Biography|Filip Van Hool — The Mechelen Court That Closed the Family Company on 8 April 2024

The Enterprise Court of Antwerp, Mechelen division, sits at Voochtstraat 7.

On Monday 8 April 2024, around half past nine, that court declared Van Hool NV bankrupt.

The Belgian company register records the opening of bankruptcy from that date at the seat on Bernard Van Hoolstraat 58 in Lier, enterprise number 0404.060.032.

Four trustees were appointed: Kris Van den Berghen, Jeroen Pinoy, Philippe Van der Heyden, and Elke Van Weerdt.

The Mechelen courtroom is the public room where the family firm, founded in 1947, stopped being a going concern under Van Hool ownership.

An extraordinary works council at the plant the same morning told staff that VDL Groep of the Netherlands and Schmitz Cargobull of Germany would take pieces of the business.

About 2,500 people worked for Van Hool. The first phase of the restart was expected to keep 650 to 950 jobs. At least 1,550 would not.

VRT and the court filings agree on the date. The KBO listing still shows the Koningshooikt seat and the bankruptcy opening.

Filip Van Hool had been chief executive since 2013. In January 2024 Mark Zwaaneveld had been named co-CEO to try a rescue.

The rescue did not hold. Flemish reporting across that spring described an inheritance fight among Bernard Van Hool's descendants that blocked the capital a recovery plan needed.

VDL later confirmed it had acquired parts of the bankrupt firm, including intellectual property and the North Macedonia coach plant, and hired a few hundred people back at Koningshooikt.

What stands at Voochtstraat 7 is an ordinary court building. The verdict is in the register.

Photo: Queeste, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons