONT
LANTZERATH BELGIUM MECHELEN
LARAMNO SINT-NIKLAAS
LASER ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS ANGLEUR
LAUWERYSEN - KRIJNEN MERKSPLAS
LBC-CEPSA TANK TERMINALS ANTWERPEN ANTWERPEN
L-DOOR RESIDENTIAL LIEDEKERKE
LE MONDE DU PAIN WILRIJK
LE PAIN D'ANTAN WAVRE
LE PARC DE LA CENSE WATERLOO
LE ROY BRUSSEL
L'ECOPAIN D'IGNACE MARK
LEM OOSTENDE - BRUGGE OOSTENDE
LEMON GROUP ANTWERPEN
LENZO ZOLDER
LEODETIM COURCELLES
LEROY IEPER
LES FILLES PLAISIRS CULINAIRES BRUSSEL
LES P'TITES FEES BLEUES BRUSSEL
LES SOEURS RACLETTE HANNUT
LET'S WORK KORTRIJK
LIEGE CONTAINER TERMINAL ANGLEUR
LIMAS FACILITIES SCHELLE
LIMBURGS LOGISTIEK PLATFORM MOL
LINATEX ZELE
LIQUIDFLOORS KORTRIJK
LOGI - TECHNIC INFRA JABBEKE
LOGINET TITRES SERVICES NAMUR
39
Our solution to your specific needs
LOGISTIMAT CINEY
LONGCHAMPS LIBERTAS BRUSSEL
LOOMIS BELGIUM GENT
LOVANEX ROESELARE
LUMYNI SINT-GILLIS-DENDERMONDE
LUSH BRUSSEL
M INTERIM BRUSSEL
M.D.D. PHARMA WAVRE
M.P.F. EUROPE HARCHIES
M.V.T. TRANS EEKLO
M2Q KONTICH
MAASMEANDER MAASMECHELEN
MACOBO TESSENDERLO
MADAME EST SERVIE HUY HUY
MAES IND. HERENTALS
MAGABEL BRUSSEL
MAINTENANCE TUYAUTERIE SOUDURE INDUSTRIELLE ELOUGES MARELEC FOOD TECHNOLOGIES NIEUWPOORT
MARINE INSPECTION OPERATING SERVICES ANTWERPEN
MARTINIC SERVICES NAMUR
MASTHERCELL GOSSELIES
MAXEL WAVRE
MAXI ZOO OOST TEMSE
MD-BOUW ANTWERPEN
MDCPARTNERS BERCHEM-ANTWERPEN
MDT BELGIQUE WATERLOO
MECHELS VERHUISBEDRIJF BONHEIDEN
MEDACTA BELGIUM NIVELLES
MEDIA CONSULTANTS CY BRUSSEL
MEDICIM MECHELEN
MEDICONFORT HORNU
MEDISCH LABO D. VAN WAES - D. DECLERCK SINT-ANDRIES
MEDPACE BELGIUM HEVERLEE
MERKATOR ZELLIK
MEUBELEN DE ABDIJ NINOVE
MEUBELGALERIJEN GAVERZICHT DEERLIJK
MEUSE ET LESSE ANSEREMME
MFR MULTI SERVICES SAINT-MARD
MI&S ZAVENTEM
MICHAEL KORS BELGIUM EISDEN
MICROPOLE CONSULTING BELGIUM ZAVENTEM
MIFRATEL GENT
MISE EN PLACE BELGIE LEUVEN
MITHRA PHARMACEUTICALS LIEGE
MO KEYSERLEI ANTWERPEN
MOBIS PARTS EUROPE PAAL
MODAL INSTALLATION MARCHIENNE-AU-PONT
MOERBEKO ZELE
MONTAGNY BELGIE BORNEM
MOORE STEPHENS STRATEGY & OPERATIONS DRONGEN
MORDANT ET FILS JUMET
MOSAIC GREZ-DOICEAU
MOTEL DENNENHOF BRASSCHAAT
MOTUS HANDLING MENEN
MULTI INDUSTRIAL DESIGN ENGINEERING SERVICE ROESELARE MULTIPLICOM NIEL
MUTEC WAREGEM
MYECO SERVICES EMBOURG
N.S. WEPION
NALYS BRUSSEL
NDB LOGISTICS SCHELLE
NELISSEN STEENFABRIEKEN LANAKEN
NEO GROUP HERSTAL
NEXTEL WOMMELGEM
