The battle for bus builder Van Hool in Koningshooikt is nearing its end. The bankruptcy application was postponed by a week last Tuesday to give the curators more time for a smooth restart. Early next week, possibly Monday, the bankruptcy will be filed and the name of the acquirer will be announced. Several sources say that it will probably be the VDL Groep consortium with the German trailer builder Schmitz Cargobull. The chances are shrinking for the other candidate, Dumarey Group. The small third candidate Vlastuin has already dropped out.
According to our information, VDL and Cargobull would like to save far fewer jobs than Marc Zwaaneveld, crisis manager at Van Hool, had outlined in his recovery plan. Under his plan, 1,400 employees would keep their jobs and 1,100 would have to leave. Almost all of the production of buses would go to North Macedonia, city buses would no longer be made.
Especially the brand name
Both VDL and Cargobull already have administrations, factories and research centers that are not so far from Koningshooikt, which means they need the Van Hool production site in that sub-municipality of Lier much less. For example, VDL has just built a new factory in Roeselare for the production of electric city buses, and it also has an important factory in Valkenswaard in the Netherlands. Its headquarters are in Eindhoven. VDL would have the Van Hool buses built mainly in North Macedonia, and would allow few activities to continue in Koningshooikt.
The German semi-trailer builder Schmitz Cargobull also only wants to assemble limited editions of trailers in Koningshooikt. A large part of the site would not be used by the acquirers, but redeveloped as real estate. The consortium is therefore mainly after the Van Hool brand name, the patents and the foreign activities: the new factory in North Macedonia, as well as the 40 percent stake in the American bus distributor ABC.
Dumarey Group promises to save more jobs in Belgium than VDL and Schmitz. West Flemish entrepreneur Guido Dumarey initially wanted to save more jobs than included in the Zwaaneveld plan, but those guarantees have been weakened in recent days. Now he plans to let employees work only a few days a week at first. He would then increase the number of working days and employees depending on the supply of parts.
Too high price tag
But Dumarey Group seems to be gradually dropping out. The holding company would have a major problem with the price placed on the value of the property – land, buildings, brand name and inventory: 200 million euros. That sum serves Van Hool’s creditors, with the banks in the lead. As a result, the banks still have a say in the restart of the bus manufacturer.
The company, based in Sint-Martens-Latem, disputes that price because soil pollution has been found on part of the company’s 50-hectare site in Koningshooikt. Just like on many old company sites – Van Hool has been building buses there for 70 years – pollutants have leaked into the soil. For Dumarey Group, the Flemish government must intervene in the remediation costs, or the price must be lower.
In addition to the 200 million euros for the furnishings, the acquirers must also release working capital to pay wages and suppliers in the first months. As a result, the price of the restart will be well above 200 million euros. For a company like Dumarey Group, which at the end of last year had 70 million in cash and 140 million in debt, this is a significant amount. According to several sources, the East Flemish company has said that if it cannot restart on Monday, it is no longer interested.
At the union they already feel the mood brewing. “We do not want a scenario where the acquirer is only interested in Van Hool’s technology, the brand and the customer portfolio, and then integrates it into its own production sites. The historically contaminated land should not be used as an excuse to move away from the current site. We want an acquirer who will retain as many jobs as possible,” says Hans Vaneerdewegh, trade union secretary at the ABVV. He also points out the responsibility of the Flemish government and the banks, which allow industrial jobs in the profitable trailer division to simply disappear to neighboring countries.
