Picanol
The Picanol Group specializes in development, production and sales of weaving machines and technology for the textile industry. The company is based in Belgium, with production plants in Asia, Europe and the United States.
Brand names produced by Picanol include Proferro, PsiControl Mechatronics, Melotte, GTP Accessories, Steel Heddle, Burcklé and Te Strake Textile.
The Picanol Group has been listed on Euronext Brussels since 1966 (ticker: PIC) and is included in the NextPrime Index.
History
The company was founded in 1936 by the Belgian industrialist Charles Steverlynck as Weefautomaten Picañol NV.
In 1966 the company was listed on the Brussels Stock Exchange. At the ITMA exhibition in Paris in 1971, Picañol exhibited the MDC, the world’s first electronically controlled flying shuttle machine. In 1989 the foundry division was split off from the other activities and made into a separate company, Proferro NV. Also in 1989 Picanol became part owner in what was then Protronic (now PsiControl Mechatronics). In 1993 Picanol achieved ISO 9001 certification, as a guarantee of the quality of its products and services. Verbrugge NV in Belgium and Steel Heddle Inc. in the USA were acquired in 2001. They were followed in 2002 by Te Strake Textile in the Netherlands and Lhenry in France. In 2003 among others Burcklé in France joined the group, while GTP Bandung was set up in Indonesia, GTP São Paulo in Brazil and GTP in Mexico. In 2004 a controversy arose concerning the remuneration of the former President & CEO, Jan Coene, whose greed had a very negative influence on the health of the company. After a turbulent period (the Picanol Scandal), Chris Dewulf was chosen as the new President & CEO of the Picanol Group in 2005, and a new Board of Directors was appointed. In 2007, the company launched the new OptiMax and GT-Max rapier weaving machines.
See also
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