NGAGE CONSULTING BRUSSEL
NICKEL KRAAINEM
NIDO ALGEMENE ONDERNEMINGEN ZELE
NIPPON SHOKUBAI EUROPE ZWIJNDRECHT
40
Our solution to your specific needs
NIROTRANS WESTMALLE
NOODLE BAR ANTWERPEN ANTWERPEN
NOSTRUM SERVICES BRUSSEL
NOVATECH INTERNATIONAL OLEN
NOVID WAARLOOS
N-SIDE LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE
OMEGA PHARMA INNOVATION & DEVELOPMENT NAZARETH
OMEGA PHARMA INTERNATIONAL NAZARETH
OOSTMALLE CARS OOSTMALLE
OOSTVOGELS LOGISTICS MEER
OPTION TAPE SPECIALTIES TEMSE
OPTIS KONTICH
ORIS GROUP BRUSSEL
ORTHOPEDIE TOUSSAINT FLEURUS
OTHEUS GEEL
OU - QUI - BAT BERTRIX
OXYA CONSULTING BENELUX - OXYA - OXYA CONSULTING KORTRIJK P & H BUELLINGEN
P&V ELEKTROTECHNIEK ZOLDER
PAGE INTERIM (BELGIUM) BRUSSEL
PEETERS MOTORS HERENTALS
PELZER HERSTAL
PERFECT SERVICES GRACE-BERLEUR
PEUGEOT DISTRIBUTION SERVICE BRUSSEL PHARMA INSIGHT ZWIJNAARDE
PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES BELGIUM MECHELEN
PHARMAVIZE MARIAKERKE
PHENIX GROUP PEPINGEN
PHIDANI SOFTWARE BRUSSEL
PINKEYE ANTWERPEN
PIRET (SAINT-GHISLAIN-TOURNAI) SAINT-GHISLAIN
PIZZA DELIVERY GENT GENT
PLANET PARFUM BRUSSEL
POLET QUALITY PRODUCTS BORSBEKE
POLITICO BRUSSEL
POST PRESS DE MELLE TURNHOUT
PRATO HASSELT
PRIMARK LIEGE
PROBUMAT BRUSSEL
PROCOOL PERONNES-LEZ-BINCHE
PRODIGEST ZWIJNAARDE
PROFIELD BRUSSEL
PROMECO KORTRIJK
PROMUT BRUSSEL
PROTIME AARTSELAAR
PROXIMEDIA BRUSSEL
PROXIMUS SPEARIT BRUSSEL
PULP BRUSSEL
PUNCH POWERTRAIN SINT-TRUIDEN
PUUR HALLE
PZ NIEL
Q- FOOD LOKEREN
QNH CONSULTING BELGIUM HASSELT
QUALITY OF SERVICE BERCHEM-ANTWERPEN
R.T.S. INFRA ZEDELGEM
RADISSON HOSPITALITY BELGIUM SPRL/BVBA BRUSSEL
RAGOLLE RUGS WAREGEM
RAILTRAXX BORGERHOUT
RALPH LAUREN BELGIUM BRUSSEL
RBE TRANS TORHOUT
RED HAT BRUSSEL
REESINK CONSTRUCTION EQUIPMENT BELGIUM HAMME (VL.)
RENEWI BELGIUM LOMMEL
REPASSNET CENTER BRUSSEL
RESIDENCE AU BON VIEUX TEMPS MONT-SAINT-GUIBERT
RESIDENCE DU CINQUANTENAIRE BRUSSEL
RESIDENCE HARMONIA GERPINNES
RESIDENCE LA SAPINIERE MASNUY-ST-JEAN (JURBISE)
41
Our solution to your specific needs
RESIDENTIE MILSENHOF MECHELEN
RETRIMEUSE SERAING
REVI FOOD OOSTENDE
RE-VIVE GENT
RHEA SYSTEM WAVRE
RIGA NATIE BEVEREN-WAAS
RISK DYNAMICS BRUSSEL
RITUALS COSMETICS BELGIUM ANTWERPEN
ROBERT WALTERS PEOPLE SOLUTIONS BRUSSEL ROBOJOB HEIST-OP-DEN-BERG
RODITO GROENTEN SINT-KATELIJNE-WAVER
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